Unit 5 - Lesson 15 Creating Colours
Unit 5 - Lesson 15 Creating Colours
Unit 5 - Lesson 15 Creating Colours
STRUCTURE
15.0 OBJECTIVES
15.1 INTRODUCTION
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15.11.1 MANAGING COLOUR FOR DISPLAY, INPUT AND OUTPUT
15.11.2 STEPS FOR COLOUR MANAGEMENT
15.11.3 CHOOSING COLOUR PROFILES
15.11.4 CHOOSING ADVANCED COLOUR MANAGEMENT SETTINGS
15.11.5 TO CHOOSE A COLOUR ENGINE AND RENDERING INTENT
15.11.6 TO EMBED COLOUR PROFILES
15.11.7 TO USE COLOUR MANAGEMENT STYLES
15.11.8 CORRECTING COLOURS FOR DISPLAY
15.11.9 PALETTED COLOUR MODE
15.12 ASSIGNMENTS
15.12.1 CLASS ASSIGNMENTS
15.12.2 HOME ASSIGNMENTS
15.13 SUMMING UP
15.17 GLOSSARY
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15. CREATING COLOURS
This lesson deals with various colour harmonies you have learnt in the
previous units with respect to the different colour models designated on a
computer system. Following this, the concept of vector graphics and bitmap
images will be discussed. More advanced features of Corel graphics like patterns
fill, colour management and printing profiles will then be taken up.
15.0 Objectives
After completing this lesson you will be able to
15.1 Introduction
Often the power of colour in design is underestimated. To the eye, colours
are what spices are to food. If not enough, the dish can be boring, and if too
much the dish can be overwhelming. Bad colour combinations can be distracting
and ruin your intended effect, but cleverly matched selections can create
absolutely superb results. The colours in your design can command attention, set
a mood, or influence an emotional response. So, it is critical to know how and
when to use colour.
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15.3 Colour Harmony
• Definite colours such as yellow, red, green, purple etc. are called
“chromatic colours”.
• Neutral colours such as black, white, grey, dull brown, silver, gold, metallic
colours, are called “achromatic colours”, i.e. colours without basic colours.
Analogous Adjacent
High - Key
Complementary Complementary
15.3.1 Monochromatic
Shades and tints of one colour are used sometimes with the addition of
achromatic tones such as black, white, silver, gold, grey, etc. (Fig. 15.1A). The
disadvantage of this harmony is that it is likely to become monotonous. This fault
may be corrected by the addition of a contrast in accessories. Even a small
amount of contrasting colour is sufficient.
15.3.2 Complementary
Colours that are directly opposite to each other on the colour wheel are
called complementary colours. In furnishing use of complementary colours is
considered too striking but it is effective in rooms where the colours are subdued,
the effect is equally pleasing (Fig. 15.1B).
15.3.3 Triadic
There are three colours that are at equal-distance in the colour wheel, viz.
primary, secondary, and tertiary (Fig. 15.1C).
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A B C
Fig. 15.1 Colour harmony: A. Monochromatic. B. Complementary. C. Triad.
15.3.4 Analogous
Analogous colours are those adjacent to each other in the colour wheel or
those that have same primary or secondary colour as factors. For example, green
and purple are closely related, hence this type of harmony is not always balanced
because both side of the colour wheel is not represented (Fig. 15.2A).
15.3.5 Achromatic
Achromatic colours are colours on the grey scale with different values of
white and black and the numerous shades of grey can be created by mixing black
and white (Fig. 15.2B).
15.3.6 Polychromatic
A B C
5.3.7 High-Key
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High-Key harmony is a tone value of colour which gives a very light and
bright effect (Fig. 15.3A). This consists of tints and pastes of colours which are
brighter and more intense.
15.3.8 Middle-Key
15.3.9 Low-Key
A B C
Fig. 15.3 Colour harmony: A. High key. B. Middle key. C. Low key
6 Warm colours
15.5 Contrast Colours
Colours of a different nature, without any similarity, become contrast
colours. If we refer to the colour wheel, we will find these pairs of colours red and
green, blue and orange, yellow and violet appear exactly opposite on the axis of
a colour wheel.
Self-check Questions
1. Write the names of colours and also their significance, which falls in the
category of warm and cool colours.
5. How will you differentiate between High-key, middle key and low-key
colour harmonies?
