The colour chips can be viewed on the page in several different formats. Try viewing your colour file in different ways to see which is most useful for your needs.
- Go to View Menu > View Settings. The following window will open:
- Select the your desired settings:
- Show Document Title - displays the name of the colour file at the top of each page.
- Show Date - displays the current date to the bottom of each page.
- Show Page Numbers - displays the individual page numbers in the bottom right corner of each page.
There are six display options available: List, Colourbook, Manual, AB, LC and HSL. They are all used to arrange the colour chips on the page in different ways.
List
This displays the colour chips down the left side of the window and continues in a list format. The selected paper size does not affect the layout. If the file was printed in this view, the list would print on as many pages as it needed to reach the bottom. Printing colour files in list view is not recommended as a large amount of paper is likely to be wasted.
With List selected, there are no other options available for this setting.
Colourbook
This takes the selected colour chips and displays them in a grid arrangement. The layout is designed to look like a paint palette and can often make it easier to select colours. The selected paper size determines how many chips you can fit on the page and how many will ultimately print.
With Colourbook mode selected, you are given the option of how many chips to view across and down and the spacing between them.
Manual
Chips can be moved freely on the page and grouped in different sections. This feature can be used to group similar colours together or even define your own company colour book. With Manual mode selected, you are given the option of how many chips to view across and down, the spacing between them and the number of pages required. When this option is selected, two icons appear on the top right corner of the colour file window:
- Arrow icon - activates the Colouring mode of the colour file. This needs to be selected when colouring a design.
- Cross icon - activates the Layout mode of the colour file which allows you to move the colour chips around the page by hand.
Note: When you have finished making your custom layout, always remember to set it back to Colouring mode (arrow icon).
Changes made to the colour chip positions are saved with the file and therefore, you can give a copy to other colleagues and they will have the same layout.
Creating a manual layout of a colour file
- Open an existing colour file.
- Then create a new colour file (File Menu > New).
- In the new file, go to View Menu > View Settings, set the Chip Layout to Manual and click OK. Click on the cross icon to activate the new Layout mode.
- Now select some chips from the original colour file and drag and drop them to your new colour file.
- Now all your chips will be displayed and you can start to move them around, by dragging and dropping or using the arrow keys on the keyboard.
Tip: When you are arranging the layout of chips, if a chip goes on top of another one use the Clean Up Layout option in the Layout menu to move it to a free space.
- When you are satisfied with the new layout, save your new colour file. When you choose ‘Manual’ as the selected Chip Layout method in the View Settings, the options in the Layout menu become available to assist in your manual colour file arrangement. The Layout menu contains four options:
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Book Layout - the chips are displayed in a set numbers of columns and rows, creating a grid arrangement which looks similar to the ColourBook mode. It will not keep the chip order you have currently set and the chip order may seen random as it is looking at an internal chip ordering. Book layout is a useful way of quickly reorganising your chips into a grid format, if perhaps you have tried a manual layout which has not worked well. From here you can start manually moving the chips around again.
- Ensure Manual is the selected Chip Layout method and make sure the Cross icon is selected at the top right of the colour file window. This will put you in Layout mode.
- Go to Edit Menu > Select All, to select all your chips (or perhaps just select a few chips with the Cross tool).
- Go to Menu Menu > Layout > Book Layout. A new window will appear to define the number of columns and rows.
- Enter the number of Columns and Rows required and click OK. The chips will automatically sort as specified.
Tip: To move individual chips from this arrangement elsewhere, ensure the Origin Tool is still selected and highlight a relevant chip, then use the arrow keys on the keyboard to nudge the selected chip to the required position. This can sometimes be easier than trying to move chips to the correct position by dragging them.
- Move Chips To Page - if you have mistakenly put some chips on a particular page, you can easily move them to another page with this option. Simply highlight the chips to be moved, go to View Menu > Layout > Move Chips To Page… and enter the new page number. Individual chips or a group of chips can be moved with this method. A new page will be created if you currently only have one page.
- Clean Up Layout - when arranging a colour file manually, it is possible to place a chip on top of another one without realising it. Going to View Menu > Layout > Clean Up will automatically move any chips which are overlapping other colours to the end of the colour file ( i.e. to the last chip of the colour book).
Note: When using the Book Layout and Clean Up functions, the chip order will be kept the same as in the List view.
- N-Up - N-Up layout allows multiple small page layouts in a colour file to be printed to the maximum substrate width on large format printers. Any previously laid out manual colour file can be arranged in N-Up format. To learn more about this function, click here.
AB
AB is a type of colour space which groups colours according to different lightness levels. The display shows slices through the colour wheel from light to dark colours and can be broken up into as many pages or lightness levels as you wish.
With AB mode selected you are able to set the number of pages, as well as the scaling in the a and b directions.
LC
LC is a different type of colour space which shows slices of the colour wheel vertically. Each page displays a different range of hues with lightness (L) varying up the page and saturation (C) varying across the page.
With LC mode selected you are able to set the number of pages, as well as the scaling in the l and c directions.
HSL
HSL takes the hue circle from the colour wheel and splits it into a number of pages. Within each page, chips are split into lightness bands. Lightness bands are displayed one per line on a page. Within each line, chips are sorted into saturation order. The colour file is displayed in hue, lightness and saturation order without having large gaps or overlapping chips.
With HSL mode selected you are able to set the number of pages and lightness levels and the maximum number of colours displayed on a line.
Note: You may have to change your page setup for all of the chips to fit comfortably on the paper. Zoom out to see if there are any chips overhanging the edge of the page.
