Color Filters

Color Filters

Colors of the selected artwork, or the whole artwork on a canvas, can be adjusted and changed using various color filters. These color filters can be accessed from the Color Filters section of the Effects menu.

Color filters change the colors of objects, including gradients, and set a new color to the objects. The colors are changed destructively, after applying a color filter, the objects will contain the changed colors. This allows the adjustment of colors in a vector artwork, without creating images. To restore the original colors, use the Undo command from the edit menu.

An alternative form for most of the color filters can be applied as image effects. When using image effects, the selected objects are grouped and displayed as an image. The objects remain editable as vector objects, and in the case of image effects, will retain their original colors and gradients. The original object colors can be restored by removing the image effect. The use of image effects to adjust objects is discussed in the Image Effects chapter.

It is important to note, that color filters will not adjust colors inside symbol or tiling pattern content references. To adjust colors in symbols or in tiling pattern content, use non-destructive image color effects.

Overview

The color adjustment filters are described in the following sections:

  • Adjust Colors - Describes color adjustment filters like Curves, Levels and Brightness, used to adjust color component amounts.
  • Shift Colors - Describes color filters like Channel Mixer, Color Balance and Hue Adjustments, used to modify color component amounts based on other color component values.
  • Map Colors - Describes color filters that map colors to other colors using various color mapping schemes.
  • Color Tones - Describes color tone adjustment filters, like Saturation, Vibrance and Solarize
  • Replace Colors - Contains a description of the Replace Colors filter, used to create and use complex color replacement schemes for vector artwork.
  • Change Colors - Contains a description of various color changing filters, like Nearest Color, Adjust Color and Colorize, used to change colors of vector artwork.

Using Color Filters

To apply a color filter on an artwork:

  • Select the objects to be adjusted by the color filter.
  • Alternatively, deselect all objects, to adjust the whole artwork on the current canvas using a color filter.
  • Select the color filter from the Color Filters section of the Effects menu.
  • Make sure that a color filter is selected (upper part of the Effects menu), and not an image filter (lower part of the Effects menu). Some color filters appear as image filters also.
  • Set the color filter options. Individual color filters are described in sections of this chapter.
  • Confirm the selected color filter options, by pressing Ok.
  • The colors of the selected artwork, or the whole artwork on the current canvas are adjusted using the selected color filter.

Color filters can also be selected and applied as presets. Color filter editor views contain a Preset field that can be used to create new color filter presets from the edited color filter options. The color filter presets can be recalled and applied on objects from the Presets panel.

To apply a color filter by selecting a preset, use the following steps:

  • Create color filter presets, using the Preset field of the color filter editor view.
  • Color filter presets can be created into the available preset groups, including the document, the global group or user defined groups.
  • Open the Presets panel from the Panels - Presets menu.
  • If there are color filter presets available, the Presets panel contains a Color Filters section.
  • Select a color filter preset and double click to adjust the colors in the selected artwork, or the whole artwork on the canvas (if there are no selected objects).

Color Filter Options

The various color filter editors share a number of options. Some of the color filters may not use all of these options, due to the specifics of the filter.

  • Preset - available in most color filter editor, is used to create new color filter presets and to recall from existing presets. Color filter presets can be created to facilitate the reuse of color filter options. The color filter presets can also be accessed from the Presets panel.
  • Options - Opens a menu of color filter options:
    • Change Fills - Enable or disable the adjustment of object fill styles and colors.
    • Change Strokes - Enable or disable the adjustment of object outline styles and colors.
    • Change Images - Enable or disable the adjustment of images. Images are adjusted by adding image color effects on top of the image content.
    • Change Other Colors - Enable or disable the adjustment of other color properties.
    • Keep Color Mode - Enable or disable the keeping of the original color mode. When disabled, the adjusted colors are stored in the filter color mode. When enabled, the colors are converted back to the original color mode, after adjustment.
  • Reset - Restore the color filter options to their default values. Depending on the edited color filter type, reseting will restore the filter to its initial settings.
  • Mode - Opens a list of color modes, used to make the color adjustment. Adjusted colors are converted to the selected color mode, before the adjustment is applied. If the Keep Color Mode option is enabled, the color mode is restored to the original mode, after the adjustment. The use of the color mode depends on the color filter type.
  • Fade - Edit the amount of fading of the adjusted color, back to the original color value. The fading can be used to create moderated color adjustments. The fading amount of 0% means that the colors are not changed. The default fading amount is 100%
  • Preview - Enable or disable the previewing of the edited color adjustment filter.

Style Mixers

The style mixer commands from the Effects - Style Mixer menu, are used to set the fill and stroke styles of the selected objects, as a blend between the styles from two objects. The style mixer commands will adjust the fill and stroke style and the stroke attributes as well.

The style mixers can be used for example, to set the fill color of the selected objects to a blend between the color of the first and last selected object.

The following style mixer commands are available:

  • Blend Horizontally - Create a blend of fill and stroke styles along the horizontal direction. The styles used in the blending are picked from the leftmost and rightmost objects.
  • Blend Vertically - Create a blend of fill and stroke styles along the vertical direction. The styles used in the blending are picked from the bottommost and topmost objects.
  • Blend In Selection Order - Create a blend of fill and stroke styles in the order of object selection. The styles used in the blending are picked from the first and last selected objects.
  • Blend In Stack Order - Create a blend of fill and stroke styles in the object stacking order. The styles used in the blending are picked from the first and last objects in the stacking order.
  • Blend In Random Order - Create a blend of fill and stroke styles in random order. The styles used in the blending are picked from two random objects of the selection.
  • Randomly Swap Styles - Randomly swap styles between selected objects.