6. Which is the lightest and the darkest hue on the colour palette?
There are some major advantages in using vector graphics. First, the files
typically use less disk storage room since only the endpoint locations are stored
and not all of the intermediate dots. Second, an object can be easily scaled by
simply moving its endpoints. The computer automatically fills in the connections
between the endpoints. Third, the computer can now tell one object from another,
which provides some useful benefits when creating complicated drawing.
Bitmapping has its benefits, but it also has drawbacks. If two objects
overlap in the drawing, the computer does not know which object owns the dots
in the area of overlap. Should the "artist" (the computer operator) decide to
change the orientation of the two objects, the entire section of the drawing needs
to be redrawn. This can be time-consuming and aggravating.
Most quality laser printers have a resolution of 300 dots per inch of paper.
That means that the printer can apply 300 tiny dots per inch in either a vertical or
horizontal direction on a piece of paper. Most computer monitors have 640 dots
horizontally across the entire screen and 480 dots vertically down the entire
screen. This provides less than 1/3 the resolution provided by a laser printer.
Consequently, if the laser printer can only print what was on the bitmapped
screen, the printed image will turn out jagged unless special conversion
operations are done to the file to improve the resolution from the screen level to
the printer level.
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The important part here is that the computer must assess where a dot
belongs and then interpolate where the compensating dots should appear. What
you see on the screen is not always what you get in print.
So, Bitmap is an image composed of grids of pixels or dots, i.e. when you
look into the images with colours the images contains small and tiny dots to
create a picture, which is referred to as bitmap of the image.
There are two basic types of graphic files: Bitmap and Vector. Although
you cannot always tell by looking at an image whether it is a bitmap or vector
type, they are very different and created in a totally different way. This can be
confusing, but understanding the difference is essential to understanding
computer graphics.
ii) Vector images, on the other hand, have no pixels (Fig. 15.6). They are
displayed or printed with mathematical positioning. A vector image
contains messages like, draw a rectangle, this size and at this place on
the page. The example here approximates how the design is created.
Compare it to the bitmap example of the same image.
iii) Vector files are usually considerably smaller than a bitmap file of the
same image, since there is less information required to achieve the
same results. The exception is in photographic type images where
color changes with almost every pixel. This type of file is best created
and edited in a bitmap programme. The two images in Fig. 15.7 look
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the same. The one on the left is a bitmap, size 122,888 bytes. The one
on the right is vector, size 11,227 bytes.
iv) Bitmap images lose quality if they are scaled to a larger size. There is
simply not enough information to maintain the quality; basically the
pixels just get bigger. With vector images, the mapping is all that
changes. Instead of calling for a rectangle 2" by 1", scaling to twice the
size simply changes the rectangle to 4" by 2" with no quality loss and
no file size increase. See the example here which simulates bitmap
scaling on the left and vector on the right.
Bitmap fills put pictures inside your objects. Use the fill editor to create
simple fills on the fly, or import your own bitmap file. In the Figure 15.9, the text
and oval to the left contain bitmap fills, the light star has a preset 2 colour pattern
fill and the dark star a preset full colour pattern fill. These fills are accomplished
by selecting an object with the Pick Tool, clicking on the Fill Tool to open the fly-
out. Click on the third icon to open the Bitmap Fill window.
When you convert a vector graphics to a bitmap, you can apply special
effects that are unavailable to vector graphics or objects. When you convert the
vector, you can select the colour mode of the bitmap.
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As you have learnt, the colours of the images that you work are based on
Colour modes. colour modes define the colour characteristics of images and are
described by their component colours. The CMYK colour mode is composed of
cyan, magenta, yellow, and black values and the RGB colour mode is composed
of red, green, and blue values.
Although you may not be able to see the difference between an image in
the CMYK colour mode and an image in the RGB colour mode on screen, the
images are quite different. For the image of same dimensions, an RGB image
has a smaller file size than a CMYK image and the RGB colour space. Where
accurate print reproduction is needed, such as on a commercial printing press,
there images are generally created in CMYK mode.
Each time you convert an image, you may lose colour information. For this
reason, you should save an edited image before you change it to a different
colour mode.
2 Colour pattern fills are simple. There are preset patterns to choose from
as in the top samples, or you can easily create your own as in the lower sample
(Fig. 15.11). The front and back colours can be set using the full selection of
CorelDraw. colours.
Fig. 15.12 Full Colour Pattern Fills Fig. 15.13 Bitmap Pattern Fills
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Full colour pattern fills provide the ability to place a vector image as a
pattern (Fig. 15.12). The sample to the left shows two preset Full colour patterns
with rotated and scale variations. The variations give you unlimited power to
modify and position fills for the perfect results every time. Pattern fills can be
used on any object.
