Color Picker

The color picker control lets you select a color based on the HSV color space. You can set a color either by using the color picker controls described below or by clicking on the input image in the main image area.

Clicking on the hexagonal color wheel selects hue and saturation. Clicking on the slider at the right selects value.

Clicking on one of the color bars at the lower right selects black, 25% gray, 50% gray, 75% gray, white, red, green, blue, cyan, magenta or yellow. If you have a custom palette defined (see Palette Mode), the bottom halves of these color bars are replaced with the custom palette and you can select custom palette color by clicking on them. To illustrate this, a custom gray palette has been loaded in the following example:

You can also set custom palette colors by right-clicking on them in the color picker. This displays a popup menu you can use to save the current color in a slot in the palette, reset a palette slot, reset the entire custom palette, load a custom palette, or save the current palette as a file.

The three color patches to the left of the color bars display the current color against black, gray, and white backgrounds.

At the bottom left of the color picker dialog box, Picture Window displays the values of the three color channels of the currently selected color in the current color space. The value of each component is normally scaled to a number between 0.0 and 100.0. You can enter numeric values into these controls to select colors directly – after a short delay, Picture Window changes the numbers you enter to those that correspond to the closest matching color.

A special version of the color picker is displayed in circumstances where a gray level is being specified instead of a color. This color picker has no color wheel, only a brightness slider.

To terminate the color picker, close its window by clicking on the close icon in its upper right corner.

Color Space

RGB -- color channel readouts are Red, Green and Blue

HSV -- color channel readouts are Hue, Saturation and Value

HSL -- color channel readouts are Hue Saturation and Lightness

Units

Percent -- color channel readouts run from 0.0 to 100.0

Decimal -- actual pixel values are display (0..255) for 8-bit images or (0..65535) for 16-bit images

Hex -- actual pixel values are display in hexadecimal (0..FF) for 8-bit images or (0..FFFF) for 16-bit images

Settings Menu

Full -- displays the full color wheel as shown above

Pastel -- displays an enlarged view of the central portion of the color wheel which is where the less saturated, pastel colors are located. This option is useful for selecting more subtle colors.

Filter Bank -- displays a scrolling palette of colored buttons corresponding to all standard CC and Wratten filters, each labeled with its filter number.

You can use the filter buttons to select a color equivalent to the color of one of more of these filters.

The CC (color correction) filters come in six series, one for each primary and secondary color: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue. Each series of filters is referenced by its optical density from 0.025 to 0.90. For example, a CC10R is a red filter with a density of 0.10.

Wratten filters come in a miscellaneous set of colors and are simply referenced by their filter number. The use of these filters is explained in many photography texts.

Clicking on more than one filter button is like stacking the selected filters. To deselect a filter, simply click on it a second time; the currently selected filters are indicated by their buttons being displayed as depressed. To reset all the buttons and return the selected color to white, click the Reset button at the bottom of the color picker dialog box.

Color Temperature -- displays a slider that lets you select a color temperature in degrees Kelvin.

          The corresponding color temperature shift relative to the white point of the image is generated as a color. Lower temperatures run from yellow to orange; higher temperature run toward blue. The color temperature of pure white is based on the white point of the current working color space or 6500K if there is none.

Probe Size -- lets you control the sample size used by the probe when you select colors by clicking on the input image. Larger probe sizes are useful for obtaining an average reading of any area of the image that does not have a smooth texture; smaller probe sizes let you get precise readings of very small areas. The currently selected probe size is shown with a check mark.

Set Readout Defaults -- sets the current color space (RGB/HSV/HSL) and units (Percent/Decimal/Hex) for the numerical readouts at the bottom of the window as the default to use the next time a color picker is created.

Fine Tuning Brightness -- for those versions of the color picker that have a brightness slider, you can bump its value up or down slightly by Ctrl-clicking to one side of the slider position or the other, similar to the way other sliders work. A Ctrl-click increments the brightness setting by 1 part in 64 -- if you Ctrl-Shift click instead, the brightness is incremented by 1 part in 256.