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The Appeal of the Palette
Of all the electronic metaphors for traditional artisan tools, none is
quite as elegant as the palette. Even if you dont know which end
of the paintbrush to use, you surely have an image in your mind of the
painter, brush in one hand, palette in the other. The palette has all
of those pretty little dots, each a different color. Each painting might
use its own palette with an entirely new set of colors.
And so it is for CorelDRAW users, just not with the same tactile charm
and allure. On the electronic side, a palette is a set of colors available
for use on objects in a drawing. Typically, colors in a palette have a
common bond, and that bond could be hues and shades (like a gray palette),
type of usage (like a palette of eye or hair colors), or anticipated output
(like a palette for Internet graphics).
While the science of palettes runs deep, you might glean all you need
to know if you keep in mind the image of a traditional palette. There
is really only one other paradigm that you need to understand...
The Concept
of the Color Model
DRAW defines a color model as different from a color palette. While a
palette has a fixed number of specific colors associated with it, a color
model represents a formula used to produce colors. Usually millions of
colors.
The most obvious example is the CMYK color model, used for identifying
colors in traditional color printing. An exhaustive range of colors exists
by mixing the right percentages of the four colors cyan, magenta, yellow,
and black. K is for black rather than B, so that its
not confused with blue (which is actually not a primary color but a mixture
of cyan and magenta). DRAWs default color palette, coreldrw.cpl,
is based on the CMYK color model.
Okay, lets say that again, because these are important distinctions.
There is a palette called coreldrw.cpl (all palettes have
.cpl extensions). It consists of exactly 100 colors, and
they all have names, such as Navy Blue, Deep Purple, Pale Yellow, Dusty
Rose, etc. The model on which this palette is based is the CMYK
color model, which is capable of producing millions of individual colors.
There are four reasons why coreldraw.cpl is used so extensively:
- As the default palette, it is the one that
DRAW starts with, and many users feel no need to switch to a different
one.
- Its color choices are very friendly, as it
offers shades of gray in 10-percent increments, all of the standard
rainbow colors (blue, red, green, orange, violet, etc.), the four process
colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), and a host of other colors that
look pleasing to the eye.
- Because its based on the CMYK color
model, you can check a colors components in a swatch book, like
the TruMatch Color Finder.
- And it is a custom palette, meaning
that you can add colors to it, remove colors from it, and edit colors
in it.
If painters need a color that is not on their palettes, they can reach
for other paints or they can mix two colors from their palette to create
a new color. In DRAW, the metaphors for those two actions are:
- Open a different palette
- Go to the Select Color dialog or docker and
mix a color
Remember, regardless of what palette is on screen, you can always go
to the dialogs or the docker to mix or choose another color. And if you
find a color that you want to use regularly, you can add it to your custom
palette, using the Palette Editor shown in Figure 6.9. You can also assign
your own name to a color. You can choose a technical name that describes
the composition of the color, such as C13M12Y88; or one that
is more descriptive of the colors use; or even, as in this case,
one that reflects your opinion of it. Whatever name you choose will appear
in the preview box on DRAWs status bar when you select an object
that uses that color.
FIGURE
6.9 Naming colors on a custom palette is easy,
helpful, and if you have a good imagination, a creative outlet...
If you are producing color-separated work, you should work with a palette
that uses the CMYK color model, or choose CMYK-derived colors from the
dialogs or docker. If you use a different model, DRAW will convert your
color choices to CMYK anyway when you make separations. Its anybodys
guess whether the conversion will be to your liking, so its best
to start with CMYK colors for your four-color printed work.
The other color model that you might use regularly is the RGB color model
for work that is destined to remain on screen. The obvious application
today is the Web site, and indeed, the two palettes for creating Web graphics,
the Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer palettes, are based on the
RGB color model. All light sources transmit colors as components of red,
green, and blue, and computer monitors are certainly light sources.
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| NOTE For more
detail on these and all of the other color models, consult the on-line
Help where there are numerous explanations. Select Find and search
for color, model, CMYK, or RGB.
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Using Custom
Palettes
Although most users rarely change from the default coreldrw.cpl
palette, the program ships with several other palettes. To use a different
palette as your default, go to Window Ø
Color Palette and choose one from the flyout menu. From that same menu,
you can:
- Open the Color Palette Browser, which might
make locating and choosing a palette easier
- Create a new palette, based on the color
in your drawing or in selected objects of a drawing
- Open the Palette Editor, where you can edit
any of the custom palettes
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| NOTE New for
9: All palette operations are now under the Window menu. Go to Window
Ø Color Palettes for all operations
relative to color palettes. Also, you can now open more than one on-screen
palette. The more you choose, the more that will appear.
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