DigitalPalette is a free software for generating a set of harmonious colors from color wheel or existed images and applying it into your creative works.

Version

2.1.1 (Development)

Installation

Double click the installer and click “Next“.
Read the License. Check “I accept the terms of the License Aggrement“ if you agree with it, then click “Next“.
Choose a directory and click “Install“ to start the installation.
Click “Finish“ to finish the installation and run DigitalPalette.

Usage

Change the language

Currently we only provide English and Chinese interface translations. You could change the interface language through:

Click “Edit“ in the menu bar and select “Settings“ to open the settings dialog.
Click the combo box lateral to “Language“ label in “Software“ tab. Select the target language and click “OK“ to change the interface language.

Interface Layout

The Interface layout of DigitalPalette includes:

Title bar, which include the name of software (DigitalPalette and current version (v2.1.1-dev).
Menu bar, which include “File“, “Edit“, “View“, “Window“ and “Help“ selections.
Work area, which provide actions such as creating a set of colors from color wheel, locating a set of colors from color image and attaching a set of colors into color depot.
Rule window, which set harmony rule and synchronization method for color set.
Filter window, which set category and channel for opened image.
Operation window, which manipulate files and work area.
Mode window, which set display mode for color set result.
Move window, which move and zoom image and depot content.
Result window, which display and modify color set result.

Creating a set of colors from color wheel

Color wheel is the default view of work area. You could click “View“ in the menu bar and select “Wheel“ to switch into color wheel view if your current work area view isn’t color wheel. The color wheel view is shown as below.
There are five color tags in ring shape above the color wheel in work area, which corresponding to the five color squares in result window (where the central color square determins the major color). You could change the corresponding color by dragging the tag, or adjust the sliders of RGB or HSV in result window to control its color accurately. Meanwhile, the position and color of other tags on color wheel would also changed according to the selected harmony rule. The harmony rule could be settled in rule window.
Wheel

Color Harmony Rules

Analogous
Analogous is the default rule. You could create a set of colors with hue values in equidistant distributions in this rule. Note that the closer the tags, the more analogous the colors.
Monochromatic
You could create a set of colors with same hue and different saturation and lightness values in this rule.
Triad
You could create a set of colors with hue values in trigonal distributions in this rule.
Tetrad
You could create a set of colors with colors complementary to each other in pairs in this rule.
Pentad
You could create a set of colors with hue values in pentagonal distributions in this rule.
Complementary
You could create a set of Complementary colors in this rule.
Shades
You could create a set of colors with same hue and saturation values and different lightness values in this rule.
Custom
You could create a set of colors in custom in this rule.

Locating a set of colors from color image

You could click “View“ in the menu bar and select “Graph“ to switch into color image view if your current work area view isn’t color image. The color image view is shown as below.
Left click anywhere above the image in work area after opening an existed image, and a color tag corresponding to the color square in result window would appeared at this position. Its color will also change into the corresponding color in image. Similarly, you could change the corresponding color by dragging the tag. Meanwhile, the position and color of other tags on color wheel would also changed according to the selected harmony rule. The harmony rule could be settled in rule window.

Attaching the created color set into color depot

You could click “View“ in the menu bar and select “Depot“ to switch into color depot view if your current work area view isn’t color depot. The color depot view is shown as below.
You could add, delete, modify and check the stored color sets and their information in color depot. Each icon in color depot includes five color squares, which are corresponding to the five colors of color set. Note that the color of central square represents the major color.
Depot

Example

Switch work area into color image view and open the image below. This image could be found in samples folder under the install directory of DigitalPalette.
The interface of DigitalPalette is shown as below after open an image.
Change the harmony rule in rule window into “Custom” and click the third color square in result window, then click the center purple area in image. It could be seen that a color tag is appeared at where we clicked. Meanwhile, the color of the third color square has changed into purple. Similarly, we could settle the color of other color squares as the other colors in image.
Switch work area into color depot view. The interface of DigitalPalette is shown as below.
Double click the last empty color set icon and add the color set we located from image into color depot.
Right click the added color set icon and click “Detail” and open the color set information dialog.
We could check the colors and harmony rule of color set and modify the name and description of color set. It could be seen that the harmony rule of this color set is “Custom” and it is mainly composed of blue, green, purple, yellow and red, where purple is the major color. Click the editor beside “Name” and modify the name as “My first color set”. Click the editor below “Description” and modify the description as “This is my first color set collected from a DigitalPalette image sample.”
Switch work area into color wheel view and check the distribution of each color in this color set. It could be seen that these colors are distribute in pentad shape, and the saturation and lightness of colors are extremely high.
We could change the harmony rule into “Pentad” according to the distribution of colors as discussed above. Then we could drag the color tag and lower their saturation and lightness and get the other color set.
Switch work area into color depot view and add this color set into color depot, check and modify the information of this color set in the same way.

