X-Rite has emerged as the color industry’s heavy-hitter after adding Pantone (the color-matching people) and Gretag Macbeth (proofing systems, monitor calibration hardware/software) to Munsell and other acquisitions in recent years. If you have any questions about printing, packaging, paints, plastics, or just color in general, Xrite.com is the place to visit. Their website contains not only catalog areas, but also many areas with seminar listings and free downloads of collateral material— all about color. LAB Color LAB is both a color space and a color model. CorelDRAW offers LAB as a color model; however, LAB—the color space—is device independent, and therefore it can be used to describe colors you see in the drawing window, on a physical plastic bottle of soda, and even on a basketball. Almost 100 years ago (this was before PCs) the Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (the CIE, the International Commission on Illumination) was established as a worldwide organ for standardizing and exchanging color specifications. They are responsible for creating the LAB color model. It successfully replicates the spectrum of human vision, and this is why there is a disproportionately large area of green in LAB color space. This is because the human eye responds to this region of the visible spectrum more strongly than to other hues. LAB is modeled after one channel of Luminance, one color channel (named A) that runs from magenta to green, and another channel (named B) from blue to yellow. When you use LAB to describe a color, you’re (theoretically) assured color consistency. LAB, the color space, is frequently used by software engineers as a conversion space. When you want, for example, to convert an RGB bitmap to CMYK, the LAB color space is larger than both, and as a consequence, colors are not driven out of gamut when the pixels in such a bitmap are reassigned new component values. YIQ The YIQ color model is similar in its components to LAB color; however, its purpose is for working with designs and text that are video-legal, as defined by the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC). YIQ’s components are one channel of luminosity, and two of chromacity (color). Standard definition TV is brighter than PC monitors, the color range is smaller, and if you get an assignment to draw a logo for a commercial, you’d use this color model. HD television changes a lot of the broadcast rules concerning video-legal colors; check with your client before choosing YIQ as a color space for designing titles or anything for a TV assignment. Grayscale You’d use the Grayscale color model (which actually has no hue) if you’re designing for one-color commercial printing and for laser print output. You might find that a color design you’ve drawn doesn’t look right if printed to a laser printer: blue areas seem too faint, and reds look much too dark. By using Grayscale, you take the influence of hue out of the color equation, and what you see onscreen is what you get on paper. 504 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide Registration You do not design with this color model; it’s only one color. Registration is used for an object when you want that object to be printed on all commercial press plates, including spot color plates. As the name suggests, registration applied, for example, to hairline paths around the border of a design helps commercial press operators to see and keep all the printing plates in registration when they review progressive proofs of the plates. Also, if your design calls for spot-color inks, you can use an object with registration color to manually knock out (remove) areas on all other plates. For example, if you want a headline printed using a spot color on top of a photograph, a registration-colored object can be used to knock out the exact area on the C, M, Y, and K plates where printed areas of the underlying photograph would obscure the overprinted spot color. The following sections bring relevance to all of these explanations of color; you want to put color to use in CorelDRAW, so it’s only fitting to move into where the palettes and other features are located! Using Color-Related Dockers If you’ve been doing some independent exploring, you’ve certainly discovered the Uniform fill option on the toolbox, but you’ve also noticed that it doesn’t dock; it is not a persistent part of the interface. The good news is that it’s not supposed to be. Two dockers—covered next—are used to handle almost all commands that define and edit color. These are the Color docker and the Color Palette Manager docker. Let’s examine these features. Using the Color Docker The Color docker, shown in Figure 17-3, is extremely convenient to work with and, essentially, it’s the Uniform Fill dialog—smaller, dockable, and persistent in the workspace. When an object is selected, you can specify whether the color applies to the outline or fill color of the object, and any changes to colors are immediately applied. To open the Color docker, click-hold on the Fill tool on the toolbox to reveal the flyout group of tools—Color is at the bottom. It’s also available when you choose Window | Dockers | Color. Unlike with Uniform Fill, you don’t need to have an object selected to call it. The Color docker is organized into three areas: color viewers and color sliders—as discussed earlier on the Uniform Fill dialog—and fixed palettes (actually, they were never broken…). You can display each area by clicking one of three buttons at the top of the docker. Each area is geared toward specifying a color using its unique parameters, and to then applying that color to the fill and/or outline of a selected object. Here’s how each of the three areas is used for specifying color: ● Color sliders You can mix the components of any color model you choose from the drop-down selector at top by dragging the sliders or entering percentages in the number fields. Notice that the sliders are in color and change dynamically, instantly CHAPTER 17: Digital Color Theory Put to Practice 505 17 updating to show you how much of a component affects the overall color, and the relationship between one component and the others. Ill 17-3 506 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide FIGURE 17-3 The Color docker is your one-stop