Colour panel

The Colour panel is used to choose colour for various tools and selected objects.

About the Colour panel

The Colour panel can operate in several colour modes—HSL, RGB, CMYK and LAB—and has various ways of defining colour—colour wheel (HSL only), colour boxes and colour sliders. Colour tints can also be applied from within the panel.

Colour panel

Colour panel (HSL colour wheel): (A) Colour 1/Colour 2 (left) or Stroke/Fill colour selectors with colour 'none' swatch and 'swap' arrow, (B) HSL values, (C) Switch to opacity/noise, (D) Panel Preferences (E) Colour picker tool and picked colour swatch, (F) Saturation/Lightness control, (G) Hue control, (H) Opacity controls, (J) Noise controls.

Like the Swatches panel, the Colour panel takes on different appearances depending on the active Persona and on the selected tool. The large colour selectors indicate the currently selected colours.

In Draw Persona, objects have fill and stroke colour properties. The stroke colour is represented by the cutout (donut) colour selector. The fill is represented by the solid colour selector.

In Pixel Persona, the panel shows colours represented by two solid colour selectors indicating Colour 1 (Foreground) and Colour 2 (Background).

The active colour selector is shown at the front of the two colour selectors. Choosing a new colour will apply it to the active colour selector.

Here's the colour selectors that you'll see for vector and pixel tools.

swatches_example

The active colour is whichever is shown at the front. In this illustration the active colour selector is: (A) Stroke, (B) Fill, (C) Colour 1 (Foreground), and (D) Colour 2 (Background). You can quickly switch between colour selectors by pressing the x .

Using the Colour panel

With the Colour panel, colours can be applied to an object or for use by a tool in just a few clicks. Opacity and noise are further colour attributes which can be applied.

To set the colour of a selector:
  1. Click the selector you want to apply the colour to. It will show at the front of the two colour selectors.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Choose a colour from the colour model's Wheel (HSL only), Sliders, or Boxes.
    • Click the picked colour swatch.
    • Click the None swatch to make the colour completely transparent (for the tool, fill or stroke).
To switch colours between the selectors:
To adjust opacity or noise setting:
  1. Select the toggle button to the bottom-left of the panel.
  2. Drag the slider to set the value.

Colour selection preferences and colour models

When choosing colours in the Colour panel, you can choose from various selection preferences and colour model values. The colour selection preferences are changed in the Panel Preferences Panel Preferences menu.

Depending on the colour model selected, you can also choose to work in 8 bit, 16 bit or Percentage mode.

Some of the selection methods allow you to set colour using values other than RGB. This doesn't change the working colour profile of the document, but changes the input values for the colours.

The following colour selection preferences are available from the Panel Preferences Panel Preferences menu.

Using the Colour Picker

The picker lets you sample colours within or outside Affinity Designer, then use them in your design.

colour picker To use the Colour Picker:
  1. Drag the Colour Picker icon to the colour want to sample.
  2. Click the selector you want to apply the colour to.
  3. Click the swatch next to the Colour Picker to apply the colour.

Saving chosen colours for later use

Once your colour has been chosen and applied to a tool or object, there are several ways to preserve this colour for later use.

The following options are available from the Panel Preferences Panel Preferences menu.

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