Patent ID: 7912281

Claim:
A method for reducing the size of a bitmap, the bitmap representing a plurality of pixel, each pixel being represented by a bit pattern, the method being implemented in a computing device and comprising: counting, in the computing device, the number n of different bit patterns included in an original bitmap; creating, in the computing device, for later reuse, a first palette data structure having at least n entries, each one of the different patterns in the original bitmap having at least one corresponding entry in the first palette data structure; and replacing, by the computing device, each of the bit patterns in the original bitmap with a corresponding pointer to a corresponding entry in the first palette data structure to thereby generate a modified bitmap, wherein each of the entries in the first palette data structure provide a pointer to a corresponding entry in a second palette data structure containing an indication of a color to be displayed when representing a bit pattern corresponding to the entry in the first palette data structure.