G R E TECHNOLOGY E B R Expect More.

Vision Fashion Studio 2002 Easy Coloring User Guide

Release 4.0

Licensed by

NedGraphics

www.gerbertechnology.com

Easy Coloring
Notice
NedGraphics reserves the right to make changes to the product described in this manual at any time and without notice.

Copyright and Trademarks

1999 - 2002 NedGraphics All rights - including all trademark rights - are reserved. Trademarks of NedGraphics include NedGraphics, Fashion Studio, and Easy Coloring. All other trademarks and registered trademarks mentioned in this guide are the property of their respective owners.

How to Contact Us
Customer Service support hours are from 8am until 7pm Eastern Standard Time. If you have a question or encounter a problem, please contact Customer Services Support Department. Our toll free number 1-800-321-2448 can be called during support hours from anywhere in North America. International support questions can be faxed to 860-871-3862. Please direct faxes to: Customer Service Software Support. Email inquiries can be sent to CADsupport@gerbertechnology.com.

Easy Coloring

Contents
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW.......................................................1 Coloring power at your fingertips ..............................................................1 Working more easily...................................................................................1 Loading and handling of files.....................................................................2 Customized Colorways View ......................................................................2 Color Control .............................................................................................3 Print-Outs ...................................................................................................4 Our primary concerns ................................................................................4 BEFORE YOU BEGIN................................................................................7 STRUCTURE OF THE GUIDE .............................................................................7 TERMS AND CONVENTIONS ............................................................................8 BASIC WINDOWS CONCEPTS ..........................................................................9 HELP .............................................................................................................12 INSTALLATION AND UNINSTALLATION ........................................13 INSTALLATION ..............................................................................................13 UNINSTALLING THE SOFTWARE....................................................................16 TUTORIAL ................................................................................................17 HELPFUL HINTS ............................................................................................21 To copy a color palette from one design to another .................................21 How to do it ..............................................................................................21 THE MAIN WINDOW..............................................................................23 POP-UP MENUS .............................................................................................25 GROUP COLOR AREA POP-UP MENU ............................................................25 MAIN VIEW POP-UP MENU ...........................................................................28 Display Repeat..........................................................................................28 Zoom .........................................................................................................28 Display/Define Backcolor.........................................................................29 Visualize Film Options .............................................................................29 Options for the current color (and for others in its group)....................30 Options for the remaining colors (background) ....................................30 Image properties ...................................................................................31

Contents
CURRENT COLORWAY PALETTE POP-UP MENU .......................................... 32 ALL COLORWAYS VIEW POP-UP MENU ...................................................... 33 MENUS....................................................................................................... 35 FILE MENU................................................................................................... 35 Overview .................................................................................................. 35 Open......................................................................................................... 36 Close ........................................................................................................ 38 Save.......................................................................................................... 38 Save As..................................................................................................... 38 The File Format tab ............................................................................ 40 The Image Parameters tab................................................................... 41 Project Properties.................................................................................... 41 The Image Properties button.............................................................. 43 The Calibration Environment button................................................. 46 Page Setup... ............................................................................................ 46 Print Preview ........................................................................................... 48 Print...................................................................................................... 48 The Printer section............................................................................. 49 The Print to file option....................................................................... 50 The Page Range section..................................................................... 52 The Colorway Selection button ......................................................... 53 The Copies section ............................................................................ 55 The Postscript Optimization Option .................................................. 55 The Page Options button ................................................................... 56 The 'Area Selection' button .................................................................. 59 Print Color Chart..................................................................................... 62 Print Absolute Vision Color Chart ................................................... 62 Print Color Chart .............................................................................. 65 Printing the Vision PCR Atlas ......................................................... 65 Preferences .............................................................................................. 67 The 'General' tab................................................................................... 68 The 'Display' tab................................................................................... 70 The 'Colorway' tab ............................................................................... 72 The 'File' tab ......................................................................................... 73 Color Settings .......................................................................................... 74 The 'Color Calibration' tab ................................................................... 75 The 'Additional files' tab ...................................................................... 80

Easy Coloring
Exit............................................................................................................82 EDIT MENU ...................................................................................................83 Undo .........................................................................................................83 Redo..........................................................................................................83 VIEW MENU..................................................................................................85 Zoom In.....................................................................................................85 Zoom Out ..................................................................................................85 Standard Toolbar......................................................................................86 Colorway Toolbar.....................................................................................86 View Toolbar ............................................................................................86 Colors Toolbar .........................................................................................86 Status Bar .................................................................................................87 Zoom Toolbar ...........................................................................................87 View All Bars ............................................................................................87 Hide All Bars ............................................................................................87 COLORWAYS MENU .....................................................................................89 New Colorway ..........................................................................................89 Duplicate Colorway..................................................................................90 Automatic Colorway Conversion..............................................................91 Delete Colorway.......................................................................................92 Next Colorway and Previous Colorway ...................................................92 COLORS MENU .............................................................................................93 Color Channels.........................................................................................94 Color Channels Pop-Up Menu..............................................................95 HSV...................................................................................................95 RGB...................................................................................................96 CMY..................................................................................................96 CMYK...............................................................................................97 hCL....................................................................................................97 XYZ...................................................................................................98 Lab.....................................................................................................98 CMYK%............................................................................................99 Colored ..............................................................................................99 Enhanced Display..............................................................................99 Color Mixer ............................................................................................100 Copy Color .............................................................................................100 Swap Colors............................................................................................101 Gradient Between Two Colors ...............................................................102 Vision Color Chart .................................................................................102

Contents
Vision Color Chart ............................................................................. 103 Absolute Vision Color Chart.............................................................. 105 Absolute Chart Lab Mode .............................................................. 106 Vision PCR Atlas ............................................................................... 107 Pantone .................................................................................................. 109 Color Grouping...................................................................................... 110 How to Create Color Groups.............................................................. 112 Changing colors with Color Grouping ............................................... 113 Color Grouping for textile simulations .............................................. 114 The Color Grouping pop-up menu ..................................................... 114 Color Adjustment ................................................................................... 114 Keeping some of the colors the same................................................. 118 Selecting propositions for use in your project.................................... 119 Working With Group Colors.............................................................. 120 Coloring Assistant.................................................................................. 121 Displaying and creating propositions................................................. 122 Choosing the creation method............................................................ 123 Keeping some of the colors the same................................................. 124 Selecting or rejecting propositions for your project........................... 125 Display Group Colors ........................................................................ 126 Color Information .................................................................................. 127 New Color Atlas: creation and use........................................................ 130 What is a color atlas, and how do I use it?......................................... 130 How do I create and modify an atlas? ................................................ 130 Other ways to modify an atlas............................................................ 133 Opening, Closing and Saving Color Atlases.......................................... 134 Save Atlas and Save Atlas As....................................................... 134 Open Color Atlas................................................................................ 134 Printing an Atlas.................................................................................... 135 Recent Atlas loaded ............................................................................... 137 Close Atlas ............................................................................................. 138 CALIBRATION MENU ................................................................................. 139 Display Adviser...................................................................................... 139 Printer Adviser....................................................................................... 141 Display Calibration Assistant ................................................................ 146 Printer Calibration Assistant................................................................. 146 Calibration Assistant ............................................................................. 147 WINDOW MENU ......................................................................................... 151

Easy Coloring
Cascade ..................................................................................................151 Tile Horizontally.....................................................................................151 Tile Vertically .........................................................................................152 Tile Options.........................................................................................152 Automatic Tile.........................................................................................153 Arrange Icons .........................................................................................153 HELP MENU ................................................................................................155 Help Topics.............................................................................................155 About Easy Coloring ... ..........................................................................155 TOOLBARS..............................................................................................157 OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................157 STANDARD TOOLBAR .................................................................................158 COLORWAY TOOLBAR ................................................................................159 New Colorway.....................................................................................159 Duplicate Colorway ............................................................................159 Previous Colorway and Next Colorway .................................................159 Delete Colorway .................................................................................160 DISPLAY TOOLBAR .....................................................................................161 Cascade ..................................................................................................161 Tile Horizontally.....................................................................................161 Tile Vertically .........................................................................................161 View Film................................................................................................161 COLORS TOOLBAR ......................................................................................163 Color Channels.......................................................................................163 Color Mixer ............................................................................................163 Copy Color .............................................................................................163 Swap Colors............................................................................................164 Degrade Color........................................................................................164 Color Grouping ......................................................................................164 Color Adjustment....................................................................................164 Coloring Assistant ..................................................................................164 Color Information...................................................................................165 Absolute Vision Color Chart ..................................................................165 Pantone...................................................................................................165 Color Atlases ..........................................................................................165 ZOOM TOOLBAR .........................................................................................166 Life size...................................................................................................166 Zoom Drop-down....................................................................................166

Contents
Zoom slider ............................................................................................ 167 Zoom In.................................................................................................. 167 Zoom Out ............................................................................................... 167 Centering the image on mouse-cursor position ..................................... 168 Repeat Count.......................................................................................... 169 Status Bar............................................................................................... 169 BROWSING THUMBNAIL VIEWS .................................................... 171 BROWSE POP-UP MENU ............................................................................. 172 FASHION STUDIO COMMUNICATION LAYOUT ........................................... 173 GLOSSARY ............................................................................................. 175 APPENDIX A: SUGGESTION SHEET FOR EASY COLORING ... 179 APPENDIX B: ANOMALY REPORT FOR EASY COLORING...... 181 INDEX ...................................................................................................... 183

Easy Coloring

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

The epitome of every visual design is rich, lively, sumptuous color that can be modified, adjusted and changed ad infinitum. Color is the heart and soul of every design created. Vision Easy Coloring offers designers everywhere the adequate tools to celebrate a brilliant color feast.

Centered around a Current Colorway Main View and an All Colorways View to one side, everything you need is at your fingertips, as we reveal below in this brief overview of the application. With Vision Easy Coloring you can show off your coloring talent more poignantly and more easily than ever before.

Coloring power at your fingertips

Color comes alive before your eyes and in your fast moving hands - drag and drop intuitively, in a flash - from one colorway to the next. Create, modify or adjust colorways swiftly - or load a variety of image formats and use the existent variety of powerful, yet versatile, coloring tools for colorway modification. Vision Easy Coloring offers you the option of working with a calibration scheme, or with no calibration. Use the Kodak calibration environment, which employs generic monitor and printer profiles, to better match the colors on your screen with the colors of your printouts.

Working more easily

Owing to the multi-project capable Windows architecture, you can keep several different projects on-screen at a time and transfer colors instantaneously between them.

Introduction and Overview

Customize the main view from the View menu, and drag and drop dialog boxes and toolbars anywhere you like. The palette of each colorway appears just below the associated image. To customize the palette, click with your right mouse button to obtain a pop-up menu. Take advantage of the on-line help, interactive tooltips and status bar information about colors and functions.

Loading and handling of files

Using the New command , you can load an image created in almost any other graphics program, or an image scanned and processed using an application such as Color Reduction and Cleaning. Alternatively, use the to load an existing file of any of the following file Open command types: ECP, TIFF, TGA, HR2, BMP or DIB. Speed up your choice of files for these commands by visual selection in a special Browser window in which all files are displayed as thumbnail views . After opening your file, choose suitable Image Properties, including resolution, image size, repeat type, etc. The multitude of repeat types available are based on straight, horizontally or vertically stepped repeats (any step value you like), in flipped, mirrored, or flipped and mirrored combinations.

Customized Colorways View

Vision Easy Colorings customizable display lets you work with several colorways at a time. With one colorway filling the main view of your screen, make the others appear in a scrollable All Colorways View to the side. Change which colorway is shown in the main view at the click of a button, and simply drag the border to reduce or enlarge your All Colorways View. 2

Easy Coloring
Display palettes for your colorways to suit your preferences, and include the color names and Vision Color Codes at will. To add a new, uncolored colorway, ready for your colorful imagination to , or, to create subtle work on, simply click the New Colorway button variations of an existing colorway, click the Duplicate Current Colorway button . The Color Adjustment tool provides a rapid method of generating new colorways, for which you use intuitive criteria such as "Warmer" or "Paler" in relation to the current colorway, to create a progressive range of coloris yet another sophisticated adjusted solutions. The Coloring Assistant tool for colorway creation, which generates random colors within precise, customizable limits, or which operates by changing the order of existing colors taken from the current colorway.

Color Control
Get to work with toolbar or menu commands and bring to life a creative panoply of new colorways: or seek the Mix and match intuitively from the Color Mixer independence of three separate slider controls with the Color Channels for interactive creation of colors, using the HSV or RGB color system. If you prefer, the Color Channels let you simply enter the Vision code for the color you require in the field below the sliders. For additional control over colors, modify them in the same way using . For example, imagine that your design uses four shades color grouping of red to produce the highlights and shadows of a red rose. Using color grouping you can change just one of the reds to transform the entire red rose into a yellow rose having the same balance of highlights and shadows. to replace a fabric color with any color Use the Copy Color command taken from anywhere else in the project.

Introduction and Overview

, for The fine selection of other coloring tools includes Swap Colors exchanging two screen or fabric colors, and Gradient Between Two , for creating a gradation of color chips between two colors you Colors select on any colorway palette. Naturally enough, you can drag and drop colors to any colorway from the color libraries, or from your own or and Pantone integral Vision . Share the atlases with all the your companys color atlas collections other Fashion Studio applications such as Design & Repeat.

Print-Outs
As you might expect, when it comes to printing you also have total control. Choose individual colorways and print them with or without their palettes, at life size or using fit to page. Or why not print just a small area of a colorway using Area Selection, or just one or two repeats? Have your copies collated, and divide large images automatically between sheets with auto cutting. Choose to print a variety of reference information, such as names, titles, dates, color codes, printer data and so on. You can also print some or all pages of the Vision Color Chart as a portable reference of your printer gamut. is the perfect tool for With so many options available, Print Preview trying out your preferred print setup before you print out the final, pristine result.

Our primary concerns

Our primary concerns are not only to meet your commercial needs, but also to make our software applications as easy to use as possible. You can therefore be sure of quickly mastering Vision Easy Coloring.. To help you along, weve provided a glossary at the end of this guide, explaining various coloring and computing terms you may need, as well as an index for ready reference. 4

Easy Coloring
You will find a complete description of how to use Vision Easy Coloring in the main section of this guide, which begins with a description of the main window of the application and follows with a tutorial. Just before you get started, we invite you to take a look at the preliminary sections, which deal with Terms and Conventions, Basic Windows Concepts, Installation and Uninstallation, and Help. Get coloring!

Before You Begin

Easy Coloring

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Structure of the Guide
You will find a detailed description of how to use Vision Easy Coloring beginning with a Tutorial and a description of the Main Window, to help you become familiar with the Easy Coloring interface. We also recommend reading the preliminary sections on Terms and Conventions, Basic Windows Concepts, Help, Installation and Uninstallation. To help you along, we have provided an index and a glossary at the end for ready reference.

Before You Begin

Terms and Conventions

For a description of the principal Windows terms and concepts needed for Vision Easy Coloring see Basic Windows Concepts. For the purposes of writing this guide, the following terms and conventions have been used:

Command names are printed in bold with the first letter of each word capitalized. Sections of this guide are also indicated by bold text. For example, the instruction refer to the Standard Toolbar for the All Undo command shows that there is a section about the Standard Toolbar, and a sub-section about the All Undo command. There is a sub-section for each command. For page numbers refer to the table of Contents at the beginning of this guide, or to the Index at the end. Key names are printed in ordinary capitals, for example, the Enter key is designated by ENTER.

Symbols:
This symbol indicates very important information This symbol is followed by remarks and advice for avoiding common problems and for saving time.

This symbol is followed by a reference to related information.

Combinations and sequences of keys:

A plus sign (+) inserted between key names, indicates that the keys should be pressed simultaneously. For example, "press SHIFT + W" indicates that W is to be pressed while holding down SHIFT. A comma (,) inserted between key names indicates that the key names are to be pressed one after the other. For example, "press ALT, SPACE BAR" indicates that ALT is to be pressed and released, and then the SPACE BAR is to be pressed and released.

Easy Coloring

Basic Windows Concepts

As this software has been developed under the Windows environment, you will need to be familiar with basic Windows concepts and functions. If this is not the case, please refer to the Windows help and tutorial provided with your system. Some of the basic Windows concepts and functions referred to in this guide include: Click: to click an item means to place the mouse pointer or cursor over the item, and to press and then release the left mouse button without moving the mouse. You click to choose or select an item, or to operate a tool. Double-click: to double click an item means to click it rapidly two times. This action is used in certain selection procedures and for launching certain functions. Drag: to drag means to move the mouse while holding down the left button. This action is used with certain tools to select an area of the screen, and also forms part of the action drag and drop. Drag and Drop: to drag and drop an item means to click the item, drag to a new position on the screen, and then release the mouse button, so that the item is moved to the new position. You can move whole windows with this technique by dragging and dropping the title bar, similarly drag and drop the edge of a toolbar to move it to a different location on the screen. Right Click: to click the right mouse button when the cursor is over the area of the screen you are using. Typically this is in order to obtain a popup menu (See Pop-Up menus). Owing to the Windows interface, it is possible to have several files open at once, in which case several working windows will be displayed on the screen. Equally, for some programs, it may be possible to have several views of the same project open at the same time as separate windows. However, we advise against having too many files open at the same time in order that all windows are at least partially visible.

Before You Begin

The title bar of the main window displays the name of the program. The title bars of the different project views show the project file name. The active window has a blue title bar. To switch between the various open windows, just click the desired window. The status bar at the bottom of the screen displays information about the use of individual toolbar buttons and menu commands. For this information, simply move the mouse pointer over the toolbar button or menu command concerned. You can close a window or a particular view of your project by clicking on its close button , in which case you will have to choose New Window from the Window menu to regenerate that view if you require it again later. You may prefer therefore just to minimize the view to a small icon at the bottom of the screen by clicking its minimize icon . To tidy up the window icons, select Window Arrange Icons. The window icons are now lined up with each other along the bottom of the screen. Restore a view to its former size by clicking its restore icon . If you wish a view to fill the entire screen (covering the other views temporarily), click its maximize . icon To adjust the size of a view more precisely, move the mouse pointer over a horizontal or vertical border of the view, so that the pointer changes into a . Now drag the border to enlarge or reduce the double headed arrow size of the view. Note that certain functions can be activated by clicking a tool button, and de-activated by clicking the button again. To choose from a drop-down box, click the down arrow to list the contents of the box, and then click one of the items in the list to choose it.

