### 3.6. Palettes Dialog

A palette is a set of discrete colors, in no particular order. See the Palettes section for basic information on palettes and how they can be created and used.

The “Palettes” dialog is used to select a palette, by clicking on it in a list or grid view. A few dozen more or less randomly chosen palettes are supplied with GIMP, and you can easily add new palettes of your own. The “Palettes” dialog also give you access to several operations for creating new palettes or manipulating the ones that already exist.

| Note
The “Palettes” dialog is not the same thing as the Index Palette dialog, which is used to manipulate the colormaps of indexed images.

#### 3.6.1. Activating the Dialog

This dialog is a dockable dialog; see the section Section 2.3, “Dialogs and Docking” for help on manipulating it.

You can access it:

- from the main menu: Windows → Dockable Dialogs → Palettes;

- from the Tab menu in any dockable dialog by clicking the tab menu button and selecting Add Tab → Palettes.

#### 3.6.2. Using the Palettes dialog

Clicking on a palette in the dialog selects this palette and brings up the Palette Editor, which allows you to set GIMP's foreground or background colors by clicking on colors in the palette display. You can also use the arrow keys to select a palette.

Double-clicking on a palette name (in List View mode) lets you to edit the name. Note that you are only allowed to change the names of palettes that you have added yourself, not those that are supplied with GIMP. If you edit a name that you are not allowed to change, it will revert back to its previous value as soon as you hit return or move the pointer focus elsewhere.

Grid/List modes

  Figure 15.37. The “Palettes” dialog

  Grid View

  List View

  In the Tab menu, you can choose between View as Grid and View as List. In Grid mode, the palettes are laid out in a spectacular rectangular array, making it easy to see many at once and find the one you are looking for. In List mode (the default), the palettes are lined up in a list, with the names beside them.

  The option Preview Size allows you to adapt the size of color cell previews to your liking.

Tagging

  You can use tags to reorganize the palettes display. See Section 3.7, “Tagging”.

The buttons of the Palettes Dialog

The button bar at the bottom offers the following functionality:

Edit this palette

  This button brings up the Section 3.6.4, “Palette Editor”.

Create a new palette

  For more information on this button please refer to New Palette.

Duplicate this palette

  For more information on this button please refer to Duplicate Palette.

Delete this palette

  For more information on this button please refer to Delete Palette.

Refresh palettes

  For more information on this button please refer to Refresh Palettes.

#### 3.6.3. The “Palettes” context menu

The “Palettes” context menu can be accessed by right-clicking in the Palettes dialog, or by choosing the top item from the dialog Tab menu ( ).

| Note
Some of the listed menu entries are installation-dependent, which need version 3 of the Python interpreter to be installed for GIMP 3.0. This includes: Offset Palette…, Palette to Gradient, Palette to Repeating Gradient and Sort Palette….

Edit Palette…

  “Edit Palette” is an alternative way of activating the Palette Editor: it can also be activated by double-clicking on a palette in the Palettes dialog, or by pressing the “Edit Palette” button at the bottom of the dialog.

New Palette

  “New Palette” creates a new, untitled palette, initially containing no color entries, and pops up the Palette Editor so that you can add colors to the palette. The result will automatically be saved in your personal `palettes` folder when you quit GIMP, so it will be available from the Palettes dialog in future sessions.

Import Palette…

  Figure 15.38. The Import Palette dialog

  “Import Palette” allows you to create a new palette from the colors in a gradient, an image or a palette file. Choosing it brings up the “Import Palette” dialog, which gives you the following options:

  Select Source

    You can import a palette either from any of GIMP's gradients (choosing one from the adjoining menu), or from any of the currently open images (chosen from the adjoining menu).

    Two options concerning image as source, available for RGB images only:

    - Sample merged: If you enable this option, sampling is not calculated only from the values of the active layer, but from all visible layers.

      For more information, see the Glossary entry.

    - Selected pixels only: As the name says, pixels are picked from the selected area only, in the active layer or all visible layers according to the status of the previous option.

    You can also import palettes from GIMP's native `.gpl` format, or the following external palette formats.

