[Squall_FF8]

I have a simple question that at first may seems trivial but is not:

Could you recommend a program for editing graphic?
I need one that allows me to open 8bpp edit it and save the file but if I have used 16 colors only they should be in the first 16 palette entries. Also if I'm not pleased of the order I want to have the ability to reorder the palette and eventually specify what index is the transparent color ...

For my tool I want to make import of graphics. I export graphics in 8bpp with palette entry used exactly how many different color it has. After editing and saving I get total mess ... not only palette is not ordered by use, but Paint even change colors. I tried another free program - same mess.

[Kea]

My friend, the program you want is Usenti. It allows for exactly what you describe - exporting only X number of colours in a palette, reordering a palette freely, specifying the transparent index, and more.

[Squall_FF8]

I will try that, thank you Kea!

Usenti is a simple bitmap editor for paletted images, it is the result of me being completely fed up with the lack of dec^H^H^Hany palette support in Paint, and finding the bigger photo applications a little too big for comfort.

I think already liked it even before trying 

[Mister Xiado]

JASC's Paint Shop Pro 7 has been my go-to tool for about 24 years now. Version X (Corel Paint Shop Pro X, after the takeover) was released as nagware years back, and has an interface nearly identical to older versions of PSP. It's perfect for working with specific palettes, specific bit depths, and more. I used to use it to make Quake 2 skins and maps, and I still have q2.pal somewhere, just in case.

[Squall_FF8]

OK I tested Usenti and I would like to report what I found, hopefully this info could be helpful for other is my shoes

Usenti is exactly what I wanted - simple (Paint like) program, free, easy to use. I wanted to open a file, edit and when I save to get a file with the same palette, with same color order, not random mish-mash. On top of that the program has easy to use Sort of palette (so if you have less used colors, they start from beginning) Swap/Copy of colors and other functions that I haven't used yet.

One thing that makes this program stand in front of general image editing software is the ability to have a grid on tiles. This simple feature is actually a good pal for all of us that usually deal with tiles.

@Mister Xiado I din't know that JASC's Paint Shop Pro is actually Corel PaintShop Pro. I always liked more PaintShop over Photoshop! Acutually in my Tool I was thinking to implement JASK palette import/export but didn't know what program it belong to 

[Mister Xiado]

Found something else neat, even if it's not exclusive to Paint Shop Pro. It's stupid-easy to paste things from the clipboard into YYCHR. For NES games, I found that if I select the same four colors I have chosen for the viewing palette, make my tiles or sprites, then invert the colors, I can paste the inverted image into the cell(s), and they flip back to the appropriate values automatically. Another plus of PSP is that you can easily set the grid to 8x8, making it even easier to manipulate tiles and the like, from a larger image. Have a picture you want to stick into a game quickly, like a new title, or cinema image? Once you figure out which tiles go where, you can make your full image in four-color mode, then copy and paste 8x8 cells rapidly into the ROM. Really sped up my sprite editing for my Metal Gear project.