10

Easy Coloring
To change a value in a field with spin arrows, click the up or down arrow to increase or decrease the value. Alternatively, double-click the existing value, press DEL to delete it, then type in a value of your choice Finally we advise you to refer to the section of this guide on The Main Window, to become familiar with the Easy Coloring interface.

11

Before You Begin

Help
Vision Easy Coloring may include an on-line help. This operates as follows: To find information about a dialog box, click its Help button (if available). To look up information choose Help Topics from the Help menu and then click on one of the tabs: The Contents tab to see the topic headings. Double-click a heading to see the help topics it contains. Double-click a topic to obtain access to it. The Index tab to use the subject index. The Search tab to search for a term not contained in the index. Click the Whats this? button help on its use. (if available), then on any item for

Move the mouse pointer over a toolbar button or menu command. After a moments pause, a tooltip appears next to the button. A more detailed prompt appears on the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen for both toolbar buttons and menu commands.

12

Easy Coloring

INSTALLATION AND UNINSTALLATION

Installation
A wizard is included on your installation CD, which makes installation straightforward. Before you begin, however, we strongly recommend you to read the following general description of the installation procedure. The first step of the installation procedure is to find the dongle and the access code supplied with your software.
During the installation procedure, or the first time you run an application, you will be asked to enter the access code. Be sure to type in the code exactly as given i.e. using upper case and/or lower case in exactly the same way. In case you do not have this code, please contact us at the nearest NedGraphics address given on the cover of this guide. You will need to tell us the number written on your dongle, the name of each application you have purchased, and, if you have this information, the STEP number associated with the applications.

The dongle is a hard lock key in the form of a plug, which is essential for the software to work. Before installation you must insert the dongle into the parallel port of your computer, where it will remain permanently. Preferably you should attach the dongle while your computer is turned off. You can then connect your printer cable to the end of the dongle if you normally use a printer on that port.
The parallel port comprises two rows of holes, 25 holes in all. If there is already a parallel dongle connected to the parallel port, simply add the new dongle to the end of it. If you are using an USB type of dongle, connect it to your free USB port. Note that USB ports do NOT function on a computer running under Windows NT.

13

Installation and Uninstallation

If the other end of the printer cable is attached to your printer, the printer must be switched on or the dongle will not allow your software to be used. In case you should have any difficulty in printing, you may need to use a second parallel port for your printer.

Next, start your computer under Windows.

If you are using Windows NT4 or Windows 2000 the account you log on with must have administrator rights. Should you encounter any difficulty, please ask your system administrator to log on for you.

If you have any other applications running, you are strongly advised to close them before beginning installation. Now insert your installation CD into the CD-ROM drive of your computer. After a few moments, a start-up screen should appear automatically. On some systems the installation CD may not launch automatically. To launch the CD in this case you will have to open your Windows Explorer. You will then have various alternatives: Right-click on the CD drive, and choose AutoPlay from the pop-up menu that appears. In case this is unsuccessful, look for a file with a name similar to Winsetup.exe. Double-click this to launch the CD.

When you get to the start-up screen, you may find a range of options that you can click on for demonstrations, information and installation of your software. If you choose to proceed with an installation, a wizard will take you through a series of screens until you arrive at a dialog box containing a list of the available applications to install. By default, these may all be selected. In this case it will be essential to de-select some of the applications by clicking on them, to leave only those which you have purchased and which you wish to install. Use the scroll bar at the side of the dialog box to move through the list. Note that it may be appropriate to select one or more of the following elements, if available : 14

Easy Coloring
Basics : If this option is available, and there is not currently any other Vision software installed on your system, you will need to install this. Sentinel, or another hard lock device driver : If this option is available, and there is not currently any other Vision software installed on your system, you will also need to install this. Tutorial files : These include sample image files that you can use with the applications you are about to install.

At the end of the installation procedure, you will usually be asked if you wish to re-boot your computer immediately, or later. It is advisable to reboot immediately to avoid any possible problems in running the installed applications later on. To run one of the applications you have installed, click the Start button of Windows, and choose Programs from the menu which appears. Then choose the name of your Vision software suite from the next menu, which will display a list of the installed applications such as the following:

Click the application that you wish to run.

15

Installation and Uninstallation

Uninstalling the software

If you decide to uninstall Vision Easy Coloring from your computer, select Control Panel from your Start/Settings menu of the Windows status bar. In the next window that appears, double-click the Add/Remove programs icon. As a result you will get the following dialog box:

At the Install/Uninstall tab click to select the Easy Coloring from the list. The Add/Remove button will become active. Click it to start the uninstall procedure. A warning message box will ask again for your confirmation. Click OK to continue the uninstallation.

16

Easy Coloring

TUTORIAL
This tutorial is a brief overview of the common types of operations that can be performed using Easy Coloring. This chapter is designed to teach the basics of Easy Coloring, but is not supposed to be an in-depth description of available functions. We suggest that you follow the examples given here and then proceed in the same way with other fabric designs. The design we are going to use is called Cornelia and is of a .hr2 file type. Launch the program from Windows by double clicking on the Easy Coloring icon . The Main Window of the system appears. Click on the button in the upper right hand corner of the window to enlarge the window to its full size. Open a file: Select Open from the File menu. A dialog box appears on the screen. Find Cornelia.hr2 under Prints in the Tutorial Directory of your Fashion Studio CD. Double click on the file name to load it and display it on the screen. Duplicate the colorway in the Current Colorway Main View: Click on the Duplicate Colorway button. A dialog box appears. Click on the input area and enter the name Blue Variation,. then click OK.

17

Tutorial
An identical copy of the original colorway appears in the main view, as well as at the bottom of the other colorways in the All Colorways View. Change a color using the RGB Channels. The color chips of the new colorway are just below it in the main view. Click the purple color chip, and then on the Color Channels button on the toolbar. The blue color chip appears at the bottom of the Color Channels dialog box. Now right click the dialog box, and choose RGB from the popup menu which appears. The color adjustment bars which were labeled HSV (Hue, Saturation and Value), are now labeled RGB (Red, Green, Blue). Drag the slider for the Red adjustment bar to its uppermost position. The purple color in the dialog box as well as in the image turns to pink.

Change a color via its color code: With the Color Channels dialog box still open, click on one of the light blue color chips for the current colorway. The blue color chip now appears at the bottom of the Color Channels dialog box. Click on the input area and type in the color code 223E8H2 to replace the existing color code. All the codes are from the Vision Color Chart.

18

Easy Coloring
If you also use Printing Studio applications on your computer and if you have chosen to work with an hCL color system in these applications, this color system (hCL) will also be used by default in your Fashion Studio applications and will replace the Vision Chart color codes displayed in the "Color Channels" dialog box. The same process applies for the PCR mode.

Now click on the color chip, and you will see that its color has changed.

Please refer to the topic Absolute Vision Color Chart (Colors menu) for more information about color codes.

Create a graduation between two colors: Click the Gradient Between Two Colors button .

On the color palette of the current colorway, click a first start color chip, and then a second end color chip, not immediately adjacent to the start chip The colors of all color chips located between the start and end chips have now changed so that all the chips together form a graduation of color. Save the file Choose Save As from the File menu. To save your work as a separate project from the original design, type a different name in the input area. Click Save. Create a new colorway.

Click the New Colorway button

on the toolbar.

In the dialog box which appears, enter a name for the new colorway, and click OK.

19

Tutorial
The new colorways appears in the project main view and in the All Colorways View to the side. New colorways created in this way are initially in shades of gray only, ready for coloring to begin.

Working with Pantone Colors. Click the Pantone button on the toolbar.

A library of Pantone colors appears on the screen. Place the mouse pointer over the scroll arrows on the upper right corner of the dialog box , and keep your mouse button pressed until find page 1029. In the image of the current colorway, the rose is currently made up of various shades of blue. Now drag and drop various shades of pink onto the rose to replace the blue colors. A color is dropped at the location of the tip of the mouse pointer. If you make a mistake, press CTRL + Z to undo the last action. You can also drag and drop Pantone colors directly to the color chip of any colorway.

Save your work. Save your project by clicking on the Save button.

20

Easy Coloring

Helpful hints
To copy a color palette from one design to another
Imagine that you have already created some colorways in a project called Alpha, and you think it would be a good idea to give the same colors to another project called Beta. Alpha has 5 colors in each colorway, and 3 good colorways Beta has 4 colors, but no coloring work has been performed on it.

How to do it
Open Alpha with the good colorways Choose Open from the File menu. Go to the appropriate folder in the dialog box which appears Select Alpha in the File Name field Click OK

Open Beta following the same procedure. Choose Tile Horizontally from the Windows menu. The Alpha and Beta windows will appear one above the other
If you have some other files already open they are going to be arranged horizontally too. Close the files you dont want to work with.

21

Tutorial
Drag and drop the color palette from Alpha to Beta : Put the mouse pointer under the palette of a colorway in the All Colorways View of Alpha, and then drag and drop onto a target palette of one of the Beta colorways. As you start to drag, a palette icon appears at the end of pointer as shown to show that the whole palette is being copied across. The colors take the same place and the same order in the palette of Beta as they had in their original design. You can repeat these steps to replace all the colors in Beta.

Refer to Windows Terms and Conventions for more information about Drag and Drop. Colors are replaced from left to right in the target palette. If the target palette has more colors than those of the palette being copied over, the extra colors remain unaltered.

To save a modified project, select Save from the File menu.

It is also possible to activate this tool by pressing CTRL + S.

22

Easy Coloring

THE MAIN WINDOW

The following picture illustrates the different parts of the Easy Coloring main window.

The largest part of the display is occupied by the Current Colorway Main View. Any colorways which have been created are shown in the All Colorways View, on the right of the display. Clicking on one of the colorways in the All Colorways View selects it as the current colorway, consequently it appears in the Current Colorway Main View.

23

The Main Window

The form of the Current Colorway Main View and All Colorways View can be customized via respective pop-up menus, which may be obtained by right-clicking over the view concerned.

For details of the pop-up menus, see Main View Pop-up Menu below in this section.

A color palette appears immediately under the colorway image, and contains color chips for all the colors in the image. Right-click over the palette to obtain a pop-up menu for customizing the palette so as to display color numbers and other data.

To facilitate the modification of colors, you may wish to use the Color Grouping command (Colors menu).

When you click on a color in the Current Colorway Main View or on its color chip on the Color Palette, the color chip appears with a double border, which shows that it has been selected as the current color. On selecting a color of any colorway as the current color, it can be modified using a range of sophisticated coloring tools from the Colors menu and toolbars. An essential resource of colors is provided in the form of the Absolute Vision and Pantone color charts, and customized color atlases may also be created and saved.

See the topic Opening, Closing and Saving Color Atlases (Colors menu) for further details on atlases.

When displayed, the Status bar is situated across the bottom of the screen and provides a variety of ancillary information. For example, if you move the mouse pointer over a toolbar button, after a moments pause a tooltip appears next to the button, and a more detailed prompt appears on the Status bar. Other information displayed in the right hand half of the Status bar in your version of Easy Coloring may include the name and number of the colorway under the mouse pointer at any time, and the name and color code of the color under the mouse pointer at any time.

24

Easy Coloring
For a brief guide to moving, organizing and changing the size of project views and windows, please refer to Basic Windows Concepts. For details about the various menus, please refer to the Menus section. For details about the various toolbars, please refer to the Toolbars section

Pop-up Menus
By clicking the right mouse button in different areas of the screen and in certain dialog boxes it is possible to obtain a pop-up menu. These menus contain options/commands related to the clicked area of the screen, or to an operation currently being performed.

Group Color Area Pop-up Menu

This area of the main window of Vision Easy Coloring displays the main color of the color groups you may have created using the Color Grouping function in the Color menu. This feature allows you to work with the main color of the group, instead of each individual color, just as if working with the cylinder colors in Vision Simulating Printed Fabric.

See Color Grouping in the Colors menu, Menus section for more details about using this command. The availability of this feature depends upon the selection status of the Display Group Colors option in the Display tab of the Preferences function in the File menu.

See the corresponding section Preferences in the File menu, Menus section of this guide for more details about this function.

25

The Main Window

Right-clicking a group main color will pop up the corresponding popup menu, as follows:

26

Easy Coloring
This menu is very similar to the corresponding menu for the color palette, only this time some commands refer to the group main color instead of the individual color of the group.

See Current Colorway Palette Popup Menu below in this section for details about these commands.

Main color selection: this command pops up the main color criterion selection that is also obtained using the Options' button in the dialog window of the Color Grouping function in the Colors menu.

See Color Grouping in the Colors menu, Menus section for more details about this function.

27

The Main Window

Main View Pop-up Menu

This pop-up menu is obtained by right-clicking in the Current Colorway Main View (the main view of the currently selected colorway).

Display Repeat
If the Display Repeat command has been selected, it appears with a tick symbol in front of it, and the image is displayed according to the repeat type selected in the Image Properties dialog box. If unselected, a single repeat only is displayed. Selecting the Image Properties entry enables you to set different characteristics of the image, such as resolution, dimensions and repeat type.

For an explanation of the Image Properties command please refer to Project Properties (File menu).

Zoom
To change the zoom factor of the Current Colorway Main View, choose one of the zoom factors available from the extension menu which appears on selecting the Zoom command. If a tick symbol appears in front of the word Custom in the extension menu, this indicates that an alternative zoom factor has been chosen from the Zoom Toolbar.

28

Easy Coloring Display/Define Backcolor

The background, which frames the palette color chips, will have the default Windows setting (gray) unless you define a different background color. To do this, use the Define Backcolor command, and then click Display Backcolor to replace the default background. If you have already defined another background color in the Display tab of the Preferences dialog box, this color will be displayed but you can still modify it by choosing Define Backcolor in this pop-up menu.

On clicking Define Backcolor, the color channels appear. See Color Channels (Colors menu) for an explanation of their use.

Visualize Film Options

The way the selected color and the other image colors are displayed in the View Films mode depends upon the Visualize Film Options you select. These options are available from the submenu that appears on choosing Visualize Film Options from the current Colorway Main View pop-up menu. Obtain the pop-up menu by right-clicking on the Current Colorway Main View :

The options and their uses are described below.

29

The Main Window

Note that, by default, the options Film in black and Background in pastel colors are chosen for you. However, you can change the options at any time. Similarly, to select a different color at any time, click its palette color chip, or place the mouse pointer over the color in the image and press the SPACE key.

Options for the current color (and for others in its group)
Film in black Displays the currently selected color more prominently by showing it in black instead of its normal palette color. When the currently selected color is the representative color of a colours group, the all colors of the group will be shown in black, when the Active Grouping option of the grouping mode is selected.

For information on how to create a color group, please refer to the topic on (Colors menu). the Color Grouping tool

Options for the remaining colors (background)

Background in technical colors Note that the technical colors displayed are colorway independent, and always follow the numerical order of the palette. For an engraving project this gives a standardized indication of the print order. Display of the background colors in pastel shades enables the currently selected color to be seen more prominently, while still giving an indication of the true colors in the rest of the image.

Background in pastel colors

30

Easy Coloring
Background in gray levels Display of the background colors in levels of gray is a useful indication of whether the different colors are well balanced in terms of their visual impact. You may wish to load the files of different colorways in order to compare their color balance using this tool. With all the background colors in white, this option enables you to work with a color independently of the rest of the design

Monochrome

Image properties
When choosing this command, the Image properties dialog box will be displayed on your screen. Make all the changes necessary and then click on the OK button to apply the modifications to your project image.

See Project Properties for further information on the "Image properties" window.

31

The Main Window

Current Colorway Palette Pop-up Menu

This pop-up menu is obtained by rightclicking over any part of the palette of the current colorway (i.e. the palette of the colorway appearing in the main view). For the palette color chips to be numbered in order, choose Display Color Reference. To display the names of the colors under their color chips, choose Display Color Name.

If the colors are Pantone colors, they will have Pantone names by default. See Pantone (Colors menu) for further information.

Similarly, to display the name of the colorway on the palette, choose Display Colorway Name. The background which frames the color chips of each palette will have the default Windows setting (gray) unless you define a different background color. To do this, use the Define Backcolor command, and then click Display Backcolor to replace the default background.

On clicking Define Backcolor, the Color Channels appear. See Color Channels (Colors menu) for an explanation of their use.

To change or designate the name of a color, choose Change Color Name. Similarly, to change or designate the name of the current colorway, choose Change Colorway Name. From the extension menu which appears on choosing Color Options you can also determine the shape of the color chips

32

Easy Coloring

All Colorways View Pop-Up Menu

This pop-up menu is obtained by right-clicking in any part of the All Colorways View, which is displayed on the right side of the screen. Choose Main View Options for the display parameters of the main view (selected from its own pop-up menu) to be applied to the All Colorways View. Otherwise, choose one or more colorway elements to be displayed from the choices Display Image, Display Colors and Display Name. To change the name of the group, choose the Change Group Name command. Please note that this command is only available in case you have selected the Display Group Colors option. To change or designate the name of the colorway, choose Change Colorway Name. To change the name of a screen color, first click the screen icon concerned, and then choose Change Color Name. The background, which frames both the channel color chips and the fabric and screen color chips, will have the default Windows setting (gray) unless you define a different background color. To do this, use the Define Backcolor command, and then click Display Backcolor to replace the default background.

33

The Main Window

On clicking Define Backcolor, the Color Channels appear. Channels (Colors menu) for an explanation of their use. See Color

The Delete the Colorway command enables you to delete a colorway of your choice, proceeding as follows: Place the mouse pointer over the colorway to be deleted, Right click to obtain the pop-up menu, Choose the Delete Colorway command.

Display Group Colors: click to select this command if you want group representative colors displayed under the colorway thumb in the All Colorways View. A checkmark will appear in front of the command to show selection. Click again to deselect and display all the palette colors again.

34

Easy Coloring

MENUS
File Menu

Overview
The File menu contains commands which operate on a project as a whole, and which in particular enable you to: Create or open a project; Set various general preferences; Save a project in one or more versions; Print part or all of a project in the desired form; Exit from the application.

35

Menus Open...
Use this command to open a file youve previously worked on with Easy Coloring. It may also be used to open several other image file types, such as TIFF, TGA and BMP, as well as proprietary NedGraphics file types, such as HR2, DES and PAT. To open the file, click the Open icon on the Standard toolbar or choose Open from the File menu. The Open dialog box appears as follows:

To find the image file you wish to use, you may need to click the Up One Level button several times to climb the folder tree. Alternatively click the down arrow of the Look in field to show the folder tree and then click the part of the tree where you want to go to. Double-clicking a folder shows its contents and allows you to move down the folder tree. From the File of type field drop-down box, select the specific file type you are looking for. A design that has been created using Easy Coloring will have the ECP file type. Common file types of 36

Easy Coloring
other images that you may use to create your design include TIFF, TGA, BMP, leadtools formats as GIF, JPEG, RAS etc. as well as the proprietary NedGraphics HR2, DES and PAT file types. The Browse button displays thumbnails of all the image files in the current folder, and is invaluable if you dont know the file name of the image you are searching for. For instructions on its use, please refer to the topic Browsing Thumbnail Views. Click the desired file name so that it appears in the File name field, and then click the Open button.
If the image is not in 256 color format, Easy Coloring will convert to this format automatically.

