Using the Color Picker

The Color Picker is a window that can be used to select a color in fixtures with a mix color system.

It does not affect color wheels only color mixing systems.

The color picker provides convenient access to mixing the desired color using several color mixing and selection options. The method used is independent of the actual color mix system in the fixture (LED emitters or color subtraction).

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Open the Color Picker

The color picker is created like any other window, see Add windows. It is found in the Common tab.

The color picker has five different modes:

• Color picker - an HSB area with a Brightness on-screen fader.
• RGB - on-screen faders to adjust RGB, CMY, Quality, and Overdrive values.
• HSB - on-screen faders to adjust HSB,  Quality, and Overdrive values.
• CIE - a CIE color space area picker with a Brightness on-screen fader.
• Book - This is a swatch book with colors from different filter manufacturers.

The mode can be selected using the buttons in the title bar. The following is a short description of the different modes.

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Color Picker

To adjust the color mix by tapping a color in an HSB field also known as a Color Picker, tap the HSB field symbol

Here it is possible to tap a color in the HSB field. The x-axis (left/right) is the Hue value. The y-axis (up/down) is the Saturation value and the B-fader on the right side is Brightness.

RGB

On-screen faders with access to adjust Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow colors.

Here it is possible to adjust the colors by the mix of red, green and blue colors or a mix of cyan, magenta and yellow. The two color systems are interlinked. This means that adjusting the colors in RGB also moves the CMY faders.

It is also possible to adjust the Color Quality and the color Overdrive.

HSB

On-screen faders to adjust the colors by the Hue, Saturation, and Brightness.

The hue color is also defined in a number from 0 to 360. This is based on a hue circle where the describes the degree in a circle. 0 is red. increasing the value moves towards yellow.

Here the hue is represented in percentage.

Saturation is a scale from pure white to the maximum color saturation.

Brightness describes the light intensity from black (no output) to maximum light output based on the selected hue and saturation.

It is also possible to adjust the Color Quality and the color Overdrive.

CIE

The CIE (Commission Internationale de l’éclairage) standard uses a figure that indicates the visible light spectrum. 

The non-shaded part of the figure (the RGB triangle) shows the colors that the specific fixture can mix. Tap inside this area to select a color.

If the fixture has more than 3 mixing colors, the shaded part will become smaller.

Book

The swatch book is a library of filter colors from different manufacturers. This can also be accessed using the Gel keyword.

The manufactures are listed on the left side and the right side displays the colors from the manufacturer.

There are three new fields displayed at the top of the window (below the title bar).

• Filter is used to limit the list of colors. It is possible to enter a name or a key of the color to be used.
• View defines how the color list is displayed. It is a swipe button with the following options:
  • Big Icons - This displays a big color example. Below the color are the name and color key.
  • List - This displays a list with Name, Key and Color columns.
  • Small Icons - displays a small color field only.
• Sort has three different ways to sort the displayed colors. It has the following options:
  • None - the list is not sorted and is displayed in the order in the library.
  • Key - Sorted by the color key number.
  • Name - The colors are sorted by the color name.

The manufacturer list includes many of the filter manufacturers. It also includes MA Lighting even though MA does not produce color filters. The MA Lighting library contains all the primary colors and the most used colors.

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Quality

The Q fader or quality fader is available when the fixtures have a color mix system of more than three colors.

It controls how the colors are mixed. Turning it to 0% will use the extra light emitters (other than RGB). 50% will be a mix of the primary colors and the extra emitters. 100% will only use the primary RGB emitters.

Overdrive

The overdrive fader can be used to turn the output up giving a higher intensity but still keeping the same color. It adjusts from 0% to 100%. Having the fader at 0% gives the purest color. Turning the overdrive up might compromise the color quality but give a higher output.