Bitmap pattern fills are created from raster images. You can use many
types, including TIF, JPG, BMP, GIF, and the list goes on. There are several pre-
loaded images to use, but the real power of this feature is the ability to use
external files in the most common file types. In Figure 15.13, the sample on the
left shows variations of a preset Bitmap fill and a JPG file, from an Internet
collection.
For all types of patterns, to delete, Choose the pattern you wish to delete
from the drop-down selector, and click on Delete (Fig. 15.14).
All pattern fill types have default settings of 2" for Size and 0 for all other
Options. We can adjust the position, size and appearance of pattern fills through
the various options in the lower part of the Pattern Fill Window. In the Figure
15.16 the sample to the left shows a perfect 4" x 4" rectangle filled with a pattern
fill at the default size of 2". This pattern makes it easy to see one repeat. Note the
guidelines placed every 2".
Fig. 15.17
Fig. 15.16 Adjust Pattern
Colour Values Fill Size
Change the value to 1" for the Size option. Note that there are now four
occurrences of the pattern repeat within the 2" sections marked by the guidelines
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(Fig. 15.17). The pattern repeat now occurs every 1" by 1" square, allowing 4
repeats in a 2" by 2" area.
The default setting for the pattern fill places one row of pattern repeats
directly on top of the previous one. You can change the offset to make the pattern
repeat stagger (Fig. 15.18). Change the value to 50% with the Row option active
to achieve the results to the left.
You can also set the position for the pattern to start. Set the x value to 0.5.
This will move the pattern 0.5" to the right (Fig. 15.19). Use negative values to
move to the left. Set the y value to -.5. This moves the pattern .5" down. Note the
extra guidelines placed at the .5" position.
You can skew the pattern fill, or tilt it to the right or the left (Fig. 15.20).
Enter -30 as the value in the Skew option within the Transform area of the
Pattern Fill window. The pattern tilts at 30 degrees to the right. An entry of 30
would have tilted the pattern 30 degrees to the left.
You can also rotate the pattern fill (Fig. 15.21). Enter a value of 45 in the
rotate option within the Transform area of the Pattern Fill window. Note how the
pattern is now at a diagonal angle to the rectangle.
When you transform your object, i.e., resize or rotate, the pattern fill remains
as it was before the object transformation. See the Figure 15.22, with two
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identical rectangles. The top example shows an object that was filled and rotated.
The pattern did not rotate. To keep your pattern consistent no matter what editing
you do to your object, check Transform Fill with Object in the lower left corner of
the Pattern Fill window.
iii) Choose a fountain fill from the Fill type list box on
the property bar.
Tips: You can mix colours in a two-colour fountain fill by selecting one of
the interactive vector handles, pressing Ctrl Key on the colour palette.
You can add a colour to a fountain fill by dragging a colour from the colour
palette to an object's interactive vector handle.
ii) Open the Fill flyout, and click the Fountain fill dialog button.
You may find that the colours displayed on your monitor don't match the
colours of a scanned image or of a printer's output. Colour management enables
you reproduce colours accurately by using colour profiles and by correcting
colours for display. In this section, you will learn about understanding the colour
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management dialog box. Colour management is the process of matching
colours between Input/Output devices, such as scanners, digital cameras,
printers, and monitors. Your application features colour management controls
designed to help you achieve the best possible colour matches.
The colour management dialog box, with its default settings, looks like as in
Figure 15.23.
Fig. 15.23
You can activate the following visual elements:
• Monitor icon
• Import/export icon
• Arrows
You can click the Monitor icon, the Import/export icon, the Internal RGB
icon, and the Arrows to choose Colour management options and advanced
settings. You can click the caption text under the icons to choose colour profiles
for each device. You can also get other colour profiles from the application CD or
online.
In addition, you can click the arrows between device icons to turn the
colour profiles on or off. The arrows appear orange when on, and grey and
broken when off. You can use the arrows to correct colours between devices, and
control how colours are displayed.
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1. The first stage in setting up your colour management system is to choose
Colour profiles for your monitor and each of the devices you use, such as
scanners, digital cameras, and printers.
2. Each device has a range of colours, or colour space, that it uses. For
example, a monitor displays a different set of Colours than a printer
reproduces. So, you may see some Colours on the screen that cannot be
printed.
