Monday, September 12, 2016

Adding a Color Sample to a Collection in ArtRage

This is for those who don't know how to add a Sample (color palette) to a Collection in ArtRage.

I thought I had found a great fast way to get a color palette from GIMP into ArtRage.  What I found at the ArtRage forums would be great if you are just wanting colors very close, but as of now they are not exactly "on point" with the HEX codes. (Link to help you easily create a Custom Color Picker.  I know the problem is not with the "add on" .exe, but with the way ArtRage is grabbing the colors, so you may still want to grab this from the ArtRage forums.)  For now I'm still going to load the colors into a "Sample", using the Precise Color Picker to match the Red, Green, Blue values to the same numbers as are shown in GIMP with the HEX codes for each color.

Since this takes a little longer to adjust these 3 settings for each color I thought I'd share the .COL file with the others at Pixel Scrapper who might be working on the Blog Train in ArtRage.

If you have ArtRage, but don't yet know how to load a .COL file from someone else, here's how you go about doing it, and here's my .COL file for the 2016 11 PS Enchanting Autumn Blog Train.

The "Samples" window usually sits in the bottom right corner, just in front of the Color Picker, so you can click on it and expand it so you see the window like I have in the pictures below.  (#2 below)



Here you can see my Custom Color Picker that is a little off, but still there are times that it would be nice to have your own colors in this palette.




If you have colors in your samples, be sure to save them before moving on.....like this.



Now we're ready to import the .COL file with the new Samples by clicking on the lines to bring up the menu.



One of the great things about ArtRage is their programmer have built multiple ways to do the same thing.  You can either click the lines to the right of the Samples window or
Tools > Color Sample Options > Replace Samples > Load from Disk   (Being sure to have already saved your samples...This is one place that Art Rage would be improved, by showing the name for the Samples if there is one assigned.)


Browse to the location of the .COL file on your computer.

Once you have loaded the Samples, you can also add this sample to your Collections, to be able to bring it up quickly at a later time, so that you don't always have to navigate to the folder on your hard drive.
Just pull up the menu options again, from the Samples window, and just simply Add to Collection.



You can "Add a Group" to your Collections or select a Group Name from the drop down arrow menu.




Again, I've clicked the lines to the pop-up window and "Add a Group", I called my new group "Blog Trains", then gave this Sample list a name.  Now it's easier to load the Samples from the collection.  When you want to pull up a Sample that's been added to your Collections....
Tools > Color Sample Options > Replace Samples > Select from Collection.... (or....


 

OR.......
 Tools > Color Sample Options > Add Samples >





 But you may not want to have your colors ADDED to your Samples....so
You may want to first clear the Samples, being sure that you've saved those colors in a sample before clearing it....if you had color already in the Samples window.  As you can see below, you can also Add or Replace from the Samples window menu.



Below is what the Collections window looks like, even though it's labels Sample - we are still talking about Samples...it would be better labeled Sample Collections.  The Groups are on the left, and then the Name you used for the Sample will appear in the middle.  Once you click on the name you'll see a preview of the colors saved under that Name.  A much easier way to manage your colors, than getting them from disk, especially considering that you get a visual preview of the colors!

 

I hope this helps you navigate ArtRage and color collections inside of it!  Enjoy creating.