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The colour library

Hold Ctrl+Space while you draw and your palette opens round the pen — pick a colour without moving your hand or your eyes.

The colour library open round the pointer, labelled: the palette in the outer ring, the recent colours in the inner ring, the wedge under the pointer grown and outlined, and the preview in the middle with its hex code.

Open, pick, carry on

  1. With the Brush active in drawing mode, point where you are drawing and hold Ctrl+Space.
  2. The library opens centred on the pointer. Move over the wedges: the one under the pointer grows, and the middle shows its colour and hex code.
  3. Click a wedge. That is your brush colour now, and it joins your recent colours. The library stays open while you hold the keys, so you can try another.
  4. Let go of Ctrl or Space — the library closes — and draw on.

The library open at the brush, with a peach wedge under the pointer and its colour previewed in the middle.

The library with the pointer on a green wedge: the middle previews #99FFC2.

What is in it

  • The outer ring — every colour of the current palette, clockwise from twelve o'clock, including colours you added to it.
  • The inner ring — your recent colours, newest at twelve o'clock.
  • The middle — the colour under the pointer and its hex code; when the pointer is on neither ring, the brush's current colour.

Hovering only previews: nothing changes until you click.

Change palette while it is open

Still holding Ctrl+Space:

  • tap Alt for the next palette,
  • tap Shift for the previous one.

One step per tap, through all fourteen palettes in this order: Saturated, Middle, Faded, Saturated Full, Middle Full, Faded Full, Soft, Bright, Acid, Warm, Cool, Signal, Grayscale, Custom. The library does not print the palette's name — the colours tell you where you are — and the palette you land on is remembered, in Pick Color too.

The library showing the Warm palette: crimson through orange to gold.

The library showing the Signal palette: pure hues at three strengths, black and white.

Good to know

  • The library works with the Brush only, in drawing mode, while the overlay is showing. With another tool active, Ctrl+Space does nothing.
  • Drawing pauses while it is open, so a click never leaves a dot behind.
  • An empty Custom palette shows Middle in its place.
  • The same palette is also on the toolbar ring: press Tab with the pointer over the colour ring.