The Colour panel is used to choose colour for various brush tools and to apply colour to the stroke and fill of vector shapes, lines, and text.
About the Colour panel
The panel can operate in several colour modes—RGB, HSL, CMYK, LAB and Greyscale—and has various ways of presenting colour options—as sliders or as a colour wheel (HSL only).
Colour panel: (A) Foreground/Background colour selectors, (B) Colour Picker and picked colour swatch, (C) Colour model selection, (D) RGB sliders, (E) Opacity control associated with colour, (F) Noise control for graininess effect, (G) Easy access commonly used 'Quick' colours (None, K-only Black, Mid-grey, Black and White swatches) and recently used colours and (H) Swatches section for storing colours and palette control.
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.
For vector shapes, lines and text, the colour selector is for stroke and fill colour instead of Foreground and Background colour, respectively.
Tap the pin icon in the top right of the panel to hide the panel automatically when you are no longer focusing on it.
Using the Colour panel
With the Colour panel, colours can be set for use by a tool in just a few taps. Opacity and noise are further attributes which can be applied with a colour.
Colour display options and colour models
When choosing colours in the Colour panel, you can choose different ways to present colour options (e.g., by wheel or slider) and different colour models. For example, if you want to design a hi-res CMYK print document, you could select colour using CMYK Sliders to match with a CMYK colour profile chosen at document setup. This doesn't change the working colour profile of the document, but changes the input values for the colours only.
The following colour options are available using the navigation buttons.
Colour Wheel (HSL)
Drag on the outer ring to set the hue.
Drag in the colour box to set saturation and lightness.
Sliders (HSL, RGB, RGB Hex, CMYK, LAB, Grey)
Tap the left/right navigation buttons under the colour selectors to jump between colour options and models.
Drag sliders or type directly into the value boxes to set the colour values.
To set the colour of a selector:
Tap the selector you want to apply the colour to. It will show at the front of the two colour selectors.
Do one of the following:
Select a colour from the colour wheel or slider.
Tap the picked colour swatch (if you've previously colour picked).
Select one of the five most Recent Colours.
Once your colour has been chosen and applied to a tool or content, there are several ways to preserve this colour for later use.
The following options are available from the Panel Preferences menu within the Swatches section.
Add Current Fill to Palette—with a palette selected, adds the currently selected object's fill (or colour chosen in the panel) to the palette in the Swatches section.
Add Current Fill as Global—like Add Current Fill to Palette but the currently selected object's fill (or colour chosen in the panel) is added as a global colour so it can be shared across objects. You must have a custom Document palette created and selected to use this option.
Add Global Colour—creates a global colour from scratch that can be updated automatically across multiple objects; they can be made as spot colours or to overprint, or both. You must have a custom Document palette created and selected to use this option.
Add Application Palette—creates an application palette in the Swatches section.
Add Document Palette—creates a document palette in the Swatches section.
Rename Palette—allows you to rename the currently selected Document palette.
Delete Palette—removes the currently selected Document palette.
Link Palette—allows you to link an Application palette for use in all Affinity apps on your device.
Duplicate Palette—makes an unlinked copy of the current Application palette that isn't shared with other local apps.
Import Palette—imports an .afpalette or .ase file as a new application or document palette.
Export Palette—exports the currently selected application or document palette as an .afpalette file.
Using swatches
The Swatches section stores your recently used colours and lets you access a range of predefined palettes, each containing solid or gradient fill swatches. These can be selected for use with various tools and for applying directly to objects. You can also create and store your own swatches in custom colour palettes either for the document or the app.
Swatches are organised into colour palettes by category.
Swatches section (Colour panel): (A) Primary/Secondary colour selectors, (B) Colour Picker and picked colour swatch, (C) Panel Preferences, (D) Palette selection, (E) Swatch or list view, (F) Palette swatches, (G) Easy access commonly used ‘Quick’ colours (None, K-only Black, Mid-grey, Black and White swatches) and (H) Recently used colours.
Palettes
The following types of palette exist within your Affinity app:
Document—these palettes are created by the user and saved within the current document; they store your custom colours.
Application—these palettes are saved with your Affinity app, and are available to any Affinity Photo 2 document.
PANTONE®—these palettes are based on PANTONE® Colours. These palettes are pre-supplied with the app, and are available to any Affinity document.
You can permanently store custom colours and gradients that you use most often in any of the palettes or you can create custom Document palettes to host them. We recommend the latter.
Saving chosen colours for later use
Once your colour has been chosen and applied to a tool or content, there are several ways to preserve this colour for later use.
Creating and saving to custom colour palettes
To create a new palette:
With the Swatches section open, tap Panel Preferences and choose an 'Add Palette' option.
To save a colour or gradient to a palette:
Choose the colour from the HSL wheel or equivalent.
Open the Swatches section, and select a palette from the category list.
From the Panel Preferences, select Add Current Fill to Palette.
To rename or delete a saved swatch:
Long press the swatch you want to rename or delete and choose Rename or Delete from the pop-up menu.
Importing and exporting custom colour palettes
Custom colour palettes can be exported to and imported from external files (add-ons) via the Swatches section's Panel Preferences menu. For more information on add-ons, see the About add-ons topic.
Colour panel
Tap the pin icon in the top right of the panel to hide the panel automatically when you are no longer focusing on it.
The following options are available from the Panel Preferences menu within the Swatches section.