Colors

The Color Picker lets you change the color of your selected object's Fill , Stroke , or Shadow inside the corresponding sections within the Style Section.

To open the Color Wheel Section, click the Color Well (1) for any Fill, Stroke, or Shadow you want to change.

Here you can set your colors using the Color Picker (A) or by entering a value numerically inside the Color Slider (B) Menu.

You can select a new color using the Color picker, the RGB slider menu, or the HSB slider menu.

The Color Picker Space

The Color Picker Menu, accessible by clicking on any color well, contains four primary tabs from left to right:

1. The Color Wheel
2. The Color Sliders Menu
3. The Color Palettes Menu
4. The Effects Menu

The Color Wheel menu

In the Color Wheel Menu you have the following options available:

• ‍The Fill Options – At the top of the Popover menu, you can switch between Solid (A) and Gradient (B) to change the fill style of your selected shape.
• The Preview (Solid color space) shows your color settings' final result (C). On the right side (D), it will preview the previous color you used.
• The Preview (Gradient color space) – On the left, you can select the Linear Gradient (C) fill option, and with the button to the right, you can select the Radial Gradient (D) fill option.
• The Color Picker (E) – Drag the point around to pick your color. Moving from left to right changes the color’s saturation, and up or down changes its brightness. It uses the RGBA (Red, Green, Blue, Alpha) Color Model.
• The RGBA values of your sampled color are always displayed at the bottom of the Color Picker Window. The RGB numbers signify the separate color ID and value of the channels R (red), G (green), and Blue (B) of your currently selected color. The number A signifies your selected color's current opacity value (Alpha channel).
• The Color Slider (F) – The Color Sliders control the color hue of your selected shape.
• The Alpha Slider (G) – The Alpha Slider controls your color’s opacity (the Alpha Channel). The lower the value is, the more transparent the fill of your shape will be.
• Color History (H) – Below the Alpha Slider, you can see a palette of eight small boxes that displays the last eight solid colors with their contained alpha values you have previously used. (Previously used Gradients will not be displayed in your History Palette.)
• Color Palette (I) – The Personal Color Palette displays your saved Colors, Gradients, and Alpha Values.

The Eyedropper

The Eyedropper allows you to pick and copy a color from any image or vector path on your canvas. Just click the Eyedropper (1) in the Inspector, which you can find close to the Fill, Stroke, or Shadow, or press I on the keyboard. A magnifying circle (2) will appear on top of your artwork. Hold and move it around until you find the color you want to sample.

If you have an object already selected, click on the color you want to sample, and the eyedropper will automatically apply the sampled color to the selected object.

The Color Slider Space

When you open the Color Slider Space, the second tab from the left, you can manually set a specific color using the RGB (red, green, blue) Color Space and set the Alpha value. Alternatively, you can switch to the pulldown menu's HSB (hue, saturation, brightness) color control sliders (hue, saturation, brightness) color control sliders in the pulldown menu (D).

The Hex Field displays the Hex Value of your selected color. You can copy and paste the Hex Number from this box to save the color information for later use or manually set a Hex number with the keyboard to change the current color value. Below the color sliders, you can access the Color History and Color Palette as described in the Color Wheel Menu above.

The Color Palettes Tab

You can organize your workflow's handling of Color Palettes inside the Color Palettes Tab.

You can access the Color Palettes Tab inside the Color Widget or the Inspector. The Color Palettes Tab is the second Tab from the right.

Here, you can set the following Color Palettes attributes:

• Set the Primary Color Palette
• Search for saved Color Palettes
• Access the Linearity Default Color Palettes.
• Rename, Create, Import Color Palettes, and Create a Color Palette From a Photo.

The Effects Menu

The Effects menu is located on the far right of the Color Picker menus.

Here you can access the following color blending controls:

1. Blend horizontally
2. Blend Vertically
3. Blend Back to Front

These Blending modes can be used to create blended color palettes.

Color Adjustments

Beneath the Color Blending controls in the Effects Menu, you can find the Color Adjustment controls. These two buttons allow you to Desaturate (A) or Invert (B) the colors of your selected object.

This feature (A) is handy for converting your artwork into black and white in just one step.

Invert (B) allows you to quickly check the contrast levels by inverting the Colors of your selected object and can help those with impaired vision.

The Color Widget

A helpful feature in Curve is the Color Widget. It is located at the bottom of your Toolbar on the left side of your screen.

The Color Widget allows you to easily change the color properties of your selected shape. These two buttons allow you to quickly select and change the Fill (1) and the Stroke (2) colors of your Vector Paths without opening the Inspector menu.

The Color Widget contains the four following submenus:

1. The Color Wheel Menu
2. The Color Sliders Menu
3. The Color Palettes Menu
4. The Effects Menu

These sections are identical to those available in the Inspector. Per default, the Color Widget is set to the Color Wheel Menu.

Click on the Stroke Widget to open the Color Wheel Section. The Stroke Widget can be used exactly like the Color Wheel in the Style Tab. The functions and properties are identical to the Color Wheel.

Click on the Fill Widget to open the Color Wheel. Here you can choose between a Solid and a Gradient Fill.

You can find the Eyedropper at the top left corner of the Color Picker, allowing you to pick any color from the canvas. When the Eyedropper is active, a magnifying circle will appear on top of your artwork. Hold and move it around until you find the color you want to sample.

You can access the unified RGB Slider and Alpha Value Slider at the bottom of the Color Wheel Section. You can also access the color History and color Essentials at the bottom of the menu.

By right-clicking on the widget, a context menu will appear from which we can:

1 – Open the Color Picker,

2 – Use the Eyedropper,

3 – Swap between Fill and Stroke options

4 – Disable the stroke/fill color. When disabled, the circle will appear with a diagonal red line on top.

When the Stroke Color or the Fill Color is disabled in the Color Widget, a diagonal red line will appear on the corresponding circle to show its deactivation.

Video recap

Mastering color is a privilege reserved for advanced creators. But with Linearity Curve’s Color Picker and Color Widget Tool on Mac, it's easier to become a color Jedi than you think.

Especially with the latter, aka the Color Widget. As we've seen above, using this tool, you can quickly modify the hue of an object by selecting it, then clicking one of the two new buttons below the Toolbar on your Mac. Instead of going back and forth between the Style Tab and your design, you can now access the Color Picker straight from the canvas. You can also access more options in the Color Picker, like interacting with the newly-redesigned Eyedropper or swapping the Fill and the Stroke.

All functionalities are explained in this video, so watch it in full.