The Mixer Palette

The Mixer palette mimics the traditional experience of mixing colors on an artist's palette. You can apply two or more colors to the Mixer Pad, blending them together to get the color you want.

Colors can be saved, loaded, and reset on the Mixer palette, saved as color swatches, and saved to color sets.

The Mixer palette.

To display the Mixer palette

• Choose Window menu > Show Mixer.

To change the Mixer Pad background

1. Choose Window menu > Show Mixer.
2. Click the palette menu arrow, and choose Change Mixer Background.
3. In the Color dialog box, choose a background color.

The Mixer Palette Tools

The tools on the Mixer palette are used to apply, mix, sample, and clear color on the Mixer Pad.

The Mixer palette tools.

The Brush Tool

The Brush tool acts as a loaded paint source, applying color to the Mixer Pad. Color loaded on it also blends with color already on the Mixer Pad.

The Palette Knife Tool

The Palette Knife mixes colors already on the Mixer Pad. It does not add new colors to the Mixer Pad.

The Eyedropper Tool

The Eyedropper tool samples color on the Mixer Pad for use on the canvas. The sampled color becomes the primary color on the Colors palette.

The Zoom Tool

The Zoom tool lets you zoom in and out of areas on the Mixer Pad.

The Pan Tool

The Pan tool lets you scroll through the Mixer Pad.

The Clear and Reset Canvas Tool

The Clear and Reset Canvas tool erases the contents of the Mixer Pad and resets the zoom level to 100%.

The Brush Size Slider

The Brush Size slider lets you increase or decrease the size of the Brush tool and the Palette Knife tool. If you adjust the Brush Size slider, the new value is retained when you reopen the application.

The Mixer Palette Colors

Color wells at the top of the Mixer palette store commonly used colors you can use on the Mixer Pad. A series of colors appears by default; however, these colors can be changed to suit the individual preferences of the artist. Mixer colors can be saved, loaded, and reset to the default.

To change Mixer palette colors

1. Choose Window menu > Show Mixer to display the Mixer palette.

If the Mixer palette is not expanded, click the palette arrow.

2. Choose Window menu > Show Colors to display the Colors palette.
3. On the Colors palette, choose a color from the standard or small Color Picker.
4. On the Mixer Color palette, choose the color well you want to change on the Mixer Color selector.
5. In the color well, press Command + click (Mac OS) or Ctrl + click (Windows).

The new color appears in the color well.

To save Mixer palette colors

1. Choose Window menu > Show Mixer to display the Mixer palette.
2. Click the palette menu arrow, and choose Save Mixer Colors.
3. In the Save Mixer Colors dialog box, type a name for the mixer colors and choose where you want to save the Mixer swatches (MSW) file.
4. Click Save.

To load Mixer palette colors

1. Choose Window menu > Show Mixer to display the Mixer palette.
2. Click the palette menu arrow, and choose Load Mixer Colors.
3. In the Load Mixer dialog box, choose the Mixer swatches (MSW) file you want to load.
4. Click Open.

To reset the Mixer palette colors

1. Choose Window menu > Show Mixer to display the Mixer palette.
2. Click the palette menu arrow, and choose Reset Mixer Colors.

Mixing Colors

Using the Mixer Pad, the color wells, and the Brush and Palette Knife tools, you can create new colors for use in your images.

When you have finished mixing and sampling colors, you can clear the Mixer Pad, or save it as a Mixer Pad (MXS) file that you can open and use later.

To mix colors

1. Choose Window menu > Show Mixer to display the Mixer palette.
2. Click the Brush tool .
3. Choose a color from the color well, and paint on the Mixer Pad.
4. Choose a second color from the color well, and paint on the Mixer Pad.
5. Do one of the following:

• Use the Brush tool to add to and blend the colors.
• Use the Palette Knife tool to blend the colors.

To sample a color from the Mixer Pad

1. Choose Window menu > Show Mixer to display the Mixer palette.
2. Click the Eyedropper tool .
3. On the Mixer Pad, click the color you want to sample.

The sampled color becomes the primary color in the image.

To clear the Mixer Pad

1. Choose Window menu > Show Mixer to display the Mixer palette.
2. Do one of the following:

• Click the palette menu arrow, and choose Clear Mixer Pad.
• On the Mixer palette, click the Clear and Reset Canvas
  button .

To save a Mixer Pad

1. Choose Window menu > Show Mixer to display the Mixer palette.
2. Click the palette menu arrow, and choose Save Mixer Pad.
3. In the Save Mixer Pad dialog box, type a name for the mixer colors and choose where you want to save the Mixer Pads (MXS) file.
4. Click Save.

To load a Mixer Pad

1. Choose Window menu > Show Mixer to display the Mixer palette.
2. Click the palette menu arrow, and choose Open Mixer Pad.
3. In the Open Mixer Pad dialog box, choose the Mixer Pads (MXS) file you want to open.
4. Click Open.

Creating Color Swatches

If you have mixed colors that you are particularly happy with, you can save them as color swatches and add them to color sets. For more information about color sets, see "Using Color Sets".

Color swatches that you create on the Mixer palette can be saved.

To add a color swatch to the color set

1. On the Mixer palette, click the Eyedropper tool , and choose the color you want to save as a color swatch.
2. Click the palette menu arrow, and choose Add Swatch to Color Set.

The selected color is added to the current color set.

To create a color set from the Mixer Pad

1. Choose Window menu > Show Mixer to display the Mixer palette.
2. Click the palette menu arrow, and choose New Color Set from Mixer Pad.