16-bits problem

Ugly how? Describe how the images are not what you expected?

The flattened image is a cloud over a deep blue sky. When, in PS, I change the mode to indexed, the result is ok (the number of colors is bellow 230, so the image is identic to the original).
When the image "exit" PS, looks as an image you reduce the colors, as when you take a pic and reduce its colours to, say, 16 colors. All the subtleties and degradées are lost. Dont matters if I open this image in Director, in ImageReady (from PS) or even in ACDSee. There are differences in the image quality if they are bmp or gif or jpg, but, in any case, they are "ugly". What intrigues me is that the image can be reduced to gif in PS without problems...
I hope now I'm more specific. I appreciate your interest and any doubts, let me know. Thanks.

When you go to indexed color mode, you're not in 16 bit.

Instead of going to indexed color mode, go straight from the original image to GIF, and pick the adaptive color palette. Then reduce your color palette to something reasonable. By saving as GIF you're automatically using an indexed color mode.

What may be happening is that you're going to an indexed color palette in PS, then exporting to GIF, using a different palette than your indexed color palette. The resulting image is made up of the colors in the palettes that matched.

Weed,

I think I havent explained my problem well yet.

What I want do do is simple, at first sight: I did a 32 bit image in Photoshop.
I want that image to be show in a Director movie, in target systems with 16 bit colours
configuration. The original image (that one with 32 bit) had transparency, but I
flattened it to not complicate the thing, so, at the end, its a normal 32 bit
image, isnt?

Then I change MY computer colour scheme to 16 bit colour, to match the target
computers. In Photoshop, the image is ok, but in ACDSee, Director or Image Ready
it becomes very degrated.

I know that a indexed gif have only 8 bits. When I try to make a bit in
Photoshop, I choose exact colors, because the total colours are only 236, so
there are no loss. But the image resulting continues with problems. I try also
convert to .jpg and .bmp, without results... I have tried your suggestion, but it dont works, also.

Important: the flatenned image, without any alpha, mast be put in director with transparency.
Maybe Director have a problem with transparency in 16 bits?

Thanks a lot.

- If you are very particular about using lower bit-depth, the solution is to use a mask cast member in Director to mask the areas of the graphic that you want to make transparent.
- Here's how to apply a mask on a bitmap of any depth - 8-bit, 16-bit etc.
- In the same cast, create a duplicate of the cast member to serve as the mask.
- The mask cast member can actually be any image, but a duplicate of the original is usually the most useful.
- Edit the mask cast member in the Paint window or any image editor (like Photoshop).
- Black areas of the mask make the sprite completely opaque in those areas, and white areas make it completely transparent (invisible).
- Drag the original cast member to the Stage or Score to create a sprite.
- Make sure the new sprite is selected, and select Mask ink from the Ink pop-up menu on the Sprite tab in the Property inspector.
-  Only the parts of the sprite that are revealed by the mask are visible on the Stage.
Hope this helps! Good Luck!