Colour panel

The Colour panel is used to choose colour for various tools and selected objects.

About the Colour panel

The Colour panel can operate in several colour modes—HSL, RGB, CMYK and LAB—and has various ways of defining colour—colour wheel (HSL only), colour boxes and colour sliders. Colour tints can also be applied from within the panel.

Colour panel

Colour panel (HSL colour wheel): (A) Set Fill/Set Stroke colour selectors with colour 'none' swatch and 'swap' arrow, (B) HSL values, (C) Switch to opacity/noise, (D) Panel Preferences, (E) Colour Picker and picked colour swatch, (F) Black and white colour swatches, (G) Recent colours swatches, (H) Saturation/Lightness control, (I) Hue control, (J) RGB Hex value, (K) Opacity control, (L) Noise control.

Like the Swatches panel, the Colour panel takes on different appearances depending on the active Persona and on the selected tool. The large colour selectors indicate the currently selected colours.

The active colour selector is shown at the front of the two colour selectors. Choosing a new colour will apply it to the active colour selector.

Using the Colour panel

With the Colour panel, colours can be applied to an object or for use by a tool in just a few clicks. Opacity and noise are further colour attributes which can be applied.

To set the colour of a selector:
  1. Click the selector you want to apply the colour to. It will show at the front of the two colour selectors.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Choose a colour from the colour model's Wheel (HSL only), Sliders, or Boxes.
    • Click the picked colour swatch.
    • Click the None swatch to make the colour completely transparent (for the tool, fill or stroke).
To switch colours between the selectors:
To adjust opacity or noise setting:
  1. Select the toggle button to the bottom-left of the panel.
  2. Drag the slider to set the value.

Colour selection preferences and colour models

Panel Preferences When choosing colours in the Colour panel, you can choose from various selection preferences and colour model values. The colour selection preferences are changed in the Panel Preferences menu.

Depending on the colour model selected, you can also choose to work in 8 bit, 16 bit or Percentage mode.

Some of the selection methods allow you to set colour using values other than RGB. This doesn't change the working colour profile of the document, but changes the input values for the colours.

Panel Preferences The following colour selection preferences are available from the Panel Preferences menu.

The HSL colour wheel's Saturation/Lightness control can be changed from Triangle to Square via the Panel Preferences menu.

Lock/Unlock By default, the colour space is locked when using Sliders (e.g., CMYK sliders) to prevent it from changing. This avoids inadvertently swapping to another mode after using swatches or selecting a different object created with a different colour mode. When unlocked, the Colour panel will remember the colour mode that the selected object was created in. This lock only works on the current session; subsequent sessions will use the HSL colour wheel as default.

Using the Colour Picker

The picker lets you sample colours within or outside Affinity Designer, then use them in your design.

colour picker To use the Colour Picker:
  1. Drag the Colour Picker to the colour want to sample.
  2. Click the selector you want to apply the colour to.
  3. Click the swatch next to the Colour Picker to apply the colour.

Saving chosen colours for later use

Once your colour has been chosen and applied to a tool or object, there are several ways to preserve this colour for later use.

Panel Preferences The following options are available from the Panel Preferences menu.

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