After clicking the Open button your project should appear in the main view as illustrated in this guide under The Main Window with one or more colorways in the All Colorways View.

See Project Properties (File menu) to set the repeat type and size for your image. Refer to the Colorways menu to generate new colorways, move colors and create graduations of color. Refer to the Colors menu to modify colors and access atlases and the Vision and Pantone color charts. Refer to the Color Settings menu entry (File menu) to set the calibration for your printer and display, ensuring thus an optimal reproduction of color on these devices. A file youve worked on recently in Easy Coloring can also be opened by selecting it from the bottom of the File menu, which shows a selection of recently opened files.

37

Menus Close
To close the file you are working on select Close from the File menu or click the Close button at the upper right corner of each open window of your project. You will be given the opportunity to save the project before it closes.

Save
To save a project you are working on, choose Save from the File menu, or click on the corresponding toolbar button.. If you are saving your document for the first time, the Save command operates like the Save As command (also on the File menu).

Save As...
To save a project for the first time, or to save an existing project with a new name, click Save As in the File menu. The Save As dialog box appears as follows:

38

Easy Coloring
To move through the folder hierarchy either click the Up One Level to go up one level or double-click a folder to show the button sub-folders it contains. Alternatively click the down arrow of the Look in field to show the folder tree and then click the part of the tree where you want to go to. If you wish to create a new folder in which to save your project, you must first double-click the folder in which the new folder is to be located. The folder appears in the Save in field at the top of the to create dialog box. Now click the Create New Folder button the new folder. It appears with a default name New Folder, highlighted in blue. Type the name of your choice directly on the keyboard, replacing the default name. Now double-click the folder in which you wish to save your project, so that its name appears in the Save in field. Next type the name that you wish to use for your project in the File name field. It is not necessary to add a file type extension to the end of the name. By default, Easy Coloring projects are saved with the extension .ECP. If you prefer to save your project in another graphic format, select in the Save as type drop-down box the desired format from the available other choices:

An Options button then appears in the dialog box. Click on it and make your choices as follows:

39

Menus
The File Format tab
Clicking the Options button of this dialog box will bring up the following dialog box, which further permits you to select options for saving your work:

Available functions from the File Format tab allow you to: Select the colors range and a compression type for the image file you wish to save, Select whether to export the color palette along with the image file.

Depending on the format in which you choose to save your image file, different options will be available in the Colors and the Compression sections of this dialog. Click the Export color palette along with the file check-box to save the color palette as a stand-alone file, having the same name as the image file, but a different extension. In case you are enabling this option you will also have to select an appropriate palette format from among those available from the Palette format drop-down box.

40

Easy Coloring
The Image Parameters tab
By clicking the Image Parameters tab you are further permitted to select various parameters, such as resolution unit, size, repeat type and, when appropriate, step value of your image.

For a more detailed description of the functions available in the "Image Parameters" tab, please refer to the Image Properties section of this manual (Project Properties function in the File menu).

After having selected the appropriate values for the different fields, click the OK button or press ENTER to return to the Save As dialog box. Finally click Save to save your work.

Project Properties
The Project Properties dialog box gives access to general settings relating to the form in which a project is saved, image parameters such as repeat type and resolution. On choosing Project Properties from the File menu, the following dialog box appears : 41

Menus

Clicking on the main buttons gives access to specific dialog boxes as described in the next sections.

42

Easy Coloring
The Image Properties button
If you click on the Image Properties button, the following dialog box appears on your screen enabling to define several parameters for your project image, as described below:

The values displayed in the Width and Height fields are for the size of a single repeat of your image, and the values given depend upon the units you choose from the Units drop-down box. For example, if you choose Millimeter as the unit, the Width and Height fields will show the physical dimensions of the repeat in millimeters. If you increase or decrease the resolution (Resolution field), note that the image becomes correspondingly more compact or more spread out, and the physical dimensions displayed change to reflect this. 43

Menus
If, however, you choose Pixel as the unit from the Units drop-down box, the Width and Height fields will show the dimensions of the repeat in terms of the data (pixels) contained in the original image on which the project was based. This is not a physical size, and does not therefore change if you change the resolution. In addition to Pixels, you can also choose various metric units, inches and thou (thousandths of an inch) from the Units drop-down box. The units for the value displayed in the Resolution field are chosen from the Resolution unit drop-down box. Available choices include dots per inch (DPI) and points per meter, centimeter and millimeter (PPM, PPCm and PPMm). A typical choice for the resolution would be a value of 150 DPI, but if your design contains very fine details, or if you wish to print a very high quality image, 300 DPI would be more appropriate. Note, however, that your file size will be considerably larger with a resolution of 300 DPI than 150 DPI. Next go to the Repeat section of the dialogue box. Choose the basic repeat type from the drop-down box, and choose whether the repeat will be flipped and/or mirrored from the check boxes. For repeat types having an offset of the rows or columns, you can adjust the amount of offset by changing the figures in the Step field. When the step is shown as 1 / 2, for example, an offset of half a repeat is given. Click the arrows to increase or decrease the given values, or type your chosen values directly in the fields. Instead of choosing the repeat type directly in the Repeat section, click the View Repeats button. This enables you to choose by selecting one of twelve different icons (based on the image of an apostrophe) which illustrate the different repeat types, as follows:

44

Easy Coloring

Straight Repeat

Straight Repeat, Flipped

Straight Repeat, Mirrored

Straight Repeat, Flipped and Mirrored

+RUL]RQWDOO\ 6WHSSHG 5HSHDW

+RUL]RQWDOO\ 6WHSSHG 5HSHDW )OLSSHG

+RUL]RQWDOO\ 6WHSSHG 5HSHDW 0LUURUHG

Horizontally Stepped Repeat, Flipped and Mirrored

9HUWLFDOO\ 6WHSSHG 5HSHDW

9HUWLFDOO\ 6WHSSHG 5HSHDW )OLSSHG

9HUWLFDOO\ 6WHSSHG 5HSHDW 0LUURUHG

9HUWLFDOO\ 6WHSSHG 5HSHDW )OLSSHG DQG 0LUURUHG

When Horizontal/Vertical edge duplicated is checked in View Repeats dialog box, there will be two identical rows of pixels at the boarder between two adjacent flipped or mirrored repeats, one being an exact flipped/mirrored reproduction of the other. Especially when the reflected or flipped repeats are exactly adjacent (i.e. not in a stepped relationship), this may be undesirable. To delete one of the rows leave the check box blank. Click on the repeat type icon of your choice, then Click OK to return to the Image Properties dialog box. The selections shown in the Repeat section of the dialog box are updated immediately. 45

Menus
When you have made your choices in the Image Properties dialog box, click OK to return to the Project Properties dialog box.

The Calibration Environment button

This button takes you to the Color Settings dialog box. For further information on this, please refer to the topic Color Settings (File menu). When you have finished with each of the functions accessible from the Project Properties dialog box, click its OK button.

Page Setup...
To change the way in which your project will be printed, select Page Setup from the File menu. The following dialog box appears :

46

Easy Coloring
The Name field in the Printer section displays the name of the printer which is currently selected for printing your work. Click the down arrow at the end of the Name field to choose an alternative printer. Alternatively, if your computer is connected to a network, click the Network button to select a network printer. When selected, the name of the network printer will be displayed in the Name field. Other details about the selected printer are displayed in the Printer section. If the State of the printer is shown as not being ready, check the printer, for example to make sure it isnt out of paper or ink, and to make sure it is switched to on-line. Choose the size and source of paper from the Paper section, and click Portrait or Landscape in the Orientation section.
Depending on the particular model of your installed printer, you may be able to set some other print parameters from the dialog box that appears when you click the "Properties" button. For an explanation of the choices available in that dialog box, please refer to the documentation for the printer concerned.

Click the OK button to close the Print Setup dialog box and to save any changes made. Click the Cancel button to close the dialog box without saving changes.

47

Menus Print Preview

Click the Print Preview button or choose Print Preview from the File menu to see how your project will appear when printed using the current print settings.
You can change the current print settings by clicking the Print button on the toolbar or by selecting Print from the File menu. Choose your print settings from the "Print" dialog box that appears, and make any desired changes to the settings accessible on clicking the "Properties" and "Page Options" buttons in the dialog box. Finally quit the "Print" dialog box without printing by clicking the "Close" button. See Print (File menu) if you require further details concerning the settings. The quality setting in the Page Options dialog window of the Print function will be also used by the Print Preview function, the displayed image being processed according to the current quality level.

See the Print function for more information about the Quality setting.

Print
To print one or more colorways of your project, select Print from the File menu or click the corresponding toolbar button. The keyboard shortcut for the command is CTRL + P. The following dialog box appears on the screen enabling you to set various parameters as described below :

48

Easy Coloring

The Printer section

The Name field in the Printer section of the dialog box displays the name of the printer that is currently selected for printing your work. Click the down arrow at the end of the Name field to choose an alternative printer. If the State of the printer is shown as not being ready, check the printer, for example to make sure it isnt out of paper or ink, and to make sure it is switched to on-line.
Depending on the particular model of your installed printer, you may be able to set some other print parameters from the dialog box that appears when you click the "Properties" button. For an explanation of the choices available in that dialog box, please refer to the documentation for the printer concerned.

49

Menus
You can select a different printer using the Page Setup command (File menu). In the "Print Setup" dialog box click the "Name" drop-down box to select a different printer model from those available to you.

The Print to file option

For certain models of printers, a file must be created specifically for the purposes of printing. If you are using this type of printer, click Print to file in the Printer section. By clicking the File Options button which appears you are enabled to choose an appropriate file format, a print resolution and paper settings. On clicking the File Options button the following dialog box appears :

From the File Format tab choose an appropriate file type, color range, and, if appropriate, the compression type according to availability.
Available Color modes: For the Postscript Level 2, TGA and BMP,DIB file types: True Colors (RGB). For a TIF file type: True Colors RGB, CMYK and Lab.

50

Easy Coloring
Available Compression types: TGA: None and RLE. BMP:None TIF: None and LZW Postscript Level 2: None, RLE and LZW Some printers require true colors (i.e. 16 million colors) but this will naturally cause your file size to be much bigger than if you choose to use the standard 256 color range or monochrome. To reduce the file size you may find it convenient to use one of the available forms of compression. Note, however, that your choice of file type, color range and compression type are related. You may wish to try selecting different combinations of options in the dialog box to see which are possible. If you chose a quality level other than Normal (see The Page Options button section for more information), then you must use one of the "True Colors" options (RGB or CMYK).

Type the appropriate file path and file name in the File name field, or choose the file name and file path by clicking the Browse button . On clicking the Browse button, the Save As dialog box appears. Having made your choice of file path and file name in this dialog box, click Save to return to the File Format tab.

Refer to Save As (File menu) for guidance on the "Save As" dialog box.

Click the Image Parameters tab to choose appropriate resolution and dimension settings for your image file. It appears as follows:

51

Menus

Choose appropriate values for the dimensions of the image and the media to be printed on, for the resolution and the papers orientation.
The dimensions given in the "Width" and "Height" fields correspond to the printable area of the paper selected from the "Paper Size" drop-down box. If you select "User" as your paper size, you can enter dimensions of your choice according to the paper you have available.

For information on size settings for the project itself, please refer to Project Properties (File menu) and Change Size (Colors menu). To avoid distortion of your printed image, it is essential that the values you select from the "Resolution" section correspond to the resolution available from your printer. Typical resolutions both horizontally and vertically include 150 DPI and 300 DPI.

When you have made your choices from the File Format and Image Parameters tabs, click OK to return to the Print dialog box.

The Page Range section

In the Page range section of the dialog box, click Current Colorway to print the current colorway only. Otherwise click Selected Colorways which causes the Colorway Selection button beneath it to become active. 52

Easy Coloring
To make a selection of the colorways you wish to print, please refer to Colorway Selection button section in the topic Print (File menu).

One colorway by sheet option in the main Print dialog window: When you want to print more colorways (selected using the Colorway Selection button and dialog window), using this option will determine that each selected colorway is printed on a separate page using the size set up by the Area Selection function (if you decided to print just one area of the project image) or the options made in the Page Options dialog window (Life size). If this option is not selected, Easy Coloring will scale all the selected colorways to fit on one page, irrespective of the size parameters in the Page Options or Area Selection function.

See The Page Options button and the Area Selection button sections for more information about the available options.

The Colorway Selection button

After clicking Selected Colorways, click the Colorway Selection button to obtain the following dialog box:

53

Menus

In the Colorways Selection section of the dialog box, choose either Selected colorways or All colorways. If you chose Selected colorways, you must then select the colorways to be printed by clicking them one by one in the dialog box. Selected colorways appear in a blue frame. Click a colorway again for it to be deselected. By default all the Display Options are checked. However, if there are too many colorways to show in the dialog box at a time, you may select to display just the image, name or palette of each colorway in order to minimize use of the scroll bar on the right of the dialog box. Click OK to return to the Print dialog box when you have made your choices.

54

Easy Coloring
The Copies section
In the Copies section of the Print dialog box, choose the number of copies you wish to print. If several pages are to be printed a number of times, you may wish to click Collate. This causes the printed pages to be sorted by colorway. On selecting Collate, the pages icon to the left of the check box changes to show how the pages will be organized. If the colorways you wish to print are larger than the paper size selected, you may wish to select Auto Cutting. This automatically divides up each image between sheets, which can then be placed edge to edge to view the whole image.

The Postscript Optimization Option

The Postscript Optimization option should only be used when you use a postscript file. If you need to use this kind of file format, select this option so as to reduce the size of your file. Note that this operation will affect the print speed.

55

Menus
The Page Options button
First of all click the Page Options button at the bottom of the dialog box to choose the elements of your project that you wish to be printed. The Page Options dialog box appears as follows:

If you wish to include titles in your printout, click Print title in the Title section so that a tick appears in the check box next to it. This activates the other options in the Title section (which then no longer appear gray). You can then choose one or more of the following titles to appear at the top of your printout :

56

Easy Coloring
the project name the name of your printer the resolution used by the printer the current date and time your name (if available in your version of Easy Coloring) your companys name (if available in your version of Easy Coloring)

In the Palette section you can select whether or not to include the colorway palette in the printout. If you select it, the other options in the Palette section become active (and therefore are no longer grayed), enabling you to print one or more of the following with each palette : The name of the colorway The name of each color (if you have given names to the colors) The code of each color (assuming a color code has been given for each color).

Group color only: select this option if you want only the representative (main) colors of the color groups you may have created printed out, rather than all the individual colors of your palette. From the Palette section you can also select the position where this additional information will be printed, and from the Color Chip Size drop-down box the size of the color chip.

To modify or add color names or color codes for a particular colorway, click the Color Information button on the toolbar before using the Print command. Please refer to the Color Information command (Colors Toolbar) for further details.

In the Image section select Print image if you wish to include the colorway images in the printout. If you select Print image, the other

57

Menus
options in the Image section become active (and therefore no longer gray), giving you the following choices: Selected Area. Choose this option to print an area you have already defined using the Area Selection command in the main Print dialog window. Quality: this field offers you the possibility to print using different printing qualities, depending on your current needs. Three levels of quality are available: Perfect blending: this mode will use both the smoothing and the antialiasing processes for best printing performance. Fast blending: this printing mode uses an antialiasing process (no smoothing) for a good level of printing quality. Normal: use the normal mode (no processes applied) for a fast printing. Use this mode especially for quick printing tests, when speed is an important factor, and when you want crisp image details with sharp corners.

Note that the printing speed may be affected by the selected level of quality (lower for higher quality). The quality setting will be also used by the Print Preview function, the displayed image being processed according to the current quality level.

See Print Preview (File menu) for more information about this function.

Life size. If you check this option, all images will be printed at their true size.
If you choose to print life size a project that is larger than one page, in order to print the whole project, choose "Auto Cutting" in the "Print" dialog box. Auto cutting manages the printing operation when the image to be printed is larger than the paper size selected. The option automatically divides the image up between sheets, which can then be placed edge to edge to view the whole image. Not selecting "auto-cutting" will only print the first page.

58

Easy Coloring
To change the true size of the image, please refer to Project Properties (File menu). Note that if you use the Area Selection printing mode, the Life Size option in this dialog window will be unavailable. The Area Selection dialog window parameters offer you specific printout scaling tools (the Zoom% fields) that you can use to print in life size (use Zoom%=100).

When you have finished making your selections in the Page Options dialog box, click OK to return to the Print dialog box. When you have finished making your choices in the Print dialog box: Choose OK to launch the printing operation Choose Close save the changes for subsequent use if you re-open the dialog box later in the same session.

The Area Selection button

This function allows you to print just a selected area of your project. This will come in very handy when, for example, you want to make a quick test print to see how a special section of the project looks on paper.
Printing in Area Selection mode is the only way you can print your project image in repeat-mode. Specific repeat parameter fields allow you to customize the repetition as desired.

Clicking the corresponding button in the Print dialog window will open a dedicated box as follows:

59

Menus
The Area parameters allow you to define and edit the size of the area to print, in various modes. The Width and Height fields: Origin column parameters: these two parameters define the origin, or starting point of the printing area (horizontal width and vertical height). The default values correspond to the origin of your image (0,0 or the left upper corner). Enter the desired values from the keyboard, or use the spin arrows to increase or decrease the values. The Size column: the default values correspond to the original size of your current image base repeat (as if the whole repeat was selected for the printing operation), using the current units as set by the Project Properties, Image Properties, Preferences area, Units parameter. A doted line rectangle will mark the selection. Enter the desired horizontal size (width) and vertical (height) of the printing area from the keyboard or use the spin arrows to increment or decrement the value. Repetition column fields: use these fields to set the repeat number (horizontal and vertical) for the printing area, as the current (desired) size as compared to the original size. A border marker will dynamically highlight the printing area as defined by the current values. This parameter offers another way to control the final size. The Zoom% column fields: these fields display the resulting printing area scale factors (horizontal and vertical), in percentages, taking into account the currently set desired size versus the original size and the current repeat values.
Note that only two of these parameters are independent. Modifying the Size or the Repetition parameters will automatically change the Zoom parameters to reflect the change. Modifying the Zoom parameters will change the Size parameter accordingly.