    - Microsoft RIFF palette (`.riff`)

    - Cascading Style Sheets palette (`.css`)

    - SwatchBooker palette (`.sbz`)

    - Adobe Color palette (`.aco`)

    - Adobe Color Book (`.acb`)

    - Adobe Swatch Exchange palette (`.ase`)

    - Photoshop binary color palette (`.act`)

    - Paint Shop Pro color palette (`.psp`)

  Palette name

    Enter a name for the new palette. If the name you choose is already used by an existing palette, a unique name will be formed by appending a number (e. g., "#1").

  Number of colors

    Here you specify the number of colors in the palette. The default is 256, chosen for three reasons: (1) every gradient contains 256 distinct colors; (2) GIF files can use a maximum of 256 colors; (3) GIMP indexed images can contain a maximum of 256 distinct colors. You can use any number you like here, though: GIMP will try to create a palette by spacing the specified number of colors even across the color range of the gradient or image.

  Columns

    Here you specify the number of columns for the palette. This only affects the way the palette is displayed, and has no effect on the way the palette is used.

  Interval

    Even setting “Number of colors” to maximum, the number of colors can't exceed 10000 in the palette. RGB images have much more colors. Interval should allow to group similar colors around an average and so get a better palette. This problem doesn't exist with 256 colors indexed images: Interval to 1 allows picking 256 colors (this option is disabled with more than 256 colors indexed palettes too).

  The imported palette will be added to the Palettes dialog, and automatically saved in your personal `palettes` folder when you quit GIMP, so it will be available in future sessions.

Duplicate Palette

  Duplicate Palette creates a new palette by copying the palette that is currently selected, and brings up a Palette Editor so that you can alter the palette. The result will automatically be saved in your personal `palettes` folder when you quit GIMP, so it will be available from the Palettes dialog in future sessions.

Merge Palettes…

  Currently this operation is not implemented, and the menu entry will always be disabled.

Copy Palette Location

  This command allows you to copy the palette file location to the clipboard. You can then paste it in a text editor.

Show in File Manager

  Show in File Manager opens the location of the palette file in the default File Manager on your system.

Delete Palette

  Delete Palette removes the palette from the “Palettes ”dialog, and deletes the disk file in which it is stored. Before it acts, it asks you confirm that you really want to do these things. Note that you cannot remove any of the palettes that are supplied with GIMP, only palettes you have added yourself.

Refresh Palettes

  Refresh Palettes rescans all of the folders in your palette search path, and adds any newly discovered palettes to the list in the Palettes dialog. This may be useful if you obtain palette files from some external source, copy them into one of your palettes folders, and want to make them available during the current session.

Export as

  The Export as submenu gives several choices to export the current palette in external formats. At this time, exporting to the following formats is supported: CSS Stylesheet, Java map, PHP dictionary, Python dictionary, and Text file. Each of these will open a dialog where you can enter a filename and choose a folder where the exported file will be stored.

Offset Palette…

  This command opens a dialog window.

  It takes the last color of the palette and moves it to the beginning. In the dialog window, the Offset parameter defines how many times this action will be performed.

  If you set a negative Offset, colors are moved from the first position to the end of the colors list.

  Figure 15.39. “Offset Palette” examples

  From top to bottom: original palette, Offset = 1, Offset = 2.

Palette to Gradient

  With this command, all the colors of the palette are used to form the current gradient which is saved in the Gradient Dialog. The created gradient is build with segments just as much as the number of colors on the given palette.

Palette to Repeating Gradient

  This command creates a repeating gradient, using all the colors of the palette. This gradient appears in the Gradient Dialog and becomes the current gradient. The gradient is created with segments one more than the number of colors on the given palette. The left side color at the leftmost segment will be the same color on the right side at the rightmost segment.

  Figure 15.40. “Palette to repeating gradient” examples

  Top: palette. Bottom: the gradient created with the command.

Sort Palette…

  This command opens a dialog window which allows you to sort the colors of the palette according to certain criteria. If the palette is read only a new palette will be created that is sorted based on your settings.

  Another way of sorting a palette is by using the sorting options of the Rearrange Colormap dialog.

  Several settings of this dialog are not well understood. We would welcome contributions from anyone that knows how to improve this documentation.

  Figure 15.41. The “Sort Palette”dialog

  - Selections: This option determines how the palette is going to be sorted. How to use this has not been well documented by its original author. We advise to leave it at the default All.