shop for choosing by component values, by using a color model, and for choosing from custom predefined colors on the Palettes area. Apply lock Color sliders Color viewers Flyout menu options Fixed palettes Click to apply fill. Click to apply outline. ● Color viewers The color viewers (occasionally called color pickers in other programs) on the Color docker basically offer the same options as the color viewers on the Uniform Fill dialog; the Options button is simply located in a different place so the palette is more compact onscreen. ● Fixed palettes Use this area to choose a color from a swatch collection from vendors such as Pantone, Trumatch, Focoltone, and others from the palette selector. Use the flyout options menu to display a color by name; if you have tooltips turned on (Tools | Options | Workspace | Display), the names of the swatches appear when you hover your cursor, as shown in this illustration. The slider at the bottom of this docker is dimmed if you’ve loaded Uniform Colors or any user or custom palette. This slider is for creating a mathematically precise color tint of an industry-standard solid color, such as any swatches in the Pantone Fashion + Home Cotton collection. Solid colors can take tints, thus producing pastels, because the printer or a vendor of paints can mix white into this real-world, solid color according to numerical values. Therefore, you can use this tint slider with solid predefined colors, but not with process colors; process colors are created in the physical world through separate passes of C, M, Y, and K pigments, and as a consequence it’s impractical to tint the four components. However, CorelDRAW professionals make spot colors for designs by applying a tint to a solid. The technique works because a spot color always requires a separate printing plate. Ill 17-4 Solids colors can be turned into a tint when you print by assigning an object a percentage of the solid. For example, if you want a tint of PANTONE 357 green, fill an object with 50% of the solid swatch. When making the separations for your design, solids and percentages of color solids will print to the same plate. Effectively, the white of the paper becomes the “white paint” you mix with the solid to produce the tint. CHAPTER 17: Digital Color Theory Put to Practice 507 17 Tint slider 508 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide Solid Colors and Swatches To quickly set up a tint of a solid CMYK or RGB color, you can click-hold on a swatch, release the mouse button after the flyout appears, and then choose from increments within the pop-up selector from solid at bottom right to white at top left. You click the tint on the flyout, and then click Fill or Outline to apply the tint. When you try this with a spot color, you’ll see one horizontal strip with solid at the left, and 0% at the right. Also, if you choose a color from any of the spot color collections, you can use the Tint slider to create a percentage of the color, because spot colors are considered to be solids, while process colors use a combination of pigments. Swatches on the Color docker are “drag and drop”; alternatively, you can click the Fill, Outline, or both buttons in succession for “no miss” object coloring. You can click-drag a color onto an object, selected or unselected, to instantly fill it. If you have good skills with your mouse or other input device, you can set an outline color for an object by dragging and then dropping a color swatch on the edge of an object; even if the object has no outline attributes, the action of drag-dropping a color forces the object to take on a 0.5-point outline. If you miss the edge and the object itself while attempting to apply a color, CorelDRAW lets you know this by changing the cursor’s appearance. If you release the mouse button over an empty area, this is the same action as redefining all object fill and/or outline properties, and you’ll get an onscreen confirmation box about this action. You probably want to Cancel such an action—you might grow bored with having every new object you create filled with Pale Avocado. Click-hold to choose. Drag and drop swatch. Using the Color Palette Manager Docker The Color Palette Manager docker, shown in Figure 17-4, gives you the option to manage multiple palettes and palette colors. To open the Color Palette Manager docker, choose Window | Dockers | Color Palette Manager. The docker is structured as a tree directory so you can view palettes by folder as you browse, and it includes handy palette command buttons. To make your own palettes and to work with this docker, which you’ll use frequently in your work, follow these example steps. CHAPTER 17: Digital Color Theory Put to Practice 509 17 FIGURE 17-4 Choose from a wide selection of palettes with the Color Palette Manager docker. Open palette New from selection New palette Fixed spot and CMYK color palettes User palettes New from document Open Palette Editor Custom palettes Accessing Color Palettes 1. Open the Color Palette Manager docker by choosing Window | Dockers | Color Palette Manager. To open a palette—which docks to the left of the default color palette in the workspace—click the eye icon from its closed appearance to an open eye. To close an open palette, click the eye from open to closed. You can float an open palette by dragging the top of the color palette strip into the workspace. 2. Create several objects (seven rectangles are fine), and then fill them with different colors using the (default) Color Palette wells. Just select an object with the Pick tool, and then left-click a color well on the Color Palette. 3. Press CTRL+A to select all, and then click the Creates A New Palette From Selected Objects button on the top of the docker. CorelDRAW prompts you for a new palette name and a location in the Save Palette As dialog. Fill in the required information and then click Save. As a result, all seven colors (plus black, derived from the object outline) now appear on a color palette to the left of the default in the workspace. This is an invaluable method for saving colors you’ve spent a lot of time defining, and the palette can now be used on a new or existing document anytime. If two objects share an identical color, the color is not duplicated on your palette. 