Tutorial: AKVIS Coloriage

Ways To Select Colors In AKVIS Coloriage

AKVIS Coloriage offers several ways to select colors: in the Color palette, or in the Swatches palette, in the Color Library, or from the image itself with the Eyedropper tool.

Color palette.

When working with this palette color is selected from a spectrum, represented by a gradient of colors. When the cursor is brought inside it takes the form of a pipette. To set a new color, just click the pipette in the spectrum gradient.

You can change the tone of a color or get a new color altogether by adjusting the sliders or entering new values for color components in the input fields.

The selected color will be shown in the rectangle on the right. Double left-clicking on the rectangle opens the standard dialog Select Color. Right-clicking on the same box opens a menu of available color modes: grey tones (Grayscale), RGB, CMYK and Lab.

The gradient line above the Color palette will show the selected color and its shades according to their brightness.

Below the gradient line you can set the brightness of the current color. By default the brightness range is complete, i.e. the black pixels on the image correspond to the darkest shades of the selected color, while the white pixels correspond to the lightest shades of the selected color.

To change the brightness range, move the markers of the black and/or white points on the gradient line. Thus you set the darkest or/and the lightest possible color shade for the object. If you set a darker shade for the white marker, you will be able to color a light object a darker color; if you set a lighter point for the black marker, you will be able to color a dark area a lighter color. You can not reduce the range more than twice.

The squares at the top right area of the Color palette are used to store frequently used colors.

To add a color to the mini-palette, left-click on the selected color and drag it a box. To change the main color to that in a box, left-click on a box. To remove the color from a box, right-click on it.

Swatches palette.

The Swatches palette contains a collection of frequently used colors. To select a color from the palette simply left-click on any of the palette colors. As in the Color palette, the selected color is shown in a rectangle to the right of the palette and above the gradient line at the top. The brightness range of this color will be displayed below the gradient line.

The right area of the Swatches palette is identical to that of the Color palette.

The buttons at the bottom of the palette have the following uses:

The Add Swatch button adds the current color to the collection of swatches.
To delete a color drag it to the basket or choose Delete Swatch from the menu.
The Save Into File button opens a dialog where swatches can be saved (files ending in .swatches).
The Load From File button loads a saved collection of swatches so that they can be used again.
The Reset Defaults button resets the collection of swatches to their original settings.

The Color Library contains colors that are difficult to pick out: the color of skin, hair, lips, grass, trees, stones, etc. All colors in the Color Library are divided into groups in accordance with their function. To select a color from the Color Library :

Select the folder with the required group of colors from the tree by left-clicking it. The colors within the group represent a gradient.
Select a gradient by left-clicking it. As a result the chosen color appears in the upper gradient line under the Color Library. The marker shows the color you clicked on.

Select a color on the upper gradient line by left-clicking it. The marker will fix this color and the lower gradient line will show the shades of the selected color according to their brightness.

Eyedropper tool.

You can also select a color from the original image. To do this, activate the Eyedropper tool and left-click any point of the image, including drawn strokes.