60

Easy Coloring
Visually defining the printing area Click the green arrow button and use the picker tool to draw (using a click-and-drag method) a rectangle on your project image to visually define the desired printing area:

Note the Origin, Size and Repetition fields updating to reflect the current situation. Press the Reset button to delete the current selection and remain in the Area selection dialog window to define another printing area. You can press Escape on your keyboard to cancel the currently selected area and start defining another, without resetting the current values.

To print the selected area, choose Print from the File menu, and click the Page Options button in the Print dialog box which then appears. This gives a further dialog box, in which you must choose Selected Area.

For a full explanation of the Print command, please refer to Print (File menu). To change the units used when specifying the size and origin (inches, centimeters etc), please refer to The General tab in the Preferences topic (File menu).

61

Menus Print Color Chart

Depending on your selection of either HSV, hCL or PCR color space, made in the Preferences / Display tab from the File menu, the available Color Chart will be either the Vision Color Chart, the Absolute Color Chart, or the 'Vision PCR Atlas'.

See Color Settings (File menu) and Calibration Assistant (Calibration menu) for the calibration needed in order to match the colors given onscreen with those of your printer. When you have done this you can print some or all pages of the current Color Chart in order to have a portable reference of the colors with their color codes. Note these internal atlases are independent from the design atlas you can create using the functions in the Colors menu.

This function allows you to print some or all pages of an internal color chart and check the match with the colors displayed on your screen, or use them in your designs so that you can obtain accurate colors in your printed projects. You can do that by using the Color Channels function and entering the desired color code (obtained from your printed color chart, below the color chips).

See Color Channels in the Colors Menu, Menus section, for detailed information about this function.

Print Absolute Vision Color Chart

If you have selected hCL as your current color space (selection made in the Display tab of the Preferences function of the File men), the available Color Chart will be the Absolute Vision Color Chart.

Select Print Absolute Vision Color Chart from the File menu, press the keyboard shortcut CTRL+H, or right-click an open Vision ) and click Color Chart (in the Colors menu or Colors toolbar Print in the pop-up menu. A Print dialog box appears as follows:

62

Easy Coloring

The main options of this dialog box are as described for the Print command (File menu). Here are the specific options of this dialog window:

If you have the Color Chart already open, you can choose Current Page from the Page section of the dialog box in order to print the page of the Color Chart currently displayed. If you choose to print All Pages or Special Pages, you should enter a figure between 1 and 100 in the Page Step field. This figure determines the interval between the pages that will be printed. By way of example, consider the case where the selection Special Pages From Page 0 to 50 has been made. If the figure 1 is entered in the Page Step field, all of the designated pages will be printed (51 in all). If instead the figure 10 is entered in the Page Step field, only pages 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 will be printed. If you check Gray level page, then only an additional page of gray tones will be printed. 63

Menus
From the Repartition drop-down box choose how many Vision Chart pages will appear on each printed page.

When you have finished making your choices in this dialog box, click the OK button to start printing.
You will need to have a project open when you use the Print (Absolute) Vision Color Chart command.

See Absolute Vision Color Chart (Colors menu, Menus section) for more information on color charts. Note that a print out will display correct colors only if the printer you selected for the preview has been calibrated. Depending on your settings in the Display tab Color code format, of the Preferences function in the File menu, you will have either the Absolute Vision Color Chart, for the hCL color space, the Vision Color Chart for the HSV color space, available, or the Vision PCR Chart for the PCR color space.

For the options affecting color calibration, please refer to Color Settings (File menu) and Calibration Assistant (Calibration menu). A very similar procedure will be required if using the HSV color space (selection made in the Display tab of the Preferences function of the File men) and printing the Vision Color Chart. Note that if you are using the Kodak calibration and you have set your printer gamut filter ON, only the color chips that fall within the printer gamut will be printed.

64

Easy Coloring
Print Color Chart
If you have selected HSV as your current color space (selection made in the Display tab of the Preferences function of the File men), the available Color Chart will be the Vision Color Chart.

Printing this color chart follows the same procedure as for printing the Absolute Vision Color Chart.

See Print Absolute Vision Color Chart for details about the printing procedure.

Printing the Vision PCR Atlas

If you have used the Preferences function in the File menu to set the PCR Color Code format (in the Display tab) as the current color working mode, the corresponding Print Color Chart function will become Print Vision PCR Atlas.
Note that this atlas is independent of your calibration mode.

Use this function, or the corresponding keyboard shortcut CTRL+H, to print the internal PCR color atlas. This internal atlas is independent from the design atlas you can create using the functions in the Colors menu.

See New Color Atlas in the Colors Menu, Menus section for more information about this function.

The color atlas you will print will have color chips, organized on pages, columns and rows (PCR), and PCR numbers under each color chip.
Using this function allows you to obtain the PCR codes.

65

Menus
The command will open the following dialog window

Printer: use the drop down box to select the printer you want to use from the available options. Format: use this field to select from the two available options as Classic PCR and CMY PCR.
Note that when printing the CMY PCR atlas, the codes under each color chip are the CMY (PCR) codes instead of the classic PCR ones.

Print Index Page: select this option to print the index page of all the atlas color pages. You will obtain on a single sheet the base color chips of the PCR atlas pages, with the page numbers under each chip. Print Atlas Pages: select this option to print all, or some of the atlas color pages. Use the Start page, End page and Interval fields to set up the page range you want to print. Click the Print button to start printing, or the Exit button to abandon printing the PCR atlas.

66

Easy Coloring
Printing the PCR atlas can be done directly from the atlas window. Rightclick the atlas to obtain the popup Print function and select it.

Here is a part of a printed Classic PCR atlas page:

On each page (115 in this example), under each color chip the CR (column and row) information is printed.

Preferences
Choose Preferences from the File menu in order to choose the options affecting your working environment.

For the options affecting color calibration, please refer to Color Settings (File menu) and Calibration Assistant (Calibration menu).

The tabs of the Preferences dialog box are as follows :

67

Menus
The General tab

For the General tab, click the Default button to use the standard settings, or make your own choices as follows: In the Custom options section of the tab choose the maximum number of steps that can be undone in the application and the maximum colorway proposals that can be stored in memory when using the Coloring Assistant (Colors menu). The Delta E field is inactive in this application. If you need to speed up the operation of your computer, choose lower figures for the first two fields, in order to use up less of the computers memory. Each color of the Pantone color chart has a name (such as English Rose) and a code (such as 13-1310 CVT). When you drag and drop a Pantone color, for example between colorway palettes or from the Pantone chart to a colorway palette, you can choose for the name and/or the code to be displayed on the palette beneath the color chip of the color. Make your choice from the Pantone Colors Copy section of the General tab.

68

Easy Coloring
Please refer to the topic Pantone (Colors menu) for more information about the use of Pantone colors.

Default units: choose the units you want to use the next time you start the application.
The Unit selection will be remembered the next time your start your Vision Easy Coloring,

From the Use memory compression check box select whether images larger than 1 Mb will be loaded into memory using memory compression. Selecting this option will permit you to save memory when working with images of large dimension.
The "Use memory compression" check-box is only available for selection prior to loading any working files!

Use fast calibration if this exists: this option is only available in Vision Easy Coloring Pro (module of NedGraphics Printing Studio) when in Delta calibration mode.

See the Vision Easy Coloring Pro documentation for more details.

69

Menus
The Display tab

For the Display tab, click the Default button to use the standard settings, or make your own choices as follows: In the Display options section, select Display labels in status bar if you wish information to be shown on the status bar such as: the identity of the color under the cursor at any moment the identity of the colorway under the cursor at any moment

From the Color index section of the tab, choose whether the color chips of the palette in the current colorway main view will be numbered in order 1,2,3 etc., or whether they will be given letters A, B, C, etc. If you wish to hide these letters or numbers, make sure that Display color index is not selected in the Display options section of the tab. The background which frames the colorways and the color chips of each palette will have the default Windows setting (gray)

70

Easy Coloring
unless you define a different background color. To do this, click on the browse button to open the Color Channels tool.

See Color Channels (Colors menu) for an explanation of their use

Display Group Colors: this option is only available when no project is open (in the application mainframe) and lets you decide to display the color group area in the main window, holding the main group colors.

See The Main Window and the Color Grouping (Colors menu) sections of this guide for detailed information on working with color groups and displaying group main colors.

Upon selecting this option, the area of the main window just below the color palette area will be reserved for displaying the main color of the color groups you may create in Vision Easy Coloring. This will allow you to work with color groups just as with color cylinders (dyes or paints).
Note that when this option is active, some other application tools, like Color Adjustment and the Colorway Assistant will also display the group representative colors instead of all the palette colors.

Display quality: this field offers you the possibility to select different display qualities, depending on your current needs. Four levels of quality are available: Perfect blending: this mode will use both the smoothing and the antialiasing processes for best display performance. Fast blending: this printing mode uses an antialiasing process (no smoothing) for a good level of display quality. Normal: use the normal mode (no processes applied). Use this mode especially when display quality is not a factor, but working speed is.

71

Menus
Enhance current color: use this selection to highlight your currently selected color.

The Color Code Format section permits you to select the format of the color code. Available options are HSV, hCL and PCR color codes. By default, the color system used is HSV. But if you have Printing Studio applications installed on your computer and if you have chosen to work with a hCL color code format in these applications, the color system used by default in Easy Coloring will be automatically hCL so as to ensure a certain homogeneity in the color codes.
In order to avoid inconsistent settings, selections in the "Color Code Format" section can only be made when no image files are in use! Therefore, please make the appropriate selections prior to opening your work files!

The Colorway tab

For the Colorway tab, click the Default button to use the standard settings, or make your own choices as follows:

72

Easy Coloring
Choose the shape you prefer for the palette color chips from the Color chip shape drop-down box. From the Display options section of the tab, choose Display an outline around color chips for all the palette color chips to have a dark border, and choose Outline current color if you require the color chip of the currently selected color to have an additional border.

The File tab

The File tab shows the file paths needed to use various functions of Easy Coloring. If you need to modify the path, click the adjacent browse button .

For further information about Pantone colors, please refer to Pantone (Colors menu). The Palette file path used for color atlases. Please refer to the topics New Color Atlas and Opening, Closing and Saving color atlases in the section of this guide on the Colors menu.

73

Menus
For further information about the use of evaluation images, please refer to Calibration Assistant (Calibration menu). For further information about printing test images, please refer to Printer Adviser (Calibration menu).

When you have finished making your choices: Choose OK to put the changes you have made into effect and close the Preferences dialog box. Choose Cancel to close the dialog box without any changes being registered.

Color Settings
On choosing Color Settings from the File menu, you are presented with a dialog box having two tabs. This dialog box can be modified only when there are no open projects in Easy Coloring. These enable you to calibrate your printer(s) and monitor for accurate color reproduction

To optimize the performance of your printer(s) and monitor(s) after calibration, please refer to the topic Calibration Assistant (Calibration menu).

74

Easy Coloring
The Color Calibration tab
Note that you will need to use the functions and options in this tab if you are working with the Kodak calibration. See The Additional files tab section for more information.

Vision Easy Coloring operates in an absolute color space. That is to say that colors are given an exact mathematical definition that is independent of devices such as printers or displays that must interpret color.
A color space is a mathematical representation of the system used for defining and reproducing a color. Color space representation comprises 3 independent coordinate axes, each representing a certain entity, such as Hue, Saturation and Value, for the HSV color space. The 3 values determining a color, situated along the coordinate axes, uniquely define a

75

Menus
color within a particular color space. Commonly encountered color spaces comprise the HSV, hCL, or the absolute XYZ color space.

By operating in this manner, and by using appropriate interpretative files, known as profiles, Easy Coloring enables printers, monitors and other devices to reproduce the colors of your project with the highest accuracy. You must choose the profiles for each of the devices you need to use from the Color Calibration tab as follows: From the Device type drop-down box choose whether you wish to select a profile first of all for a printer, for a display device (such as a monitor), or for a production device (such as a textile printer used for strike-off). Next, in the Profiles path field, check that the file path of the available profiles for the device type you have chosen is correct. (This is displayed in gray.) Profiles installed at the same time as Easy Coloring will typically be in the subfolders Colorspa, Display and Printers of the folder Calibration. If you need to modify the . path, click the adjacent browse button
Note that if the profiles exist on another computer to which you are linked via a network, you must copy the files to a suitable location on your own computer in order for them to operate.

By default, the Device list includes all devices currently operable from your computer that are of the type you selected from the Device type drop-down box. You can change the contents of the list by clicking the Add/Remove devices button, as described below. Assuming the device for which you wish to select a profile is in the list, select the device. All the available profiles that can be associated with the device are then displayed automatically in the Profile description list. Now scroll through the Profile description list and click on the profile corresponding to the device you have just selected.

76

Easy Coloring
If no suitable profile is available, it may be that you will have to create the files specially or to obtain them from the supplier of your equipment.

The device and profile are now associated and are displayed in the Device-profile association list, together with the file name of the profile. In the same way you should make all the device-profile associations you need for your printer(s), display device(s) and any production device(s). Other functions of the Color Calibration tab that you may need to use are as follows: Setting the color gamut filter for a device : Each device is limited by its own color gamut, which is the range of colors it is capable of reproducing. Color gamuts are typically much more limited that the range of colors perceptible to the human eye. Owing to the use of a profile it is possible for Easy Coloring to apply filters to adjust the colors of your project automatically, to bring them within the color gamut of each device. In front of each device name in the Device-profile association list you will see a status symbol showing whether its gamut filter is on or off. The status symbols are as follows: The filter is on, and the colors of the project will therefore be modified automatically in order to fit within the gamut of the device. The colors available from the Absolute Vision Color Chart (Colors menu) will also be limited to the gamut colors. The filter is off. You can change the status of a device at any time between filter On and filter Off by double-clicking its status symbol.
Changes to the colors of your project as a result of turning on a filter cannot be reversed with the Undo command. However, if the filter is turned off again, the colors removed from the Absolute Vision Color Chart will again be available.

77

Menus
Deleting or changing a device-profile association : You can remove one of the associations you have made from the Device-profile association list at any time simply by selecting it and pressing the DELETE key. Alternatively, change an association by selecting the same device again in the Device list and then choosing a new profile from the Profile description list. A message box will ask you if you want the new association to replace the original association in the Device-profile association list. Choose Yes to proceed. Adding or removing devices : Certain devices may not appear automatically in the Device list. For other devices, you may prefer to rename them - for example if you are using two different monitors, you may find it more convenient to rename them right monitor and left monitor to make your color calibration information more intuitive. To add, remove or rename the devices appearing in the Device list, button to obtain the following click the dialog box :

The dialog box that appears reproduces the Device list. To add a new device at the end of the device list enter its name in the New device name field, and then click the Add button.

78

Easy Coloring
To rename a device, select it in the Device list, enter the new name in the New device name field, and then click the Replace button. To delete a device, select it in the Device list and then click the Remove button.

On deleting a device, any association for that device that have been made in the device-profile association list of the previous dialog box will also be deleted. Similarly, on changing the name of a device, the name of the device in any existing device-profile associations will be automatically changed.

Using profile information : To obtain additional information on a particular profile, select it by clicking on it in the Profile description button. The list and then click the Profile Information dialog box then appears as follows :

In addition to the specification details listed in the Profile Header section of the dialog box, there are two fields in the User Information section in which you can enter or modify information : 79

Menus
In the User description field, you can enter your own name or description for the profile; In the User comments field you can add any other information that you wish to record for future use.
Note that (if used) the information for these two fields is stored in a text file of type *.txt, which is saved with the file for the profile concerned, which is of file type *.icm. Not having a text file, however, will have no adverse effects on the function of the application.

If you have finished making your choices from the Color Calibration tab, and do not need to refer to the other tab: Choose OK to close the dialog box and activate all the selections made Choose Apply to activate all the selections made without closing the dialog box. Choose Cancel to close the dialog box without any changes being registered.

The Additional files tab

This tab enables you: To find the profile having file type *.icm for conversion from one color space to another (such as the file pslabpcs.icm). To select the current calibration mode and the reference color space used by Easy Coloring.

The Additional Files tab appears as follows:

80

Easy Coloring

Depending on the calibration you choose from the Working environment section of this dialog, the X, Y, Z fields of the Media White Point will be updated automatically.
The Media white point is a characteristic of the media used for printing and is expressed in terms of X,Y and Z values for the absolute color of a shade of white. This characteristic represents the nuance of white of the paper or other material you will be printing on.

The working environment section of this tab permits you to choose the calibration mode for your current project. Available options include None (no calibration) and Kodak. By default Vision Easy Coloring will use the No calibration setting.

81

Menus
Whenever your projects use the Kodak calibration, the default setting Use the default calibration configuration from the Kodak options section of this tab will become active.

The Color based on device drop-down box permits you to select the reference color space, used as a basis for computing color codes for the different available output devices, such as displays and printers. Available options comprise Absolute, Screen or Printer. If you have finished making your choices from the Additional Files tab, and do not need to refer to the other tabs: Choose OK to close the dialog box and activate all the selections made Choose Apply to activate all the selections made without closing the dialog box. Choose Cancel to close the dialog box without any changes being registered.

If you close the "Color Settings" dialog box without having selected a profile for conversion between color spaces (such as the file pslabpcs.icm), a message box will appear, warning you that your calibration environment is not correctly set. On clicking OK you will be taken back to the appropriate part of the Color Settings interface in order to select these files.

Exit
To close Easy Coloring, choose Exit from the File menu. If any open projects have not been saved, a dialog box appears, giving you the opportunity to save them before exiting.

82

Easy Coloring

Edit Menu
The Edit menu contains the following tools for standard editing tasks:

Undo
To cancel the last modification made to the design during the current session, select Undo from the Edit menu or click the corresponding toolbar button. The keyboard shortcut for this is CTRL + Z.
To choose the maximum number of steps that can be undone or redone using the Undo and Redo commands, go to the "General" tab of the "Preferences" dialog box (File menu). If you need to speed up the operation of your computer, choose a lower figure to use up less of the computers memory.

Redo
To cancel the effect of the Undo command, select Redo from the Edit menu, or click the Redo button on the Edit toolbar. The keyboard shortcut for this is CTRL + A.
To choose the maximum number of steps that can be undone or redone using the Undo and Redo commands, go to the "General" tab of the "Preferences" dialog box (File menu). If you need to speed up the operation of your computer, choose a lower figure to use up less of the computers memory.