4. To open a saved palette, click the Opens A Palette folder icon on the top of the Color Palette Manager. Using the Color Styles Docker Color Styles is the route to follow in CorelDRAW to create, name, and apply colors and color relationships to objects. Because all styles are associated with individual documents, you must have at least one document open to use the color tools available in the Color Styles docker. Color styles are managed completely from within the Color Styles docker, shown in Figure 17-5, which is opened by choosing Tools | Color Styles. The docker features command buttons for creating new styles, child colors, and shades. 510 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide Follow these steps for an introduction to working with color styles. Saving a Color as a Style 1. Open the Color Styles docker by choosing Tools | Color Styles. 2. Click the New Color Style button in the docker. The New Color Style dialog opens. Select a color and then click OK to create the style. 3. To name your new style, select and then click the default color component label field, enter a new name, and then click outside of the style text field to complete the naming. By default, each style you create is named by its color values. For example, a typical CMYK color would be labeled “C:18 M:45 Y:9 K:0.” 4. To edit a selected style’s color, click the Edit Color Style button to open the Select Color dialog. Click OK to complete the editing operation and close the dialog. To apply a master or child color from the Color Styles docker, drag the color directly onto an object in the drawing window. To add an object’s current color as a style, drag the object into the docker window’s field area below the document folder icon. CHAPTER 17: Digital Color Theory Put to Practice 511 17 FIGURE 17-5 The Color Styles docker has commands for creating new styles and tints of master colors. New Child Color(s) New Color Style Document Name Edit Color Style Auto-Create Color Styles Convert Selected Color To Spot Color Current Master Styles Creating Child Colors Child colors have a dynamic relationship with a defined master color style. The child colors remain the same hue as the master color, but their brightness and/or saturation can be different. Any hue changes made to the master color are automatically updated in the child colors, which is the real power of setting up a drawing using master color—in less than 30 seconds you can recolor a drawing so it’s significantly different from your original. To explore the master/child color relationship controlled using the Color Styles docker, run through these tutorial steps. Building a Parent-Child Relationship 1. Open the Color Styles docker by choosing Tools | Color Styles. 2. Click the New Color Style button to open the New Color Style dialog. Pick a color for your new style, and then click OK to create the style. Select and click the style name, and then enter a unique name of your own for the color. 3. With your style selected in the list, click the New Child Color(s) button in the docker to open the Create A New Child Color dialog, shown in Figure 17-6. 512 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide FIGURE 17-6 Control the number of child colors, the diversity of shades, brightness, and saturation through this dialog. Click-drag to set saturation and brightness. Number of child shades added to document color styles Lighter/darker shades generated Variety 4. By default, the child color is based on the Hue component of the master. You can change the Saturation and Brightness of the child colors by dragging their sliders or by typing a value in their numeric fields. 5. Enter a name for the new style or accept its default name, and click OK to close the dialog. The new child color appears in the Color Styles docker. 6. Select the master once again, and click the Edit Color Style button in the docker to open the Select Color dialog. Change the style’s color to any other color, and click OK to close the dialog. Notice the style’s color is updated, and so is the hue of all the child colors. This same effect applies to any of the objects that feature either the master color style or its associated child color. As an alternative to using the docker buttons, you can right-click a color style in the docker, and then select commands from the pop-up menu. A practical example of the usefulness of master and child colors is in a situation when you know in advance that a client will want to see several different color schemes for an illustration of a product, logo, or package label. You begin with a set of parent colors, create children for these “master” colors, design your design, and then when your client asks for a revision (or several), changing the parent colors automatically changes the child colors. This is a very powerful feature, and for this reason color styles are local to a document—you can edit a parent color in a file without worrying that you’re messing up a color in a different file you also have open. You can create up to 20 shades of a master color in the Create A New Child Color dialog. If you need more, try creating a child of a child color. The result is that all the shades appear below the master color, so you could have, hypothetically, scores of child colors based on one master. Creating Styles from Selections The Auto-Create Color Styles command button in the Color Styles docker lets you create a collection of related color styles based on a selection in your document. Clicking the Auto- Create Color Styles command button opens the Automatically Create Color Styles dialog, shown next. CHAPTER 17: Digital Color Theory Put to Practice 513 17 . much of a component affects the overall color, and the relationship between one component and the others. Ill 17-3 506 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide FIGURE 17-3 The Color docker is your one-stop. selected in the list, click the New Child Color(s) button in the docker to open the Create A New Child Color dialog, shown in Figure 17-6. 512 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide FIGURE 17-6 Control the. in the docker to open the Select Color dialog. Change the style’s color to any other color, and click OK to close the dialog. Notice the style’s color is updated, and so is the hue of all the