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February 1998

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Creating a Professional Splash Screen
By James Hobart
President & CEO

he splash screen is the first thing that users see when they enter your application. You should think of it as the cover of a book -- a good first impression says a lot. Decide on your deployment platform and stick to the color palette specific to that platform. Windows 3.1 VGA uses a 16-color palette and Windows 95 uses a 256-color palette. If you create a custom palette and load it with your application, you run a significant risk of having the user experience color shifts when switching between applications, especially in Windows 3.1.

Splash Screen

Many corporate GUIs require a login window for security. Why not incorporate the splash screen with the login window to add visual aesthetics to the entry point of your application? This can also be a means of branding or identifying the application.

Overall, make the splash screen a visual metaphor that clearly and accurately articulates the process performed by the application.

The AccuSearch splash screen, shown above, is a collage created from several graphic applications. Ray Dream™ Studio, a 3-D rendering program, was used to make the magnifying glass and documents. The capitol building and sky background are licensed photographs. These elements were brought together in Adobe® Photoshop®, a photo imaging program. The image started as a 16.7 million RGB color image, was converted to the Windows® 95™ standard 256-color palette, and then saved as a bitmap image (.bmp).

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