Colors, Color Picker and Thread Catalog

List of objects in the Object Inspector contains information about color of individual objects.

All vector objects in the design have the color property, but for some object types like carvings and openings (holes) the color property is not applicable.

Small rectangular box in each row is a color sample from the object. If this row contains grouped objects, the box displays color of the first object in the group.

The number marked with arrow indicates order number of color. Colors in this list are numbered in order of appearance. In this example, the list contains 4 different colors. Objects #2,#3 and #4 have identical color. Sequence of colors allows to optimize thread changes on embroidery machine.

The basic tool for work with colors in Studio is Palette in the top-right corner of the screen. Newly created objects take their color from the highlighted cell (yellow, in this example).

Palette also allows the following operations:

• Left button click - highlight cell in the palette.
• Right button click - invoke color picker menu (see below).
• Double click - invoke color mixer window to define a new color.
• Drag-and-drop from one cell to another - copy color to the another cell.
• Drag-and-drop from cell to object(s) in the work area or Object Inspector list - change color of target object(s)

Moreover, it is possible to store or load palette with use of main menu > Design > Load and Save Palette commands.

Many users want to digitize with real thread colors to get best possible preview of embroidery and to speed-up creation of color sheet (documentation) in basic Embird program. Studio provides a Thread Catalog tool that allows to select from pre-defined colors close the thread colors.

Thread Catalog tool is accessible from horizontal button bar or from the pop-up menu at left side picture. This pop-up menu appears upon right button click on selected objects in the work area or in the Object Inspector list.

By default, the Thread Catalog takes color of the first selected object as a reference color. Threads that are closest to this color are displayed on top of the list.

The meaning of controls in the Thread Catalog window is as follows:

1. Row with thread data: color sample, thread number, thread name, selection.
2. Catalog filter - allows to display all catalogs or only the chosen one.
3. Criteria of thread order - color match, thread number, name (alphabetical order)
4. Option to display marked (selected) threads only. Useful if you want to use only the threads that you actually have.
5. Cells to place selection mark if you want to use previous option.
6. Tabs to change color preview mode: normal, 3D, 3D matte.
7. Search box that allows to type-in the thread name or number
8. Buttons to find next or previous match. They are used with search box.