3. You can use a colour management system to translate colours from one
device to another. Colour profiles define the colour space for your monitor
and for the input and output devices you use.
Arrow On Off
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From internal RGB to the The printer and internal The profile is not
• Scanner/digital camera
• Separations printer
• Monitor
• Composite printer
• Internal RGB
Once you choose colour profiles, the colour management system uses a
Colour Matching Module (CMM) to match colours between devices as closely as
possible. Your application uses the Kodak colour Management System by
default. You can also choose different rendering intents, which control how the
Colour management system converts colours between different colour spaces.
When you import or export graphics, you can embed, or attach, colour
profiles. By embedding a colour profile, you can ensure colour integrity; anyone
viewing or printing your work will use the same colours that you used.
By enabling the gamut alarm, you can preview which on-screen Colours
cannot be printed. The colours that cannot be reproduced are highlighted.
Using colour styles, you can choose to turn colour management off or to
optimize the colour display.
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i) Click Tools Colour management.
iii) In the Advanced settings dialog box, from the Rendering intent list
box, choose one of the following:
Notes: When you enable the Always convert using import options, as well
as the Always embed using export option, you can choose a profile from the list
box.
When you enable the Embed internal RGB profile or the Always embed
using export options, certain file formats are exported with an embedded ICC
profile. These file formats are: TIFF, encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Corel
PHOTO-PAINT (CPT), CorelDraw (CDR), JPEG, Portable Document Format
(PDF), and Adobe Photoshop (PSD).
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ii) Choose one of the following from the Style list box:
• Default settings
Tip: You can add or delete a Colour management style by clicking the Add
preset or Remove preset buttons.
If you display colours as they will print, on-screen colours simulate output
using the internal RGB, monitor, and printer colour profiles. Simulating printer
output may cause on-screen colours to appear dull.
Tips: You can display or hide the names of fixed or custom colours by
clicking Options Show colour names. You can swap the old colour (of the
selected object) and the new colour (which has been chosen in the colour
selection area) by clicking Options Swap colours.
The palette colour mode, also called indexed colour mode, is sometimes
used for images on the World Wide Web. When you convert an image to the
paletted colour mode, a fixed colour value is assigned to each pixel. These
values are stored in a compact colour table, or palette containing up to 256
colours. As a result, the paletted colour mode image contains less data than a 24
bit colour mode image, and it has a smaller file size. Conversion to paletted
colour mode works best on images that have a limited range of colours.
Palette types
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Optimized Creates a colour palette based on the highest percentage of
colours in the image. You can also specify a range
sensitivity colour for the colour palette. This is the most
common colour palette for photographic images.
Self-check Questions
7. What is the special feature of bitmap graphic?
11. How many types of pattern fills are available in pattern fill dialogue box?
12. While opening the colour management window, how many icons will be
shown?
15.12 Assignments
15.12.1 Class assignments
iv)
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15.12.2 Home assignments
Use Different colour modes and adjust the brightness, lightness, and
darkness of colours by applying colour and tone effects..
Activity
• Select a bitmap.
• Click a bitmap.
Or
If you want to save the conversion settings as a preset, click the Add
preset button, and type a name in the Save preset box.
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Effect Menu Description
15.13 Summing up
After the description of colour harmonies according to the different colour
models on computers, the two types of graphics viz. graphics and bitmap
graphics is explained along with the conversion of one into the other. Then this
lesson has covered all the advanced features of the Corel DRAW graphics
regarding patterns and pattern fill overviews, and the fountain fill. Lastly the total
colour management system is explained in detail. Also it has thrown light on the
printing profiles, selection of colour profiles, colour management styles and
paletted modes taking up activities on each of them.
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5. Polychromatic colour harmony is created with innumerable colours with
different tints and shades.
7. In the bitmap graphic, the entire image appears in the plane of the
computer screen.
8. 300 DPI
9. Select the vector image; now click the bitmaps on the menu bar.
Select the option convert to bitmap. Enter the colour mode then click OK,
10. Yes we can convert the bitmap image into the following:-
CMYK (32 bit), RGB(24 bit), Black & White(1 bit), 16 colours (4 bit),
Grayscale(8 bit), and palatted (8 bit) colour modes.
• 2-colour pattern
• Bit map.
12. Scanner / digital camera icon, Separation printer icon, Monitor icon,
import/export icon, Internal RGB icon and Arrows
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5. Compare the vector and the bitmap images.
15.17 Glossary
1. Underestimate Undervalue
3. Distracting Deflecting
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