Inno Setup Invalid Bitmap Image

Question

I'm trying to replace the sidebar image on the start page of my installer. I keep getting the error 'Bitmap image is not valid'. The specs match the default Inno Setup installer sidebar .bmp exactly. The image I'm trying to use has dimensions of 164 x 314 and has a bit depth of 8 which is what the documentation recommends.

Is there something I'm missing? Any tips are appreciated!

Here's the link to the picture

Answer 1

If you are making a BMP from within GIMP and are exporting to a BMP, use the following options:

• Compatibility Options -> Do not write color space information
• Advanced Options -> 24 bits (R8 G8 B8)

Answer 2

I have been able to circumvent this problem by taking a screen capture of my bitmap image, opening a graphic editor, pasting the screen cap and cropping it back to the original size, then saving it as a new bitmap image.

The images I create on my Mac with Pixelmator have this problem. If I used Photoshop 6 on Windows I do not have any issues.

That makes me think it's probably related to headers as described in the link Deanna provided, but since I can't find a good way to easily remove headers this screenshot workaround has been the best solution for me.

Edit: Sounds like Pixelmator includes colorspace information in the header, and Photoshop 6 does not. Reading through all the comments I see that Deanna's link to this question solved the problem: do not include colorspace info when exporting.

Edit: I've also been able to circumvent the problem by opening the file in preview, pressing save, overwriting the original bmp file, and recompiling the setup. Easier than the screencap method.