Color wheel allows you to make a harmonious selection of colors according to your desired color scheme. The resulting color palette can be printed using the command Print from the File menu, or it can be saved as an image file on your computer using the Print to Image command.
Color wheel is based on three primary colors - Red, Yellow, and Blue - and contains appropriate secondary and tertiary colors.
The outer ring of the color wheel represents pure colors. Three inner rings contain tints, tones, and shades of the pure color.
There are two arcs near the center of the wheel. The Red arc identifies the range of warm color while the Blue one identifies the range of cool colors.
Note: You can select colors with the mouse click only from the sectors that are enabled by the current color scheme (see Color Schemes for details).
Tip: Use mouse or mouse wheel to rotate the color wheel.
The Color Scheme box below the Color Wheel component allows you to select one of six predefined color schemes. You have a choice from the following standard color schemes:
The default color palette contains eight color cards. You can select any color card by clicking on it, or by using the mouse wheel to cycle through the selections. Initially color cards are empty and painted with light-gray checkers. When you select a color on the color wheel, the current color card (marked with a small color wheel icon) fills with the sample color. Optional color code and color name are displayed at the top of card.
You can add an optional comment to the active color card by selecting the command Add Comment from the Edit menu. The comment is displayed at the bottom of the color card.
The menu View allows you to select a different palette layout. From this menu you can also select two view options: Show Selected Color and Show Palette Colors. Show Selected Color option outlines the currently selected color on the color wheel with a small color wheel icon. Show Palette Colors option helps you to find colors which are within the selected color scheme.
Tip: You may find it's useful to switch to designer's 60-30-10 Palette, by choosing it in the View menu.
The Tints/Tones/Shades component contains three rows of color variations.
The top row contains three color tints. The left chip color is mixed with 10% white, the middle chip is mixed with 20% white, and the right chip is mixed with 30% white.
The middle row represents color tones along with the original color at the center. Generally speaking, this row contains only one tone on the right side (with an addition of the 10% gray). Leftmost color chip contains the given color with reduced gray. So, repeated selection of the leftmost chip will lead you to the pure color.
The bottom row contains three shades of the given color. The left chip is mixed with 10% black, the middle chip is mixed with 20% black, and the right chip is mixed with 30% black.
Click on the desired color chip to copy its color to selected color card.
Gray scale allows you to add a rough amount of gray to the selected color, mixing equal quantities of the current color and the selected gray.
Note: When you are applying gray scale on empty color card it simply copies the selected gray.
You can use the Color Matching command from the Tools menu to select the color chart you want to match colors to. When you have selected the desired color chart, clicking on the Color Matching component will replace selected color with the most similar entry from the specified color chart.
Tip: Use printed color charts from the appropriate paint manufacturer to achieve maximum color consistency.
Color Spy feature allows matching colors to virtually any color chart published on the Web. It requires only few simple steps to complete.
Color Spy command from the Tools menu.Return button (or press the Enter key) on the small Color Spy window to go back to ColorWheel Harmony.Note: If the visual theme of your computer desktop provides visual effects (animation, etc.) when minimizing windows select Screen capture delay option in the program options from the Tools menu.
Use Ctrl+R,G,B,Y shortcuts on an empty color card to add a bit of Red, Green, Blue, or Yellow color. These commands can be located under the Edit menu.
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