Open and Save Color Depot and Import and Export Color Set

All color sets in depot or color set in current result could be exported and save as readable and writable files or other formated files for subsequent usage and analysis. Steps:

Click the “Save“ button in operation window and fill the file name and path in opened dialog. Click “Save” to export all color sets in depot.
Click the “Open“ button in operation window and fill the file name and path in opened dialog. Click “Open” to import all color sets in file.
Click the “Export“ button in operation window and fill the file name and path in opened dialog. Click “Save” to export the color set in current result.
Click the “Import“ button in operation window and fill the file name and path in opened dialog. Click “Open” to import the color set saved in file.

Supported File Formats

DigiPale Set File (*.dps)
File in this format contains all color data in current color set, including the harmony rule, hex code, RGB and HSV values of colors. This type of file could be used as backups and can be imported (recovered) into DigitalPalette.
DigiPale Depot File (*.dpc)
File in this format contains all color data in color depot, including the harmony rule, hex code, RGB and HSV values of colors. This type of file could be used as backups and can be imported (recovered) into DigitalPalette.
Plain Text File (*.txt)
File in this format contains basic color data, including the hex code, RGB and HSV values of colors. This type of file has batter readability than DigiPale Json File and can be opened, readed and edited by ordinary editors directly.
Adobe Swatch File (*.aco)
File in this format contains all color values and can be imported into image processing softwares such as Photoshop, GIMP and Clip Studio Paint as color swatches.
GIMP Palette File (*.gpl)
File in this format contains all color values and can be imported into image processing softwares such as GIMP and Krita as color swatches.
Pencil Palette File (*.xml)
File in this format contains all color values and can be imported into image processing softwares such as Pencil2D as color swatches.

Shortcuts

Name	Description	Shortcut
Work Area	#	#
Open	Open a color depot file.	Alt+O; Ctrl+O
Save	Save a color depot file.	Alt+S; Ctrl+S
Import	Import a color set file.	Alt+I; Ctrl+I
Export	Export a color set file.	Alt+E; Ctrl+E
Settings	Set settings.	Alt+T; `
Quit	Quit software.	Alt+Q; Esc
Create	Switch into color wheel view or (and) create a set of colors from wheel.	Alt+C; Ctrl+W
Locate	Switch into color image view or (and) locate a set of colors from image.	Alt+L; Ctrl+G
Attach	Switch into color depot view or (and) attach a set of colors into depot.	Alt+A; Ctrl+D
Homepage	Open the homepage website through web browser.	Alt+H; F1
Update	Search for software updates through web browser.	Alt+U; F2
About	Display information relative to this software.	Alt+B; F3
Result Area	#	#
Copy Tagged RGB	Copy the RGB value (single) tagged by color tag into system clipboard.	R
Copy Tagged HSV	Copy the HSV value (single) tagged by color tag into system clipboard.	H
Copy Tagged Hex	Copy the Hex code (single) tagged by color tag into system clipboard.	X
Copy RGB Result	Copy all RGB values (five) in result into system clipboard.	Shift+R
Copy HSV Result	Copy all HSV values (five) in result into system clipboard.	Shift+H
Copy Hex Result	Copy all RGB codes (five) in result into system clipboard.	Shift+X
Activate Tag	Activate the corresponding color tag in color wheel.	1; 2; 3; 4; 5
Depot Area	#	#
Copy Current RGB	Copy the RGB values (five) selected in depot into system clipboard.	Ctrl+R
Copy Current HSV	Copy the RGB values (five) selected in depot into system clipboard.	Ctrl+H
Copy Current Hex	Copy the RGB values (five) selected in depot into system clipboard.	Ctrl+X
Delete from Depot	Delete the selected color set from depot.	Delete; D
Insert into Depot	Attach the color set in result area into depot or import the selected color set into result area.	Insert; I
Move Actions	#	#
Move	Move the opened image.	↑; ↓; ←; →
Zoom	Zoom the opened image.	=; -
Reset	Reset the position and size of image.	Home

Author

Copyright

License

DigitalPalette is a free software, which is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. See the GNU General Public License 3.0 (GPL 3.0) for more details.

All images (including logo and sample images, etc.), documents and translations in DigitalPalette code repository are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) unless stating additionally.