83

Menus

84

Easy Coloring

View Menu
This menu offers commands that give you options to zoom in or out in your design image, customize the display mode and tools of Easy Coloring, but the main function of the View menu is to enable you to show or hide different toolbars or the Status bar. To do this, simply click its name in the list. Click again to hide it. Items that are already displayed are shown with a tick in front of their names. For example "9Standard" indicates that the Standard toolbar is already displayed.

To show all the toolbars, as well as the Status Bar, click View All Bar.

For further information on the toolbars, please refer to the main section of this guide devoted to this topic. The other commands are briefly described below.

Zoom In
Click the Zoom In button to enlarge the view of the active window by one level of zoom. Alternatively select the Zoom In menu entry.

Zoom Out
Click the Zoom Out button to reduce the view of the active window by one level of zoom. Alternatively select the Zoom Out menu entry.

85

Menus Standard Toolbar

This toolbar gathers all the tools enabling standard editing tasks, file management and help (as fully described in the section of this guide on the Toolbars).

Colorway Toolbar

The Colorway toolbar contains commands for creating colorways and performing operations on them (as fully described in the section of this guide on the Toolbars).

View Toolbar

This toolbar contains commands for organizing and manipulating the windows as well as displaying the Film if necessary (as fully described in the section of this guide on the Toolbars).

Colors Toolbar

This bar gathers tools for modifying colors directly, standard libraries for you to use, as well as color atlas tools, which enable you to customize collections of colors(as fully described in the section of this guide on the Toolbars). 86

Easy Coloring Status Bar

When displayed, the status bar is situated across the bottom of the screen and provides a variety of ancillary information. For example, if you move the mouse pointer over a toolbar button a tooltip appears next to the button after a moments pause, and a more detailed prompt appears on the status bar.

Zoom Toolbar

This toolbar provides different ways to change the zoom factor of the current view (as fully described in the section of this guide on the Toolbars).

View All Bars

Selecting this function will display all toolbars of the Easy Coloring application.

Hide All Bars

Selecting this function will hide all toolbars of the Easy Coloring application.

87

Menus

88

Easy Coloring

Colorways Menu

This menu contains commands for creating colorways and performing operations on them. All of the commands are also available as buttons on the Colorway toolbar.

New Colorway
To create one or more new colorways, choose New Colorway from the Colorways menu or click the corresponding toolbar button. The equivalent keyboard shortcut is CTRL + R. In the dialog box which appears enter the number of colorways you require, and a name for the colorways. The first of the new colorways appears in the Current Colorway Main View and all the new colorways also appear in the All Colorways View to the side. The new colorways created this way are initially in shades of gray only, ready for you to begin coloring, without being diverted by the original colors.

89

Menus Duplicate Colorway

A new colorway that is identical with an existing colorway may be created using this command. First click the existing colorway you wish to reproduce in order to make it the current colorway. Then choose Duplicate Colorway from the Colorways menu or click the corresponding toolbar button. The equivalent keyboard shortcut is
CTRL + T.

In the dialog box that appears enter a name for the new colorway. If you want to proceed to an automatic colorway conversion, click on the Colorway Conversion button to visualize the appropriate dialog box.

For a detailed explanation of this function, see the Automatic Colorway Conversion section (Colorways menu).

When you have made all your choices, click on OK to close the dialog box and create the new colorway. It appears in the Project Main View and also in the All Colorways View to the side
Using this command you can create more than one copy of your selected colorway. In order to do this select a figure higher than 1 in the field situated on the lower right side on the dialog window brought up by choosing the Duplicate Colorway command. This command is useful, for example, for creating a colorway starting from the same colors as an existing colorway, whilst nevertheless conserving a copy of the existing colorway.

90

Easy Coloring Automatic Colorway Conversion

To convert the colors of the current colorway to the closest available colors from another source, choose Automatic Colorway Conversion from the Colorways Menu. A dialog box appears as follows:

The Colorway conversion section of the dialog box enables you to choose the colors of the resulting colorway from either of two sources: a standard palette, such as Pantone, which you choose from the Use default palette drop-down box. an existing color atlas, the name of which is displayed in the Use Atlas field. To change the choice of atlas, click the Browse button. This takes you to an Open type dialog box, where you can select an atlas file of type *.atl.

In the New colorway section of the dialog box, choose a new name for the colorway that will result from the conversion.

91

Menus
Click OK when you have made your choices. How close the resulting colorway is to the original depends entirely on whether the colors available in the new palette or atlas are close to the colors of the original colorway.
If you wish to keep a copy of the original colorway, choose Duplicate Colorway (Colorways menu) and click the "Colorway Conversion" button in the dialog box that appears.

For further information about the Pantone palette, please refer to the topic Pantone (Colors menu). For further information about color atlases, please refer to the topic Opening, Closing and Saving Color Atlases (Colors menu).

Delete Colorway
Click the colorway you wish to delete, then choose Delete a Colorway from the Colorways menu or click the corresponding toolbar button. The equivalent keyboard shortcut is CTRL + D.
It is possible to undo this command using CTRL + Z.

Next Colorway and Previous Colorway

To change the colorway displayed in the current colorway main view, click the desired colorway displayed in the All Colorways View. If this view is not displayed, move through the colorways and Next of your project using the Previous Colorway commands in the Colorways menu. Alternatively Colorway click the corresponding buttons of the Colorway toolbar, or use the shortcut keys CTRL + J, respectively CTRL + U.

92

Easy Coloring

Colors Menu
The Colors menu contains tools for modifying colors directly (the Color Channels and Color Mixer), standard libraries for you to use (Pantone and Vision Color Chart), as well as Color Atlas tools, which enable you to customize collections of colors which you can save for use in other projects. It also contains an entire range of other tools to give you maximum control over color use. Note that most of the tools are also available from the Colors toolbar.

93

Menus Color Channels

To modify a color of a particular colorway, click the color you wish to change on the colorway palette then choose Color Channels from the Colors menu, or click the corresponding toolbar button. The Color Channels appear as shown below. By default the Color Channels operate with the HSV system. However, you can also make the adjustment using additive colors (RGB), by rightclicking the color channels, and choosing latter system from the popup menu which appears. Modify the color by moving sliders on each channel. The sliders appear as white cross-bars. A slider can be moved either by dragging or by clicking the location where it is to move to. The figures at the bottom of each channel vary according to whether the slider is at its maximum or minimum position. The bottom part of the Color Channels window shows the resulting color and its color code, which is the Vision code for that color.

For some monitors where 16 million colors cannot be shown, the color channels themselves may appear bizarrely colored. To avoid this disconcerting effect, right click the color channels to obtain a pop-up menu, and click Colored so that the standard colored display for the channels is de-selected.

For an explanation of the various color systems, please refer to the section regarding the Color Channels Pop-up menu.

94

Easy Coloring
Color Channels Pop-Up Menu
The Color Channels dialog box is displayed on your screen when (Colors Toolbar). By clicking on the Color Channels icon right-clicking in this dialog box, the following pop-up menu appears on your screen:

The first commands are related to the different color systems available in Easy Coloring; the two last functions enable you to choose various display options for the different color systems.

For a detailed explanation on this dialog box, please see the Color Channels section. (Colors Toolbar).

HSV
The color codes used in the Color Palette of the Vision applications, are part of the coloring modules of NedGraphics, such as Easy Coloring, Easy Coloring Pro or Simulating Printed Fabric. The HSV code describes a color in terms of: Hue: from 0 to 359. This value determines the position in the color spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, magenta, violet).

95

Menus
Saturation: indicates the lightness of the shade with values from 0 to 100 (light for 0 and dark for 100). Value: from 0 to 100. This value indicates the luminosity of the color. Its effect is independent of the hue and saturation. At zero luminosity any color becomes black. At maximum luminosity (100) any color becomes white. Selecting HSV from the pop-up menu will put a checkmark sign in front of the option to highlight the current selection.
If you have also installed on your system modules of NedGraphics Printing Studio and chose to use the hCL color space in one of these modules, the same color code will be used by default in your Fashion Studio application, and will replace the Vision Chart code on the bottom of the Color Channels dialog window.

Selecting HSV from the pop-up menu will put a checkmark sign in front of the option to highlight the current selection.

RGB
The RGB color system will allow the composition of any color using different degrees of Red, Green and Blue components (as emission colors). A zero value for all components will produce black. Of course, the maximum value for the same parameters (that is 255) will produce white. Selecting RGB from the pop-up menu will put a checkmark sign in front of the option to highlight the current selection.

CMY
In a similar way with the RGB system the CMY uses the Cyan, Magenta and Yellow components emitted by a color to create it. As compared to the RGB though, when all the parameters have a zero 96

Easy Coloring
value, the resulting color is white, and at the maximum (255) value, the result is black. Selecting CMY from the pop-up menu will put a checkmark sign in front of the option to highlight the current selection.

CMYK
This system works very similar to the CMY. A fourth component is the black, and of course, helps in producing the black color. Selecting CMYK from the pop-up menu will put a checkmark sign in front of the option to highlight the current selection.

hCL
The hCL is a color system based on absolute colors. The C values (representing the color) range from 0 to 140. The L values (representing the luminosity) range from 0 to 110. The H value has a range from 0 to 360. When all three values equal zero, you have a black. Selecting hCL from the pop-up menu will put a checkmark sign in front of the option to highlight the current selection.
Note that for this color space the parameter values are displayed and controlled using two decimal digits.

97

Menus
XYZ
The XYZ is also an absolute color space. It permits obtaining any color as a function of the three X, Y, Z parameters (in a 0 to 140 range). These are the international standard CIE D65 2 degree color coordinates. Selecting XYZ from the pop-up menu will put a checkmark sign in front of the option to highlight the current selection.
Note that for this color space the parameter values are displayed and controlled using two decimal digits.

Lab
Lab is also an absolute color space. The L corresponds to the luminosity (0 to 110 range), the other two (a and b) are independent, arbitrary parameters (-140 to 140 range). These are the international standard CIE D65 2 degree color coordinates.
Note that if you save your design image as a TIF Lab file, these limits will be changed as follows: L in the 0 to 100 range, a and b from -128 to 127.

See The File Formats tab from the Save Scan as function description (File Menu, Menus section) for more details about the file saving options.

Selecting Lab from the pop-up menu will put a checkmark sign in front of the option to highlight the current selection.
Note that for this color space the parameter values are displayed and controlled using two decimal digits.

98

Easy Coloring
CMYK%
This mode is similar to the CMYK with the only difference that the color parameter values are percentages of the maximum CMYK channel limits.

See CMYK in this section for more details about this color mode.

Colored
For some monitors where 16 million colors cannot be shown, the color channels themselves may appear bizarrely colored. To avoid this disconcerting effect, right click the color channels to obtain a pop-up menu, and click Colored so that the standard colored display for the channels is de-selected.

Enhanced Display
Using this option in the Color Channels popup menu will produce an enlarged Color Channels window, allowing better resolution in visually selecting colors using the color bars (sliders).

99

Menus Color Mixer

To create a color which is intermediate between two others, choose Color Mixer from the Colors menu, or click the corresponding toolbar button. The color mixer appears as follows: To use the mixer, drag and drop a different color onto the color chip at each end of the mixer. These colors can be taken directly from the image of any colorway view, or from the palette of the current colorway. Similarly you can take them from any color atlas or from the Vision Color Chart. Once you have added a color to each end of the mixer, move the horizontal slider to change the number of intermediate shades appearing between them. Move the vertical slider to move the point of equal color mix. You can then click any one of the resulting colors and then drag and drop it to any atlas or palette color chip of your project to replace the existing color.

Copy Color
This command allows you to replace a color in one colorway with a color taken from any other colorway. To perform the operation proceed as follows: Choose Copy Color from the Colors menu or click the corresponding toolbar button. The equivalent keyboard shortcut is CTRL + M.

100

Easy Coloring
Click to select the color to be copied. Click to select the color to be replaced, which completes the operation.

You can select each color either by clicking on it in its colorway image, or by clicking on its palette color chip. Use clicks to select the colors and NOT drag-and-drop procedures.

Swap Colors
The Swap Colors command enables two colors to be exchanged. The colors may be in the same colorway or in two different colorways. To perform the operation proceed as follows: Choose Swap Colors from the Colors menu or click the corresponding toolbar button. The equivalent keyboard shortcut is CTRL + W. Click to select the first of the two colors to be swapped. Click to select the second color to complete the operation.

You can select each color either by clicking on it where it is in its colorway image, or by clicking on its palette color chip. Use clicks to select the colors and NOT drag-and-drop procedures.

101

Menus Gradient Between Two Colors

For the current colorway, a continuous range of colors can be created in a graduation going from one color to another. To create the graduation, proceed as follows: Click the colorway in which you wish to create the graduation in order to make it the current colorway. Choose Gradient Between Two Colors from the Colors menu or click the Degrade Color toolbar button. The equivalent keyboard shortcut is CTRL +G. Click a first start screen color chip on the palette, and then a second end color chip, not immediately adjacent to the start chip.
Use clicks to select the colors and NOT drag-and-drop procedures.

The colors of all screen color chips located between is the start and end chips have now changed so that all the chips together form a graduation of color. The colorway image changes accordingly.

Vision Color Chart

This function will give you access to either the Vision Color Chart (for the HSV color code format), the Absolute Vision Color Chart (for the hCL color code format), or the Vision PCR Atlas (for the PCR color code format), depending on your current setting of the Color Code format in the Display tab of the Preferences function in the File menu.
The keyboard shortcut for this function is CTRL+F5. In order to have a portable reference of the colors with their color codes, right-click the color chart and select the Print command from the popup menu. Alternatively use the Print Color Chart in the File menu.

102

Easy Coloring
For further explanation of color atlases, please refer to How do I create and modify an atlas (Colors menu).

Drag and drop colors from the atlas either in your color palette or directly on your design image.

Vision Color Chart

When working in HSV color code format, choose Vision Color Chart from the Colors menu, or click the corresponding toolbar button. The Vision colors appear in a dialog box as follows:

You can change a color on the palette of any colorway by dragging and dropping a Vision color onto the palettes color chip concerned.

103

Menus
Note that each page of the Vision Chart contains up to 256 colors of the same hue. The hue of the different pages varies from 0 to 359, there being 36 printable pages in all if you print every 10th page. Hue Scroll bar: click and drag the scroll bar cursor to move through the hue pages. Alternatively, click the scroll bar to select then use the left-right arrows on your keyboard to move one page at a time.
If you have one or more gamut filters on, the colors available from the Vision Color Chart will also be limited to the gamut colors. If the filter is turned off again, the colors removed from the Vision Color Chart will again be available. Please see the topic on the Color Calibration Tab of Color Settings (File menu) for further information about applying gamut filters.

As you move the mouse pointer over the colors observe how the Color Code changes. Depending on the selection you have made for the color space currently in use by your application, this code will be either HSV or hCL color code.

For selecting the color space Easy Coloring will be using as the current color space, please refer to the topic Preferences/Display tab (File menu). See Color Settings (File menu) and Calibration Assistant (Calibration menu) for the calibration needed in order to match the colors given onscreen with those of your printer. When you have done this you can print some or all pages of the Vision Color Chart in order to have a portable reference of the colors with their color codes. Obtain the Print command, by right-clicking the chart. For further instructions, please refer to the topic on the equivalent command, Print Vision Color Chart (File menu). See Absolute Vision Color Chart and Vision PCR Atlas in this section of the guide for more information about color charts. For further explanation of color atlases, please refer to How do I create and modify an atlas (Colors menu).

104

Easy Coloring
Absolute Vision Color Chart
When working in hCL color code format, choose Absolute Vision Color Chart from the Colors menu, or click the corresponding toolbar button (Colors toolbar). The Vision colors appear in a dialog box as follows:

With a layout very similar to the Vision color Chart, the Absolute Vision Color Chart contains 360 hue pages (from 0 to 359), each page with up to 256 color chips: C color chip rows (0 to 140) and L columns (0 to 110).

Drag and drop colors from the atlas either in your color palette or directly on your design image. Color Code field: move your mouse cursor over the color chips on the current page: note the displayed color code changing to show the code of the chip under the cursor.

105

Menus
Hue Scroll bar: click and drag the scroll bar cursor to move through the hue pages. Alternatively, click the scroll bar to select, then use the left-right arrows on your keyboard to move one page at a time.

See Vision Color Chart and Vision PCR Atlas in this section of the guide for more information about color charts. For further explanation of color atlases, please refer to How do I create and modify an atlas (Colors menu).

Absolute Chart Lab Mode

Right click the Absolute Vision Chart (in hCL mode) to obtain the specific popup menu:

The Print command in the menu is presented in detail in the Print The International Color Chart in the File Menu, Menus section of this guide.

Lab mode: click this command to switch the Absolute Color Chart to Lab colors. A checkmark in front of the command will appear to let you know you are in Lab mode. Click again to deselect and return to hCL. The color codes displayed under the chart area will display Lab color parameters.
Note that this command will only be available if you are working in hCL mode (see the Preferences section in the File menu for more details about this command). Right-click again to call the popup menu, and select Print, to print the chart in Lab mode.

106

Easy Coloring
Vision PCR Atlas
When working in PCR color code format, choose Vision PCR Atlas from the Colors menu, or click the corresponding toolbar button (Colors toolbar).
If calibration data is not found a message will be displayed and ask for your confirmation to proceed with the un-calibrated PCR Atlas, with approximate color mode against a gray background. Select OK to accept or Cancel to abort this procedure.

The un-calibrated PCR Atlas has the following aspect:

The un-calibrated Vision PCR Atlas shows color chips with black border on a gray background

107

Menus
CR (column row) color page: the color matrix of the current atlas page, displaying 17 columns and rows, starting at 0 up to 128 in steps of 8. Color PCR code field: shows the currently selected color PCR code, each value separated by an asterisk delimiter. Hue bar: above and along the slider, shows the most chromatic color on each page (C=128, R=128, the bottom right on each page). Slider bar: offers access to any of the atlas pages (1 to 360) in the hue range. Drag and drop colors from the atlas either in your color palette or directly on your design image.
See more information about printing the Vision PCR atlas in the Printing the Vision PCR Atlas section in the File menu topics.

See Vision Color Chart and Absolute Vision Color Chart in this section of the guide for more information about color charts. For further explanation of color atlases, please refer to How do I create and modify an atlas (Colors menu).

108

Easy Coloring Pantone

To use the Pantone range for the colors of your colorway, choose Pantone from the Colors menu, or click the corresponding toolbar button. The Pantone chart appears in a dialog box as follows: Scroll through the pages of the Pantone chart by clicking the arrow buttons. Display a page by clicking its page number tab. You can change a color of any colorway by dragging and dropping a Pantone color onto the concerned palette color chip or directly in your project image. Similarly, you can also drag and drop colors to your color atlases.

