The color palette

The toolbar contains a palette of 44 colors that can be selected to be the current color by clicking on any of them. By placing the cursor over a palette color a tooltip will appear giving the exact RGB (Red,Green,Blue) values for that color. The current color is also complimented by a gradient shade bar which shows colors from the current color to white on the left and black to the right. Clicking on this shade bar will select a new current color from the bar (and clicking again on the current color at the bottom of the grid will restore the previous color).

The three color squares at the bottom of the grid window show the current color, the background color and a second color. The second color is used for gradient fills and is also the outline color for created shapes that are both filled and outlined (the fill will be the current color in such a case). By clicking on the background or second color squares, the current color is set to be that color. To return back to the original current color from the background or second color, click on the current color square.

To customize the current color to a color not shown in the current palette simply click on the current color button. The "Colors" menu has various options for changing and customizing all three colors as well as the current palette.

Choosing a color from the current image

Via an option in the "Current" menu it is possible to select a color in the current image by clicking on it. A alternative way is to press the color counting button which displays all the unique colors in the image. Clicking on any color in the dialog displayed makes that color the current color. If there are more than 256 colors in the image then this function only displays the first 256 and indicates that there are more than 256 colors. This is useful when creating GIF images. Note that when the colors are being counted the background color constitutes one color if it appears in the image and this is true even when saving as a transparent GIF.

The grayscale palette

In the palette menu is the option to load the gray scale palette. This is an evenly graduated palette from black to white. The menu also allows the original default palette to be reloaded.

Saving Palettes

Palettes can be saved in files which by default are stored in the "palettes" directory and restored at any time. These palette files can be saved anywhere in your file system if so desired. All color settings are saved between sessions so that customized palettes don't have to be necessarily saved in a file when exiting IconPainter. But remember to always exit IconPainter by closing one of the windows or selecting "exit" in the "file" menu for this to happen.

Texturing

In the "Current" menu is the "Use texture instead of color" option. When selected you are asked to then choose an image which can be in any format readable by IconPainter. After selection the current texture is shown in the color box above the image grid. All subsequent fill operations will then use the texture. Single pixel painting will continue to use the original paint color and gradient fill setting will be ignored when using a texture. The screen section below shows a circle, triangle and oblong created with a texture instead of a color.

Usually texture images are small but there is no rule for the size. The image selected is then used to fill any shape subsequently drawn by tiling it repeatedly. Select any palette color to drop the texture or click on the color box which shows the current texture above the image grid to go back to the original color. A good way to create images to use as textures is to utilize the "Repeat image section" option in the edit menu.