Color Chooser Workflow?

[Chopsaw]

I seem to be finding the Custom colours chart in the colour  chooser rather unfriendly when wanting to add colours that have been chosen with the eye dropper or modified from an existing custom colour in the chart.  This seems to be something I always want to include in my colourful workflow but can't get it to work.  Unless you make your custom colour from scratch by selecting a box ahead of time you can only put one colour into the chart at a time and any new colour deletes the previously saved colour.  Why Why Why....   There are 16 boxes.

 

Are other software programs that use the same Colour Selector the same as this?

 

Ok sometimes it helps just to write out the question.  Found a partial fix already by adding a stock or custom colour then duplicating it by pressing add again, then select it and edit and re save.

 

It seems like more work than it should be but I quite often use the Custom Colour chooser to transfer custom colours in plan view from one area or object to another.

 

If anyone has come up with easier solutions or how to add from eye dropper, please let me know.

 

Thanks, Chopsaw

[MarkMc]

Yes others are like that, I believe it's a windows thing. Way I deal with it is to copy the RGB, Hue, Saturation, and Luminance to a sticky note kept always on top. Then whey you start a new color, where you can pick a new box, type those in. The other way is to use the eyedropper at the bottom left after selecting a box-you get a preview so can be in the ball park as a stating point. Note it doesn't always go into the box you pick but at least it doesn't over write your first one.

[Alaskan_Son]

You can actually drag those colors to whichever box you want.  Just left click, drag, and release.

[Chopsaw]

Thanks Mark, I got the colour eye dropper to work this time, that helps a lot.  I guess I will have to start using sticky notes as I can seem to remember an 18 digit code for very long when concentrating on something else.  Also working with transparents and the eyedropper does not work so well then.  Ugh...

[Chopsaw]

OK!!! Thanks Michael, I will work with that, cool  !!!!  Now I know what you do all winter up there.

 

Strange though the one you move is then the next one to be automatically overwritten. Which I thought was a problem at first but works great for editing because it is a copy of the original. Excellent.

[glennw]

When I save several colors, the Custom Colors boxes don't overwrite with each new color.

The next box is automatically populated and the previous one remains.

 

You can select the Custom Colors box that you want to populate with a color, select a color from the chart or with the eyedropper and then click Add to Custom Colors.

The box you selected will populate with the color.

 

Am I missing something?

[Chopsaw]

Glenn,  With Michael's and Mark's suggestions most of the standard situations are covered and can be made to function ok.

 

The weakness is that the custom colours are not saved when you need to revise a colour scheme.  I am working with  a plan that has several gradations of a transparent colour and it would be nice to be able to reimport them into the Custom Colour chart for editing purposes and transfer around the plan. Yes Mark's Sticky notes would work but a little cumbersome in my opinion. There just does not seem to be an easy way to bring a custom plan colour back into the chart when it is transparent.  I can keep a colour swatch in the plan but there is no easy way to transfer that when in plan view. Maybe there is a library option that would work but then I would loose the visual comparison and have to name or number the colours.

 

If the setup is all done correctly from the beginning and can be finalized in one session it works.  However as with other things in Chief this is very rarely the situation.  

[MarkMc]

 

Mark's Sticky notes would work but a little cumbersome

Yeah it is. Got me thinking though.

The stickies I use will also take images, like screen shots, and can be "stored" for later use. Anyway thought I remembered something about the eyedropper. It is a Windows tool, and can grab a color from anywhere on the screen, not just in Chief. So I tried a stored screenshot of a CA DBX and grabbed the color from that- works.

 

Stickies I use are from http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/. Free though I've been using them so long (since 95 I think) I finally sent them some money.

I also use it to store text strings, and have one Store folder for things from this forum that I want to find quickly.

[Chopsaw]

Thanks Mark,  That sounds good and will give it a try, also going to revisit setting up a library folder and see if that is practical.  Also the transparents don't work with the eyedropper so it may be worthwhile for those.

[BrownTiger]

Yes others are like that, I believe it's a windows thing. Way I deal with it is to copy the RGB, Hue, Saturation, and Luminance to a sticky note kept always on top. Then whey you start a new color, where you can pick a new box, type those in. The other way is to use the eyedropper at the bottom left after selecting a box-you get a preview so can be in the ball park as a stating point. Note it doesn't always go into the box you pick but at least it doesn't over write your first one.

 

It is not a windows thingy..... It is QColorDialog class 

 

 

http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qcolordialog.html#details

[Chopsaw]

There does not seem to be Library support for custom colours used in plan view that I can find.

 

Unless The Tiger would be willing to translate some of that computer code in the link to see if there is anything hidden in there that would be useful in this situation.  I read something about transparency in there but do not understand or know how to apply that.

[glennw]

 There just does not seem to be an easy way to bring a custom plan colour back into the chart when it is transparent.

 

 

Chopsaw,

 

I don't think you can use transparency with the standard Select Color dbx.

 

There is a way to copy an existing transparent fill from one object to other objects - but I don't think that you can do it with the Select Color dbx and/or the eyedropper, or colors stored in the library.

 

Select the object that contains the fill color and transparency that you want to copy to another object.

Select the Match Properties tool.

Check Fill Color and Fill Type. OK.

Select Apply Properties.

Click on any objects that you want to apply that fill color and transparency to.

 

This will copy both the fill color AND the fill transparency to the new objects.

 

The only shortcoming with this method is that you need to have an existing object with the color and transparency that you want to duplicate to other objects.

[Chopsaw]

Thanks Glenn,  That is a new feature in X8 and will save some wear and tear on my mouse.  It can be done one colour at a time with custom colours in the Select Colour DBX but is very slow.  Maybe they will address this with X9 as it seem to be a weakness.

[kMoquin]

When I plan to use a custom color repeatedly I make a new material.

[Joe_Carrick]

Is there any way to save the current "Custom Colors" with the Plan/Template? It would be nice to have a set of standards that you can repeatedly use without needing to recreate them every time you start Chief.

 

I can use the Windows Snipping Tool to save a pic of the Custom Colors and then Import that into a Plan.  But then I have to copy all those colors back into the Color Chooser each time I start a Chief session.  PITA!  It would be much easier if it could just be saved with the Plan/Template.

[Chopsaw]

Kevin,  Thank you I could not figure out how to make that work but I will be putting the "Color Chooser" on my Default Toolbar now.  It is great to discover new things in Chief.  So there is Library support for 2D custom colours. This will be great.

 

Still a little confused about why the "Create Material" option in the Color Chooser DBX is only available when opening it directly.  Maybe that is why I have not found or used it until now.  If that was always an option you could at least store transparent colours without the tansparency %.

 

JOE,  It looks like the best option for custom tansparent colours is to save a colour swatch in your plan template and copy with the "Match Properties Tool" and "Apply Properties" available in X8.  This would also work for custom solid colours and patterns.

 

But as Kevin pointed out custom solid colours can be stored in the Library for use in other plans and if you took the time to manually enter your values for custom transparent colours they could also be stored in the Library without transparency% values but then to get them out again is a problem because they cannot be reapplied in 2D.  Ugh....  Always a hitch. 

 

It has all been great so far but..   Any other Ideas?