For further explanation of color atlases, please refer to New Atlas (Colors menu).

To display a particular page of the Pantone Chart, or to locate a color in the chart whose name you know, right-click the Pantone Chart to obtain the following pop-up menu:

Choose Search Page to display a particular page of the Pantone Chart.

109

Menus
In the dialog box that appears, enter the number of the page you wish to display. The first page in the chart is numbered 1001, and the last page 1243, so you must enter a page number in this range. After entering the page number, click OK. The page is now displayed in the window of the Pantone Chart. Choose Search Name to locate a color in the chart, when you know the colors name. In the dialog box which appears, enter the name or the number of the color you wish to find. If you cannot remember the whole name, type just the beginning, followed by the wildcard *. For example, type Dewy * if you cannot remember if the color you are looking for is called Dewy Plum or Dewy Orchid. Click OK for the page containing the named color to be displayed. If you entered the name Dewy Plum, page 1240 is now displayed, Dewy Plum being the fourth color on that page, counting from the top. If, however, you entered Dew* page 1039 is now displayed, which contains the color Dewberry.

On the palette, you can display the names of any Pantone colors shown by using the Display Color Names command see Current Colorway Palette Pop-up Menu.

Pantone copyright button: clicking this button will display Pantone Inc. copyright information.

Color Grouping
This function allows you to modify a group of colors in the same way. For example, imagine that your colorway contains four shades of red which are used to produce the highlights and shadows of a red rose. To change the red rose into a yellow rose, use Color Grouping 110

Easy Coloring
to change the reds into yellows, without losing the balance of highlights and shadows.
When you create color groups for one of your colorways, the corresponding colors of the other colorways will be grouped automatically in the same way.

To use Color Grouping, choose it from the Colors menu, or click the corresponding toolbar button. The following dialog box appears:

The dialog box contains a colorway palette at the top, which initially contains all the colors of the current colorway. Below the original colorway are any number of different group palettes.

111

Menus
You can change the dimensions of the "Color Grouping" dialog box by dragging an edge or corner to optimize its layout. However, whenever there are too many group palettes to show in the dialog box at once, a scroll bar, which appears on the right of the dialog box, will permit you to display the other groups.

How to Create Color Groups

Drag and drop the colors you want to group to an empty palette. For this you can either remove them one by one from the colorway palette at the top of the dialog box, or drag and drop them directly from the Current Colorway Main View of your project. You can also drag and drop colors from one group palette to another. buttons at the bottom of / Alternatively, you can use the this dialog box to modify existing color groups, proceeding as follows: Select a color group from the Color Grouping dialog; button, then place the mouse cursor To add a color, click the in the Colorway Main View and click a color which you would like to add to your current color group; button, then place the mouse To remove a color, click the cursor in the Colorway Main View and click a color that you would like to remove from your current color group.

Whenever a color is added to an empty group palette, another empty group palette is automatically created below the others, to ensure that you always have a new group palette available for use.

To the left of each color group palette is the color chip for its main color. The main color is chosen according to one of the options available on clicking the Options button of the dialog box. The options are as follows :

112

Easy Coloring
Free selection - when this option is selected, you can replace the existing main color of any group by dragging one of the other colors from the group and dropping it onto the main color chip. You can also drag and drop a color to the main color chip from another group, or from the colorway palette at the top of the dialog box. The color will be added to the group as its new main color. Mostly used color - the color of each group that covers the largest area of the image will automatically become the main color. Mostly saturated color - the color of each group that has the highest saturation level will automatically become the main color. Mostly luminous color - the color of each group that has the highest level will automatically become the main color. Group colors average - the color that is closest to the average of the colors in the group will automatically become the main color.
If you want to use the groups you have created later on, but wish to be able to modify the colors independently in the meantime, make sure that "Active Grouping" is not selected before you close the "Color Grouping" dialog box.

Changing colors with Color Grouping

To modify the colors of one of the color groups you have created, open the Color Grouping dialog box and make sure that Active Grouping has been selected. You can then either leave the Grouping dialog box open, or close it by clicking its close button . Next go to the palette of the Current Colorway Main View, and click on one of the colors of the group to make it the current color. Select to modify the selected color. Because you the Color Channels have chosen Active Grouping, the changes made will affect the linked color components of all the other colors of the group. 113

Menus
Color Grouping for textile simulations
Color Grouping is also extremely valuable when dealing with images which simulate woven or knitted textiles. To give a 3D effect to a stitch of a given color, a range of 6 or more constituent colors may be used in the image. To change the color of the stitch, all its constituent colors must be grouped and modified together. If you have created a new project using a simulated textile image from another Vision product, such as Easy Weave (New command on the File menu) the colors will already be appropriately grouped for you. If your image containing a simulated textile effect is from another source, zoom in on a stitch, and drag and drop its constituent colors directly into an empty Color Grouping palette. Coloration can then be greatly simplified by choosing the basic stitch color (and not one of the colors used to produce highlights or shadows) as the main group color, and by modifying only the main color on the palette of the colorway.

The Color Grouping pop-up menu

Other commands may be obtained from the pop-up menu which appears on right-clicking the Grouping dialog box: Clear this group: Deletes the group which was right-clicked to obtain the pop-up menu. Init grouping: Deletes all the established groups.

Color Adjustment
Like the Coloring Assistant, the Color Adjustment tool provides a rapid method of generating new colorways derived from the current colorway.

114

Easy Coloring
The Color Adjustment tool enables you to use intuitive criteria such as "Warmer" or "Paler" in relation to the current colorway, to create a progressive range of color-adjusted solutions to choose from. The Coloring Assistant (described in a separate topic) operates by generating random colors within precise, customizable limits, or by changing the order of existing colors taken from the current colorway.

To use the Color Adjustment tool, choose it from the Colors menu or click on the corresponding toolbar button. The following dialog box appears:

To adjust the size of the "Color Adjustment" dialog box and optimize its layout, move the mouse pointer over a horizontal or vertical edge of the

115

Menus
dialog box, so that it changes into a double headed arrow the edge to enlarge or reduce its size. . Now drag

The Color Ajustment tool automatically creates a range of ten groups of six new colorways, which are initially stored as propositions. You can view each of the groups in the Propositions window of the dialog box using the adjacent scroll-bar. As you move the scroll-bar from its lowest position to its highest position, you will see that the propositions in each of the ten groups change progressively from being slightly different from the original colorway, to being very different. Set the manner in which the change occurs using the intuitive criteria, such as "Warmer", "Paler" etc., as described below. The criteria apply according to the position of each proposition in the group, as shown in the following illustration :

116

Easy Coloring

In this example, on moving the scroll bar of the dialog box upwards: the colors of the propositions in position 1 become warmer " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " 2 3 4 5 " " " " cooler deeper paler more saturated

" " " " " " " 6 " more intense If you wish to change the criterion for a particular position, rightclick the proposition at that position to obtain the pop-up menu, and then select an alternative option from the Modify sub-menu. In the 117

Menus
example illustrated above, position 2 was right-clicked (it appears in the menu with the tick symbol 9 in front of it), and the current criterion "Cooler" is about to be changed for "More Yellow". A total of 16 different intuitive criteria are available from the menus: Warmer Cooler Deeper Paler More Saturated Less Saturated More Intense Less Intense More Red More Green More Blue More Yellow More Cyan More Magenta More Vif (more lively) More Gray

Keeping some of the colors the same

The Colorway section of the dialog box contains two rows of color chips: The first row shows the colors of the current colorway, The second row shows the colors of the current proposition.

You can select a proposition as the current proposition by clicking on it in the "Propositions Window" of the dialog box, so that it appears with an additional border. For example, in the dialog box illustrated above, the proposition in position 1 has been selected as the current proposition.

If you wish any color of the current colorway to be fixed in all the propositions, click on its color chip the first row. It will then be extended to cover the proposition color chip immediately below, showing that the color will be the same in all propositions. Click again to unfix the color. Alternatively, right-click the Colorway section of the dialog box and choose one of the following commands from the pop-up menu that appears :

118

Easy Coloring
Invert : All colors that were fixed now become unfixed, and viceversa. Clear : This fixes all the colors. As this in itself is not useful (all the propositions created are the same as the original colorway), you must then click one or more of the color chips so that some colors will be free to change when new propositions are created. Select All : choose this option for none of the colors be fixed. To fix a color again, simply click its color chip in the top row of colors. In the example illustrated above, you will see that the third and fourth colors have been fixed.

Selecting propositions for use in your project

Use the scroll bar of the dialog box to locate a proposition you want to use in your project, and then make it the current proposition by clicking on it, so that it appears with an extra border For example, in the dialog box illustrated above, the proposition in position 1 (top right) has been selected as the current proposition. To convert the current proposition into a colorway for your project, proceed in either of the two following ways: Click the Replace button for it to be added to your project as a new colorway in the Current Colorway Main View, replacing and overwriting the colorway that was previously displayed in the Current Colorway Main View. Click the Create button to transfer it to your project as an additional colorway, which will be displayed in the Current Colorway Main View, without replacing any of the existing colorways.

119

Menus
Working With Group Colors
Right click the colorway palette area in the Color Adjustment dialog window for the Display Group Colors command to pop up. Click the command: the colorway palette will display only the representative group colors, and the colorway palette, the colorway proposition, as well as the image in the main window will update to reflect the new situation.

Note that you will have to create some color groups first, in order for this option to be able to display group representative colors. Note that if you have activated the Display Group Colors in the Display tab of the Preferences function in the Files Menu, the default setting for the Display Group Color command in the Color Adjustment pop-up menu will be ON, and only group representative colors will be shown in the palette.

See The Display Tab, Preferences function in the Files Menu section of this guide for more details about this function.

When you have finished using the Color Adjustment tool: Click OK to close the dialog box and retain any replacements or additions you made to the colorways of your project. If you re-open 120

Easy Coloring
it later in the same session, you will find that the criteria you previously chose for its use have been retained, Click Cancel to close the dialog box and abandon any replacements or additions you made to the colorways of your project. If you reopen it later in the same session, you will find that the criteria you previously chose for its use have been retained.

Coloring Assistant
Like the Color Adjustment tool, the Coloring Assistant provides a rapid method of generating new colorways.
The Coloring Assistant operates either by generating random colors within precise, customizable limits, or by changing the order of existing colors taken from the current colorway. The Color Adjustment tool (described in a separate topic) enables you to use intuitive criteria such as "Warmer" or "Paler" in relation to the current colorway, to create a progressive range of color adjusted solutions to choose from.

To use the Coloring Assistant, choose it from the Colors menu or click on the corresponding toolbar button. The following dialog box appears:

121

Menus

Displaying and creating propositions

When you create new colorways using the Coloring Assistant, they are initially displayed as propositions in the window in the upper half of the dialog box. You can then select any of them for transfer to your project. To create new propositions, click repeatedly the Next Propositions , which is situated under the lower right corner of the arrow Propositions window. To review propositions created earlier (with the intention of selecting one or more of them for transfer to your

122

Easy Coloring
project), click the Previous Propositions arrow on the other side of the dialog box. You can then move forwards again using the Next Propositions arrow  The propositions can be displayed in the Propositions window either singly, or four at a time. To choose between these two display options select either One Stamp or Multiple Stamps from the pop-up menu which appears on right-clicking the dialog box.
To adjust the size of the Coloring Assistant on screen and optimize its layout, move the mouse pointer over a horizontal or vertical edge of the . Now drag dialog box, so that it changes into a double headed arrow the edge to enlarge or reduce its size. To choose the maximum number of colorway proposals that can be stored in memory when using the Coloring Assistant, go to the "General" tab of the "Preferences" dialog box (File menu). If you need to speed up the operation of your computer, choose a lower figure to use up less of the computers memory.

Choosing the creation method

To choose the method by which new propositions are created each time you click the Next Propositions arrow  select either of the following methods from the Type drop-down box : Swap. For this option, the colors of the current colorway will be reutilized for the propositions, but in a new order. Random. For this option, the colors of the new propositions will be generated randomly. You can, however, limit the extent to which the randomly generated colors differ from those of the previous proposition. Do this by selecting one or more of the characteristics Hue, Saturation and Value in the Option section of the dialog box, and then by inputting a value in the Tolerance field. For example, if you require propositions close to the original colorway, select all three of the options Hue, Saturation and Value, but set the tolerance

123

Menus
to, lets say, 5%. Or, if you wish to have propositions of similar visual impact, but different hue, keep the tolerance at 5% as before, but select only the options Saturation and Value. The hue can then change freely.

Keeping some of the colors the same

The Work colors section of the dialog box contains two rows of color chips: The first row shows the colors of the current colorway The second row shows the colors of the current proposition.

If you wish any color of the current colorway to be fixed in all the propositions, click on its color chip the first row. It will then be extended to cover the proposition color chip immediately below, showing that the color will be the same in all propositions. Click again to unfix the color. Alternatively, right-click the dialog box and choose one of the following commands from the pop-up menu that appears : Clear : This fixes all the colors. As this in itself is not useful (any new propositions created would be identical to the original colorway), you must then click one or more of the color chips in order to free some colors, enabling them to change when new propositions are created. Select All : choose this option for none of the colors be fixed. To fix a color again, simply click its color chip in the top row of colors. Invert : All colors that were fixed now become unfixed, and viceversa. In the example illustrated above, you will see that the fifth and sixth colors have been fixed.

124

Easy Coloring
Selecting or rejecting propositions for your project
A single proposition stamp displayed in the window is treated by the Coloring Assistant as the current stamp. When four stamps are displayed at a time, you can select one of the four as the current stamp by clicking on it, so that it appears with an extra border (top right stamp in the example illustrated above). To see the current stamp more clearly, select Auto Refresh from the pop-up menu that appears when you right-click the Coloring Assistant dialog box. The current stamp will then be displayed in the Current Colorway Main View of your project. Drag the Coloring Assistant dialog box a side to see more clearly if necessary. If you wish to select the current proposition as a colorway for your project, either: Click Replace for it to be added to your project as a new colorway in the Current Colorway Main View, replacing and overwriting the colorway that was previously displayed in the Current Colorway Main View. Click Create for it to be transferred to your project as an additional colorway, which will be displayed in the Current Colorway Main View, without replacing any of the existing colorways. To delete propositions from the Coloring Assistant, choose one of the following commands from the pop-up menu that appears on right-clicking the dialog box: Delete this proposition : Deletes the proposition from the Coloring Assistant that was under the mouse cursor when you right-clicked to obtain the pop-up menu. Note that the first proposition corresponds to the current colorway and then cannot be deleted. Delete all propositions : Deletes all the propositions from the Coloring Assistant. Note that the first proposition corresponds to the current colorway and therefore cannot be deleted. 125

Menus
When you have finished using the Coloring Assistant, click OK to close the dialog box and keep the existing propositions and selections you have made in case you want to re-open the dialog box for later use in the same session. Alternatively you can click Cancel to close the dialog box and abandon all propositions and selections made.

Display Group Colors

Provided you have created color groups and you want to work with group representative colors instead of all the colors in your image palette, select this option in the Coloring Assistant popup menu. The group main colors will be displayed in the dialog window.

Work with group main colors just as before, creating new colorways.

126

Easy Coloring
Note that if you have activated the Display Group Colors in the Display tab of the Preferences function in the Files Menu, the default setting for the Display Group Color command in the Coloring Assistant pop-up menu will be ON, and only group representative colors will be shown in the palette.

See The Display Tab, Preferences function in the Files Menu section of this guide for more details about this function.

Color Information
To display information about the colors of the current colorway, or to change a color by means of its Vision code or atlas name, choose Color Information from the Colors menu. The information is displayed in the following dialog box:

127

Menus

You can change any color by typing a new Absolute Vision code for it. You can enter a new name for a color in the Color name field.

Changing a color can also be done by matching it to an existing color of an atlas or the Pantone color book, using either of the following two options: changing the color by matching its color name changing the color by matching its color code.

The scope of the matching operation can be either an existing color atlas or the Pantone color book.

128

Easy Coloring
Changing a color by matching its color name: To change a color by matching its color name, simply click the Match color names option, click the check-box of the color you wish to change, and type in the name of the desired color. Then select the scope, by choosing the Atlas (if necessary, click the Browse button to find the file path) or the Pantone Manual option.
To adjust several colors in a single step, just select the desired colors by clicking their corresponding check-boxes.

Eventually click the Search button to perform matching search. If the color with the desired name could not be found (either in the atlas or the pantone chart) the color will remain unaltered. Changing a color by matching its color code: To change a color by matching its color code, simply click the Match color codes option, click the check-box of the color you wish to change, and type in the code of the desired color. Then select the scope, by choosing the Atlas (if necessary, click the Browse button to find the file path) or the Pantone Manual option.
To adjust several colors in a single step, just select the desired colors by clicking their corresponding check-boxes.

Eventually click the Search button to perform matching search. If the color with the desired code could not be found (either in the atlas or the pantone chart) the color will remain unaltered. Click OK when you have finished using the dialog box, or Cancel to abandon any changes made.

129

Menus

New Color Atlas: creation and use

What is a color atlas, and how do I use it?
A color atlas is a customized collection of colors which you create for a project, and which you can save for use in other projects (as described below). The colors of the atlas are displayed in a window having one or more pages presented in a very similar way to the Vision Color Chart, which is also available from the Colors menu. As with the Vision Color Chart, you can change a palette color of any colorway in your project by dragging and dropping one of the colors from your atlas onto the palette color chip concerned.
To adjust the size of the atlas on screen, move the mouse pointer over a horizontal or vertical edge of the atlas, so that it changes into a double . Now drag the edge to enlarge or reduce the size. headed arrow

How do I create and modify an atlas?

To create a new atlas, choose New Color Atlas from the Colors menu. The following dialog box appears :

Enter a name in the Atlas Name field for the color collection you are about to create, or click Create default title. 130

Easy Coloring
The atlas can have up to 128 pages of colors, but can display only one page at a time. Each page can have up to 16 rows and 16 columns (256 colors). Click OK when you have made your choices for the number of pages, rows and columns. A new atlas appears with blank color chips, as in the next image:

A newly-opened atlas is already in editing mode, which is shown by the tick which appears in front of the Modify Current Atlas menu entry.

The atlas now appears as follows, with the first color chip selected (black border)and ready to be modified :

131

Menus
You can modify the color in several different ways: Drag and drop a color to it from a colorway palette; Drag and drop a color to it from the Pantone or Vision Color Charts, or from the Color Mixer; Modify the color directly using the Color Channels; Type the color code for the color you require in the Color Code field, which changes the color automatically.

The color codes used for the atlases are Vision color codes. Please refer to Vision Color Chart (Colors menu) for more information.

When you have defined the color you require, you can enter a name for it in the Color Name field, and then click on the next color in order to modify it in the same way. When you have completed the current page, you can enter a name for it in the Page Name field. Finally, when you have finished defining colors for the time being, leave the editing mode by clicking 9Modify color atlas in the pop-up menu, so that the tick symbol in front of it disappears.
Just above the scroll bar are four "Summary" chips symbolizing adjacent pages of the atlas. The current page is represented by the "Summary" chip with the additional border. Observe how it evolves as you add colors to the current page. A quick way to go to an adjacent page is to click an adjacent "Summary" color chip. You can also scroll through the pages of the atlas by moving the scroll bar cursor.

132

Easy Coloring
Other ways to modify an atlas
Other commands are available from the pop-up menu which appears when you right-click over the atlas:
Note that you cannot use the first four commands in the menu (they appear grayed) until you enter the editing mode by selecting Modify Current Atlas so that a tick appears in front of it, as shown.

Four corners gradient: Place four different colors in the corners of a page, and then choose this command. A color graduation based on the colors you have added is inserted to the remaining blank color chips. White gradient: Place a single color in one of the top corners of the page (or a different color in the top right and top left corners of the page) and then choose this command. A color graduation, which fades away to white, is applied to the remaining blank color chips. Line/column gradient: Choose this command and then click subsequently on two color chips on the same row or in the same column that are not immediately adjacent. A color graduation based on the two color chips you have clicked is now applied to the color chips between them. Clear current page: Choose this command to make all the color chips of the current page blank.

Please refer to Opening, Closing and Saving Color Atlases for a description of the pop-up menu commands Save Atlas, Save Atlas As and Close Atlas.

133

Menus Opening, Closing and Saving Color Atlases

Save Atlas and Save Atlas As
To save a color atlas you have created, right-click over the atlas, and than choose Save Atlas from the pop-up menu which appears. To save a color atlas with a new name, choose the command Save Atlas As from the pop-up menu.

Open Color Atlas

To open an existing color atlas, choose Open Color Atlas from the Colors menu, or click one of the three corresponding toolbar buttons. Choose the color atlas you wish to open from the Open dialog box which appears.

For an explanation on how to use an "Open" dialog box, please refer to the Open command (File menu), where such a dialog box is described in detail. After opening a color atlas by clicking a toolbar button and then closing the atlas again via its close button  you can retrieve the atlas again immediately, by clicking again on the same toolbar atlas button. Having three toolbar atlas buttons can therefore provide instant access to three different atlases. To invalidate the instant access to existing atlases, you must close the associated atlas using the Close Atlas command (Colors menu), instead of the atlas dialog button 

134

Easy Coloring Printing an Atlas

The Print command is accessed through the atlas pop-up menu (right-click an atlas page to obtain it).

See more information about this menu in the Other ways to modify an atlas section.

Upon selecting this function, a Print type dialog window will open as follows:

135

Menus

This dialog window gives you the possibility to print one or more selected pages of your atlas, using the options in the Page area.

See Print Color Chart in the File menu section for more information about the options available in this dialog box.

Clicking the Options button in the dialog window will open a subsequent dialog like this:

136

Easy Coloring
Available options are: Screen values: select this option to print the RGB values under each atlas color chip. Printer values: select this option to print the CMYK values under each atlas color chip. Color code: select it to print the HSV or hCL color code, according to the current setting in the Display tab of the Preferences function (File menu). Color label: select this option to print the color name under each color chip. Div. nums: select this option to print the Page numbers. Page label: select this option to print the Page names (if any were assigned). Click OK when ready to accept all settings and return to the main print dialog window, then click OK again to start printing the atlas. Select Cancel to abort the printing procedure.

Recent Atlas loaded

This command displays a list of all the color atlases you have recently used. To re-open one of them, just click its name in the list.
Atlases you have been using in the current project are also listed at the bottom of the Colors menu. Click one of the atlas names to re-open it.

137

Menus Close Atlas

To close an atlas you have been working on, choose Close Atlas from the Colors menu, or click its close button . If you have made changes to the atlas, Easy Coloring will give you the opportunity to save them before closing the atlas.

138

Easy Coloring

Calibration Menu

The Calibration menu contains commands for testing and optimizing the color reproduction given by your printer(s) and monitor(s).

Before using these commands, you will need to choose appropriate calibration profiles for your peripheral device from the Color Settings tabs (File menu ).

Display Adviser
Choose Display Adviser from the Calibration menu in order to follow a check list for ensuring that your monitor is correctly adjusted and is being used under the optimum conditions so as to give a faithful rendering of color. We also recommend you to refer to the documentation supplied with your monitor to make sure that any special requirements are met.
You can use the Display Adviser at any time, but you will also be asked to use it from within the general Calibration Assistant or from the Display Calibration Assistant, as part of the process of verifying that the calibration profile currently associated with your monitor enables it to accurately reproduce color. For further information, please refer to the topics Calibration Assistant or Display Calibration Assistant (Calibration menu).

The first page of the Display Adviser presents you with various factors to check, as follows:

139

Menus

When you have verified each item, complete its check box by clicking on it. Alternatively, when you have verified all the items, click on the Select All button to fill all the check boxes. Click the Next button to go on to the next page of the Display Adviser, which helps you to optimize the brightness and contrast control of your monitor:

140

Easy Coloring
When you have finished making the adjustments, you may find it helpful to cover the brightness and contrast controls with adhesive tape in order to prevent accidental changes later on.

Click on the Next button to go to the final page of the Display Adviser :

This page contains general advice for optimizing your viewing environment. When you have finished with this page, click on the Finish button to leave the Display Advisor.

Printer Adviser
Choose Printer Adviser from the Calibration menu in order to ensure that your printer is being used under the optimum conditions, so as to give a faithful rendering of color. We recommend that you also refer to the documentation supplied with your printer, to make sure that any special requirements for operation or maintenance are observed.
Use of the Printer Adviser will require you to print a test image on your printer. The test image has an RGB tiff format, and will normally be added

141

Menus
to your hard disk when Easy Coloring is installed. Before use of the Printer Adviser, go to the "File" tab of the "Preferences" dialog box (File menu) to make sure that the correct file path of the test image is specified. The default file path for a typical installation of Easy Coloring will be C:\Vision Programs\PrintTestImage. You can use the Printer Adviser at any time, but you will also be asked to use it from within the general Calibration Assistant or from the Printer Calibration Assistant as part of the process of verifying that the calibration profile currently associated with your printer enables it to accurately reproduce color. For further information, please refer to the topics Calibration Assistant or Printer Calibration Assistant (Calibration menu).

The first page of the Printer Adviser presents you with various factors to check, as follows:

When you have verified each item, complete its check box by clicking on it. Alternatively, when you have verified all the items, click on the Select All button to fill all the check boxes. Then click the Next button to go on to the next page of the Printer Adviser, which enables you to print a test image, and to compare it with the same image displayed on-screen :

142

Easy Coloring

Print the test image and display it on-screen by clicking the appropriate buttons on this page of the wizard. Now click Yes or No in response to the question at the bottom of the page Do the form, position and definition of the different parts of the printed image match the test image ? and then click the next button. If you answered Yes you will be taken to the final page of the wizard, which informs you that the printer is operating correctly. If you answered No you will be taken to a further page which gives you access to diagnostic information about the sections of the test image of interest to you. The test image is divided up into five sections, labeled Test 1 to Test 5. The diagnostic information about each section is as follows :

Test 1 - Pre-heating of the print head Printing this test section pre-heats the print heads so as to leave them in the optimum condition for further use. Already at this stage it is possible to see if there is a problem due to an empty ink cartridge.

143

Menus
Test 2 - Testing each color : black, cyan, magenta, yellow, red, blue and green. This test section checks the overall print quality of the image. If there are no problems in printing this section, the printer is operating correctly. The problems that can arise with this test section are summarized in the following table: Problem Banded Effect Description Interpretation Repeated horizontal - problem created by the bands (light or dark) print nozzles - either they appear in test section 2. do not print, or they are incorrectly oriented. - print medium advancing imprecisely - poor horizontal alignment between colors "Holes" or overlapping - poor vertical alignment between colors between colors appearing in motif 2..

Test 3 - Test of nozzle printing This test serves to confirm a problem shown up by the previous test concerning the print nozzles. Print nozzle faults are summarized in the following table :

144

Easy Coloring
Problem Print head nozzle Description In motif 3 the diagonal lines are broken in certain places. In motif 3 the separation between two lines is not always the same Interpretation - nozzles are not printing - the nozzles correctly aligned are

Test 4 - Test of the quality of color alignment This test has been created to check the color alignment. Six motifs are created, each having two different primary colors. In each motif there are circles printed in a primary color. If misalignment occurs between primary colors, the composite color will be present in part of the circle, and there will be a white area on the opposite side of the circle. Two types of misalignment exist : horizontal and vertical depending upon whether there is misalignment is along the horizontal or vertical axis. Test 5 - Test with color variation motif This text produces four rectangles: black, magenta, cyan and yellow. Each rectangle contains three horizontal stripes. The stripes on the outside consist of color at 100 shading, and the central stripe is formed by a color graduation from 100 to 0 shading. The objective is to determine at what level of shading the central stripe becomes distinct from the stripes on the outside. If the central stripe becomes distinct at a level of shading below about 90, this indicates that the print head is producing droplets of ink of incorrect size. When you have finished with the Printer Advisor, click on the Finish button on its final page. 145

Menus Display Calibration Assistant

Choose Display Calibration Assistant (Calibration menu) to verify that the calibration profile selected for a given monitor in the Color Settings dialog box (File menu) will enable the monitor to accurately display color. This is achieved by displaying an evaluation image on the monitor concerned, and comparing it with a paper copy of the same image supplied with Easy Coloring. The Display Calibration Assistant works in exactly the same way as the Calibration Assistant, except that it makes no reference to your printer or printers.

Please refer to the topic on the Calibration Assistant (Calibration menu) for further details.

Printer Calibration Assistant

Choose Printer Calibration Assistant (Calibration menu) to verify that the calibration profile selected for a given printer in the Color Settings dialog box (File menu) will enable the printer to accurately reproduce color. This is achieved by printing an evaluation image on the printer concerned, and comparing it with a paper copy of the same image supplied with Easy Coloring. The Printer Calibration Assistant works in exactly the same way as the Calibration Assistant, except that it makes no reference to your display.

Please refer to the topic on the Calibration Assistant (Calibration menu) for further details.

146

Easy Coloring Calibration Assistant

Choose Calibration Assistant from the Calibration menu. The Calibration Assistant is for use when you have already selected calibration profiles for a given display screen and printer in the Color Settings dialog box (File menu), and enables you to verify that the profiles are accurately reproducing color. The verification is performed by comparing visually a printed evaluation image (supplied with Easy Coloring) with the following two elements: the file of the same evaluation image that you will display on the screen. the file of the same evaluation image that you will print on the printer.

The Calibration Assistant takes the form of a wizard. Upon choosing it the assistant will display a page explaining its function. You can only verify the operation of one printer profile and one display profile at a time. The second page enables you to choose the monitor and printer for which you wish to verify the calibration, since you may have two monitors (Display 1 and Display 2), as well as a number of different printers installed. The second page appears as follows:

147

Menus

The Display device section of the dialog box shows the name of each of your display screens and its associated profile. Select one of the two options to verify. If you are using only one screen, the option Display 2 and the adjacent field will be grayed. The Printer device section of the dialog box shows the name of the currently selected printer and strike-off printer, and the profile associated with each. Select one of the two options to verify. If you are not using a strike-off printer, Sampling and the associated field will be grayed. If the devices and associated profiles are not those you wish to verify, click the Change device button. This lets you leave the wizard temporarily, and takes you to the Color Calibration tab of the Color Settings dialog box in order to associate appropriate profiles with your monitor(s) and printer(s).

148

Easy Coloring
For an explanation of the "Color Calibration" tab, please refer to the topic Color Settings (File menu).

When you have made your choices in the second page, click the Next button to go to the third page of the wizard. This page is intended to ensure that the printer and/or monitor you wish to verify is working optimally before proceeding. To do this, click either the Display Adviser button or the Printer Adviser button in the third page.

For further details about these two functions, please refer to Display Adviser and Printer Adviser (Calibration menu).

When you have finished using the Display Adviser and/or Printer Adviser, you will be returned automatically to the third page of the Calibration Assistant. Click the Next button to proceed. You will then be taken through a series of other dialog boxes that will enable you to locate, display and print the file of the evaluation image in order to compare it with the printed version provided with Easy Coloring. When you get to the end of the wizard, you will be asked whether the printer and/or screen profile used is correct. if the answer is yes, celebrate ! if the answer is no in either case, you will be asked if you wish to check the contents of the profile, i.e. view information such as the manufacturer and model of the device, and the associated color space If you have not mistakenly chosen the wrong profile by mistake, and find that none of the others are satisfactory, a profile will have to be corrected using an application for editing profiles of type *.icm, such as Color Flow.

Each time you make changes to the calibration environment in the Color Settings dialog box, a message box will appear asking you if you want to verify the calibration environment following the procedure described above.

149

Menus

150

Easy Coloring

Window Menu

Owing to the Windows interface, several windows corresponding to different projects can be open at the same time. The Window menu contains commands for organizing and manipulating the windows.
A list of all open projects is given at the bottom of the Window menu - click on a project name to bring its windows to the front.

Cascade
Choose Cascade from the Window menu to group all open windows in overlapping formation. A window can be brought to the front of the group by clicking the part of it which is visible.

Tile Horizontally
To display all open projects in windows arranged one above the other choose Tile Horizontally from the Window menu.

151

Menus Tile Vertically

To display all open projects in windows arranged side by side choose Tile Vertically from the Window menu.

Tile Options
On clicking Tile Options a dialog box appears giving three alternative options concerning the commands Tile Horizontally and Tile Vertically. The options affect the operation of these commands when there are a number of different projects open at the same time with their own child windows. The options are as follows : Tile child windows by project: A group of tiled child windows is created for each project so that all the child windows of a given project are together. Tile the child windows of the active project: Only the child windows of the active project will be tiled together. Tile child windows in order of creation: All child windows will be tiled in their order of creation.

In addition to these options, you can select the Restore before tile option, so that any windows which have been minimized to icons at the bottom of the screen will be re-opened and included in the tiling process. After having made your choices, click the OK button.

152

Easy Coloring Automatic Tile

To enable the tiling commands to operate correctly if you are using two monitors simultaneously, click Automatic Tile, so that it appears in the Window menu without a tick in front of it.

Arrange Icons
If you have been working on a large number of different windows, you may have minimized a number of them to icons. Click Arrange Icons in the Window menu for the icons to be arranged in a row at the bottom of the screen.

153

Menus

154

Easy Coloring

Help Menu

Help Topics
To look up information choose Help Topics from the Help menu and then click on one of the tabs: Click the Contents tab see the topic headings. Double-click a heading to see the help topics it contains. Double-click a topic to obtain access to it. Click the Index tab to use the subject index. Click the Search tab to search for a term not contained in the index.

About Easy Coloring ...

To find information about the program version and copyright, choose About Easy Coloring from the Help menu or click the About button on the toolbar.
The same dialog window will offer the option to obtain Pantone Inc. copyright information (click the corresponding button in the Easy Coloring About dialog box.

155

Toolbars

156

Easy Coloring

TOOLBARS
Overview
Vision Easy Coloring has five toolbars and a status bar: Standard Toolbar Colorway Toolbar View Toolbar Colors Toolbar Status bar Zoom Toolbar

To display a toolbar that is not currently shown, select it from the View menu. To hide a displayed toolbar, select it again from the View menu. You can move a toolbar to another location on the screen by placing the mouse pointer on its border and then dragging and dropping it the desired place.

157

Toolbars

Standard Toolbar

This toolbar provides quick access to basic commands of the File, Edit and Help menus. These commands are summarized below, but for a full description, please refer to the section of this guide concerning the menus. Open : click the Open button to work on an existing project. For further guidance, please refer to the Open command (File menu). Save : click the Save button to save the project you are working on without closing it. For guidance on the choices to make when saving a project for the first time, please refer to the Save As command (File menu).

Print : Prints the current project with the current print settings. Print Preview : Displays a preview of how the current project will
be printed using the current print settings.

Undo : Cancels any last action. Redo : Cancels the last action made by the Undo button. About : Displays information about the software version. Help : Click the Help button and then an item on the screen to see the related help topic.

158

Easy Coloring

Colorway Toolbar

This toolbar contains commands for creating colorways and performing operations on them. All the commands are also available from the Colorways menu.

New Colorway
To create one or more new colorways, click the New Colorway button. For full instructions, please refer to New Colorway (Colorways menu).

Duplicate Colorway
A new colorway that is identical with the currently selected colorway may be created by clicking the Duplicate Colorway button. For full instructions, please refer to Duplicate Colorway (Colorways menu).

Previous Colorway and Next Colorway

To change the colorway displayed in the main project view, move through the colorways in the All Colorways View using the Previous Colorway and Next Colorway commands in the Colorways menu. Alternatively click the corresponding toolbar buttons, or use the shortcut keys CTRL + J or CTRL + U.

159

Toolbars Delete Colorway

Click the colorway you wish to delete, then choose Delete Colorway from the Colorways menu or click the corresponding toolbar button. The equivalent keyboard shortcut is CTRL + D.
It is possible to undo this command using CTRL + Z.

160

Easy Coloring

Display Toolbar

This toolbar provides tools for managing views and for controlling the way they are displayed. The tools are as follows:

Cascade
Choose Cascade from the Window menu or click the Cascade button to group all open windows in overlapping formation. A window can be brought to the front of the group by clicking the part of it which is visible.

Tile Horizontally
To display all open projects in windows arranged one above the other choose Tile Horizontally from the Window menu or click the Tile Horizontally button on the toolbar.

Tile Vertically
To display all open projects in windows arranged side by side choose Tile Vertically from the Window menu or click the Tile Vertically button on the toolbar.

View Film
To display the currently selected color of the image more prominently while you work, click the View Films button on the Display toolbar. Click the button again to return to a normal display.

161

Toolbars
The way the selected color and the other image colors are displayed in the View Films mode depends upon the Visualize Film Options you select. These options are available from the submenu that appears on choosing Visualize Film Options from the current Colorway Main View pop-up menu. Obtain the pop-up menu by right-clicking on the Current Colorway Main View :

For a detailed explanations on the various functions of this pop-up menu, please see the Main View Pop-up Menu section in the Main Window chapter.

162

Easy Coloring

Colors Toolbar

This toolbar contains most of the tools of the Colors menu. These include tools for modifying colors directly (the Color Channels and Color Mixer), standard libraries for you to use (Pantone and Absolute Vision Color Chart), as well as Color Atlas tools, which enable you to customize collections of colors which you can save for use in other projects. It also contains a whole range of other tools to give you maximum control over color use The tools are summarized below, but for full descriptions, please refer to the corresponding topics in the section of this guide on the Colors menu.

Color Channels
To modify a color, click the color you wish to change on the fabric and screen palette, then click the Color Channels button. For a full description of this function, please refer to Color Channels (Colors menu).

Color Mixer
Click on this toolbar button to create a color which is intermediate to other two selected colors. Please refer to Color Mixer (Tools menu) for full instructions.

Copy Color
This command allows you to replace the fabric color or a screen color with a color taken from anywhere else in the project. For full instructions, please refer to Copy Color (Colors menu).

163

Toolbars Swap Colors

Click the Swap Colors button to exchange two screen or fabric colors. Full instructions for this command may be found by referring to Swap Colors (Colors menu).

Degrade Color
Click the Degrade Color button to apply a color graduation to a number of palette colors. For details of how to perform this operation, please refer to Gradient Between Two Colors (Colors menu).

Color Grouping
Enables groups of colors to be modified in a similar way. For example this tool permits you to change an array of red nuances into yellow nuances, without losing the balance of highlights and shadows. This function is fully described under Color Grouping (Colors menu).

Color Adjustment
Displays the colors adjustment dialog box for creating variations of the current colorway. This function is fully described under Color Adjustment (Colors menu).

Coloring Assistant
Facilitates color creation for new colorways. This function is fully described under Coloring Assistant (Colors menu).

164

Easy Coloring Color Information

To view or modify the color parameters for the current colorway click the Color Information button. This function is fully described under Color Information (Colors menu).

Absolute Vision Color Chart

To use the Vision range for a color, click the Absolute Vision Color Chart button. For instructions on its use, please refer to Absolute Vision Color Chart (Colors menu).

Pantone
To use the Pantone range for a color, click the corresponding button. For instructions on use of the Pantone chart, please refer to Pantone Chart (Colors menu).

Color Atlases
For an explanation of the use of the color atlas buttons, please refer to Opening, Closing and Saving Color Atlases (Colors menu).

165

Toolbars

Zoom Toolbar
The Zoom toolbar provides a simple, yet powerful, way in which you can change the zoom factor, display mode and the repeat count of the current view.

Life size
Click the Life Size button to visualize your design in its real size dimensions, according to the selected zoom level. At 100% zoom, this option displays the design at life size. When this button is not pressed, you will work in Pixel Size mode, i.e. the image displayed on-screen will be shown as having a dimension proportional to its actual number of pixels. In fact, the image is displayed such as to have a 1-to-1 correspondence between the images and the screens pixel raster.

Zoom Drop-down
Click the zoom drop-down arrow in order to choose the zoom factor directly from a list offering various zoom values and further options, such as Whole page, Life Size and Pixel Size. Please note that Life Size and Pixel Size are mutually exclusive options, for example Pixel Size will be shown in the list only when the current display mode has been set to Life Size. Choosing the Whole Page list entry will result in displaying the repeat of your project adjusted in size to the entire view area of the applications main window.
Choosing the Life Size entry of the Zoom drop-down is equivalent to pressing the Life Size button and then choosing a 100% zoom factor.

166

Easy Coloring Zoom slider

Offers a quick and visual method of zoom factor setting: just click and drag the slider left or right, then release to adjust the level of zoom while inspecting the image until the desired level is acquired. Drag the slider to change the current zoom factor. This is useful if you wish to change the zoom factor to an extent less than that represented by the next zoom level up or down available from the zoom drop-down.

Zoom In
Click the Zoom In button to enlarge the view of the active window by one level of zoom. Alternatively click the + button on the keyboard.

Zoom Out
Click the Zoom Out button to reduce the view of the active window by one level of zoom. Alternatively, click the button on the keyboard.

167

Toolbars Centering the image on mouse-cursor position

When working with a zoomed in image so that scroll bars are present to allow browsing through the whole image, position your mouse cursor above the area of interest, and press ENTER on your keyboard. Unless the chosen position is too close to a border or corner, the image will be panned so that the pointed area is centered on your screen.

Here is an example: Mouse cursor positioned over the dark red flower:

Press ENTER. Here is the result:

168

Easy Coloring Repeat Count

The figure at the extreme right of the Zoom toolbar gives the number of repeats currently shown in the active window, whatever size or proportions it currently has. The figure is calculated by counting either along the vertical axis of the window or along its horizontal axis (whichever figure is smaller). For example, a figure of 5.500 shows that five and a half repeats can be counted going from the top to the bottom of your screen, or alternatively counting from left to right. If desired, enter a new figure in the repeat count field, and press ENTER. The zoom factor of the window will then be changed to match your figure.

Status Bar
When displayed, the status bar is situated across the bottom of the screen and provides a variety of ancillary information. For example, if you move the mouse pointer over a toolbar button a tooltip appears next to the button after a moments pause, and a more detailed prompt appears on the status bar.

169

Browsing Thumbnail Views

170

Easy Coloring

BROWSING THUMBNAIL VIEWS

In the various dialog windows used for opening or importing an image file, Easy Coloring provides a Browse button , which permits you to visualize thumbnail views of all the image files in the current folder. This is invaluable if you dont know the file name of the image you are searching for. On clicking the Browse button the File Atlas window appears, displaying thumbnail views of all the image files in the current folder. The current folder is also represented in the File Atlas window and appears as an open folder (Fig. 1). Click it to move up a level in the folder tree. Closed folders may also be displayed (Fig.2). Click a closed folder to view its contents.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Where the File Atlas window is too small to show all the thumbnail views, a scroll bar is provided which you can drag to see the other views. If you double-click a thumbnail view it will either be opened directly, or it will be designated as the file to be opened in the dialog box which you left before browsing thumbnail views.
When the File Atlas window is open, you can move more rapidly around the folder tree by right clicking to obtain the Browse pop-up see the topic Browse Pop-up Menu contained in the Miscellaneous Pop-up Menus section of this guide.

171

Browsing Thumbnail Views

Browse Pop-up Menu

This pop-up menu is obtained by right clicking in the File Atlas window. Its commands enable you to browse thumbnail views more easily... :

See Browsing Thumbnail Views for further information on the "File Atlas" window.

The Browse Pop-up menu commands are as follows: The Directory command displays a dialog box for changing the folder in which to browse the thumbnail views. Click the Up One Level button to climb the folder tree or double-click a folder to show the folders it contains. Alternatively click the down arrow of the Look in field to show the folder tree and then click the part of the tree where you want to go to. Choose a folder where you want to browse thumbnail views by double clicking it, and then by clicking the Set button. You are returned to the main File Atlas window, where file thumbnails for the folder you selected are now shown.
It is faster to use this than clicking on the folder icon in the "File Atlas" window because it avoids creating thumbnails of the files for each directory you browse through.

Use the Sort By command to sort the thumbnails by name, type, date or size to change the order in which they are displayed.

172

Easy Coloring

Fashion Studio Communication Layout

Here is a chart presenting the communication system between the modules of the Fashion Studio application group.

Vision Easy Coloring can basically be called (launched) from under any of the other modules of the Fashion Studio applications, except Vision Easy Knit, Vision Easy Weave or Vision Easy Jacquard, in order to work on the image colors, colorways, color groups etc. with the specific tools of Vision Easy Coloring, then return to the caller module.
You can not call any other module of Fashion Studio from within Vision Easy Coloring.

173

Glossary

174

Easy Coloring

GLOSSARY
256 color file format Antialiasing Also known as an image having a palette or an LUT file, this file format uses 8-bit color definition. A smoothing function, which can be used to improve the quality of an image displayed on a computer monitor, or as printed. Also known as high quality. An abbreviation for background color. Put in order or sort (used in relation to the output of pages from a printer). A color library that can be customized for future use. A tool for color adjustment, featuring a slider. Color of varying tone = color graduation = gray tone = gray level ( flat tone). An anti-pirating device, also known as a hard lock key. See flat tone. Color with no graduation ( gray tone, continuous tone). and See Continuous Tone. See Antialiasing.

BackColor Collate Color Atlas Color Channel Continuous Tone Dongle Flat Color Flat tone Gray level Gray tone High Quality

175

Glossary
HSV Color System With this system any color can be defined in terms of a combination of three figures : Hue this figure is used to situate the color in the chromatic spectrum. It may be considered in terms of colors of the rainbow : on passing gradually through the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet) the figure varies from zero to 359. Saturation this figure is used to indicate the extent to which the color is dilute (minimum value zero) or rich (maximum value 100).
Value this figure indicates the luminosity of the color. Its effects can be considered independently of hue and saturation. Thus, if you take any color and reduce its value to zero, it becomes black. Similarly, increasing the value of any color to the maximum of 100 changes it to white.

Hue Init grouping Life size Opacity

See HSV Color System. = initialize grouping. = true size = real size = full size. The color resulting from printing on fabric with a given colorant depends upon its absorption level (see "absorption level") and upon its opacity. Opacity is measured as a percentage between 0 and 100%. A colorant with a high opacity will tend to mask the color of the fabric and any colorants already added, even on areas of the fabric where it has a low absorption level due to previous absorption of several other colorants.

176

Easy Coloring
RGB Color System (See also HSV Color System) With this system any color can be defined in terms of the proportions of red, green and blue light emitted. When the figure for each of these is zero, the color is black. The same logic shows that increasing the red, green and blue levels to their maximum level of 100 gives white. See Flat Tone. Colors that are used to symbolize information, and which do not represent real fabric or image colors. See HSV Color System.

Spot Color Technical colors

Value

White Graduation = "white gradient" = fade into white. Wizard A series of dialog boxes which appear one after the other to guide you through a procedure. = zoom factor, the magnification at which a project view is displayed on-screen, for example, 100% or 50%.

Zoom level

177

Appendix

178

Easy Coloring

APPENDIX A: SUGGESTION SHEET FOR EASY COLORING

Contact Name: Date : Application: Description: Company: Suggestion No : Application Version:

Interest:

What would you like to do?

What do you do at the moment?

How long does it take?

179

Appendix
How often do you do it?

Reserved for use by NedGraphics No : Date : Project Manager :

Reception Date:

...../...../.....

RESERVED FOR USE BY NEDGRAPHICS

Developer in charge: Modification for Version: Modification Date: ...../...../.....

180

Easy Coloring

APPENDIX B: ANOMALY REPORT FOR EASY COLORING

Contact Name : Date: Application: Application Version: Language : Operating System: Language: Colors in ScreenConfig: Size in Screen Config : Screens (if you use more than one): Description of the problem: Company : Anomaly Report N : API Design Version: API Tools Version: Processor Type : Available Memory: Current Disk Space: System Font Size :

Frequency: How can it be reproduced ? (step by step)

181

Appendix

Type of problem : Causes Crashing 8 Doesnt Cause Crashing 8

Yes Have you ever used this function without problem in a previous version? If yes in which version : Has your system configuration changed recently? If yes, how has it changed :

No

For use by NedGraphics only No: Project Manager :

Date :

182

Easy Coloring

INDEX
1 16 million colors ......... 51, 94, 99 2 256 colors ................................ 51 A About Easy Coloring............. 155 Absolute Chart Lab Mode..... 106 absolute color .......................... 81 Absolute Vision Color Chart ...... 62, 105, 165 All Colorways View................ 23 All Colorways View Pop-Up Menu ................................... 33 antialiasing .............................. 58 Area Selection ......................... 59 Arrange Icons ........................ 153 atlas - modifying ................... 133 Atlas - opening ...................... 134 Atlas - saving......................... 134 Auto Cutting...................... 55, 58 Automatic Colorway conversion ............................................. 91 Automatic Tile ...................... 153 B Background in gray levels....... 31 Background in pastel colors .... 30 183 C Calibration Assistant ............. 147 Calibration environment ......... 46 Calibration Menu .................. 139 Cascade ................................. 151 Centering............................... 168 Change Color Name................ 32 Change colorway name ........... 33 Change Colorway Name ......... 32 child windows ....................... 152 Clear current page ................. 133 Clear this group..................... 114 Click.......................................... 9 Close ....................................... 38 Close Atlas ...................... 134, 138 CMY ....................................... 96 CMYK..................................... 97 CMYK% ................................. 99 Collate ..................................... 55 color - accurate reproduction 147 Color Adjustment.......... 114, 164 Color Atlas - definition ......... 130 Color Atlas - New ................. 130 Color Atlases......................... 165 Color Channels.......... 18, 94, 163 Color Channels Pop-up Menu. 95 Color Chart - printing.............. 62 Background in technical colors30 BEFORE YOU BEGIN ............ 7 Browse button ................. 51, 171 Browse Pop-up Menu............ 172 BROWSING THUMBNAIL VIEWS .............................. 171

Index
Color Code ............................ 104 Color Grouping.............. 110, 164 Color Information.......... 127, 165 Color Mixer ................... 100, 163 Color Options .......................... 32 color palette ............................. 24 Color Settings .......................... 74 Colored .................................... 99 Coloring Assistant ......... 121, 164 Colors Menu ............................ 93 Colors toolbar .......................... 86 Colors Toolbar....................... 163 Colorway - deletion ................. 92 Colorway Selection ................. 53 Colorway toolbar ..................... 86 Colorway Toolbar.................. 159 Colorways create new........... 89 colorways - intuitive creation 115 colorways - methods of generation .......................... 121 Colorways Menu ..................... 89 Combinations and sequences of keys........................................ 8 Command names .......................... 8 Contents tab............................. 12 Copies- number you wish to print ............................................. 55 copy a color palette .................... 21 Copy Color .................... 100, 163 Current Colorway Main View . 23 Current Colorway Palette Pop-up Menu.................................... 32 D Define Backcolor..................... 29 Degrade Color ....................... 164 Delete a Colorway ................. 160 184 Delete all propositions........... 125 Delete Colorway...................... 92 Delete the colorway................. 34 Directory command............... 172 Display Adviser..................... 139 Display Backcolor ................... 29 Display Calibration Assistant 146 Display Color Names .............. 32 Display Color References........ 32 Display Group Colors............ 126 Display Repeat ........................ 28 Display Toolbar..................... 161 dongle ...................................... 13 Double-click .............................. 9 Drag........................................... 9 Drag and Drop........................... 9 Duplicate Colorway......... 90, 159 E ECP file type ........................... 36 Edit Menu................................ 83 Enhanced Display.................... 99 evaluation image ................... 147 Exit .......................................... 82 F File Atlas window ................. 171 File Format tab ........................ 50 File Menu ................................ 35 file size .................................... 51 file type.................................... 51 Film in black............................ 30 flipped repeat type................... 44 Four corners Gradient............ 133

Easy Coloring
G GLOSSARY.......................... 175 Gradient Between Two Colors ........................................... 102 gray level page ........................ 63 Group Color Area ...................... 25 Group Colors......................... 120 H hCL.......................................... 97 Help......................................... 12 Help button.............................. 12 Help Menu............................. 155 Help Topics ..................... 12, 155 Helpful hints............................ 21 Hide all bars ............................ 87 HSV................................... 18, 95 I Image Parameters tab .............. 51 Image properties...................... 43 Index tab.................................. 12 Init grouping.......................... 114 Installation and Start-up .......... 13 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW ......................... 1 K
Key names .................................. 8

L Lab .......................................... 98 Life size........................... 58, 166 Line/column gradient ............ 133 M Main View Options................. 33 Main View Pop-up Menu ........... 28 MAIN WINDOW ................... 23 mirrored repeat type ................ 44 monitor .................................. 153 monitor - optimizing ............. 139 Monochrome ........................... 31 N network printer........................ 47 New Colorway ................ 89, 159 Next Colorway ................ 92, 159 O One colorway by sheet............ 53 Open........................................ 36 P Page Options dialog box ......... 56 Page range ............................... 52 Page Setup............................... 46 palette.................................... 103 Pantone ........................... 109, 165 paper size .................................. 52 paper source and orientation ... 47 185

Index
parallel port.............................. 13 Pixel......................................... 44 Pop-up Menus.......................... 25 Preferences .............................. 67 Previous Colorway .......... 92, 159 Print ......................................... 48 Print Color Chart ..................... 65 Print image .............................. 57 print in repeat-mode ................ 59 Print PCR Atlas ....................... 65 Print Preview ........................... 48 Print The Internal Color Chart. 62 Print title .................................. 56 Print to file............................... 50 printable area of the paper ........... 52 printer - optimizing................ 141 printer - test image................. 142 Printer Adviser ...................... 141 printer cable............................. 14 Printer Calibration Assistant.. 146 printer- choosing an alternative49 Project properties..................... 41 proposition for colorway116, 122 R Random (colorway creation) . 123 Recent atlas loaded................ 137 Redo......................................... 83 Repeat Count ......................... 169 repeat type ............................... 44 Resolution................................ 44 resolution for your printer ....... 51 Restore before tile.................. 152 RGB................................... 18, 96 Right Click ................................ 9 S Save ......................................... 38 Save As.................................... 38 Search Name ......................... 110 Search Page ........................... 109 Search tab ................................ 12 Sections....................................... 8 Select All ....................... 119, 124 Sort By command.................. 172 Standard toolbar ...................... 86 Standard Toolbar ................... 158 Status bar ......................... 87, 169 Status Bar ................................ 12 step .......................................... 44 Summary chips ........................ 132 Swap (colorway creation)...... 123 Swap Colors .................. 101, 164 Symbols..................................... 8 T Terms and Conventions............. 8 thumbnail views .................... 171 Tile Horizontally ................... 151 Tile Options........................... 152 Tile Vertically ....................... 152 TOOLBARS.......................... 157 true colors................................ 51 True Colors.............................. 51 Tutorial .................................... 17 U undo......................................... 20 Undo ........................................ 83 Units ........................................ 43 186

Easy Coloring
V View all bars ........................... 87 View toolbar............................ 86 Vision Chart - printing .......... 104 Vision Color Chart ................ 102 Vision Color Chart ................ 103 Vision PCR Atlas .................. 107 W Whats this? button ................. 12 White gradient....................... 133 Window Menu....................... 151 wizard...................................... 13 X XYZ ........................................ 98 Z Zoom ....................................... 28 Zoom drop-down................... 166 Zoom In........................... 85, 167 Zoom Out ........................ 85, 167 Zoom slider ........................... 167 Zoom toolbar........................... 87 Zoom Toolbar ....................... 166

187