  - Slice expression: This option affects how the palette is sorted when Slice/Array was chosen above in Selections. Documentation taken from the code:

    Leaving this empty, or entering `:` selects all items.

    `:4,` or `:4` makes a 4-row selection out of all colors (length auto-determined).

    `:1,4` selects the first 4 colors.

    `:,4` selects rows of 4 colors (number of rows auto-determined).

    `:4,4` selects 4 rows of 4 colors.

    `4:` selects a single row of all colors after 4, inclusive.

    `4:,4` selects rows of 4 colors, starting at 4 (number of rows auto-determined).

    `4:4,4` selects 4 rows of 4 colors (16 colors total), beginning at index 4.

    `4` is illegal (ambiguous).

  - Channel to sort: This option determines based on what type of color channel the sorting will happen.

  - Ascending: When enabled, the sorting is ascending. When disabled, the sorting is descending.

  - Secondary Channel to sort: This option determines the secondary color channel for sorting in case the first channel sort returns equal values.

  - Ascending: When enabled, the sorting is ascending. When disabled, the sorting is descending.

  - Quantization: Undocumented for now.

  - Partitioning channel: This option is also used to determine how to sort.

  - Partitioning quantization: This option is used in conjunction with the previous one.

#### 3.6.4. Palette Editor

Figure 15.42. The Palette Editor

The Palette Editor is used mainly for two purposes: first, for setting GIMP's foreground or background colors (as shown in the Color Area of the Toolbox) to selected colors from the palette; second, for modifying the palette. You can activate the Palette Editor for any palette in the Palettes dialog, but you can only modify palettes that you have created yourself, not the palettes that are supplied when you install GIMP. (You can, however, duplicate any palette and then edit the newly created copy.) If you modify a palette, the results of your work will automatically be saved when you exit from GIMP.

##### 3.6.4.1. How to Activate the Palette Editor

The Palette Editor is only accessible from the Palettes dialog: you can activate it by double-clicking on a palette, or by pressing the “Edit Palette” button at the bottom, or by choosing “Edit Palette” from the “Palettes” Menu.

The Palette Editor is a dockable dialog; see the section on Dialogs and Docking for help on manipulating it.

##### 3.6.4.2. Using the Palette Editor

If you click on a color box in the palette display, GIMP's foreground color will be set to the selected color: you can see this in the Color Area of the Toolbox. If you hold down the Ctrl key while clicking, GIMP's background color will be set to the selected color.

If the palette is a custom palette, double-clicking on a color not only sets the foreground, it also brings up a color editor that allows you to modify the selected palette entry.

Right-clicking in the palette display area brings up the Palette Editor menu. It's functions are mainly the same as those of the buttons at the bottom of the dialog.

Below the palette display area, at the left, appears a text entry area that shows the name of the selected color (or “Untitled” if it does not have one). This information has no functional significance, and is present only to serve you as a memory aid.

To the right of the name entry is a spinbutton that allows you to set the number of columns used to display the palette. This only affects the display, not how the palette works. If the value is set to 0, a default will be used.

At the bottom of the dialog are a set of buttons, which mostly match the entries in the Palette Editor menu, accessible by right-clicking a color in the palette display area. Here are the buttons:

Edit Color

  For more information on this button please refer to below.

New Color from FG

  For more information on this button please refer to below.

Delete Color

  For more information on this button please refer to below.

Zoom Out

  For more information on this button please refer to below.

Zoom In

  For more information on this button please refer to below.

Zoom All

  For more information on this button please refer to below.

#### 3.6.5. The Palette Editor context menu

The Palette Editor Menu can be accessed by right-clicking on the palette display in the Palette Editor, or by choosing the top entry from the dialog Tab menu. The operations in it can also be executed using the buttons at the bottom of the Palette Editor dialog.

Edit Color

  “Edit Color” brings up a color editor that allows you to modify the color of the selected palette entry. If the palette is one that you are not allowed to edit (that is, one supplied by GIMP when it is installed), then the menu entry will be disabled.

New Color from FG; New Color from BG

  These commands each create a new palette entry, using either GIMP's current foreground color (as shown in the Color Area of the Toolbox), or the current background color.

Delete Color

  “Delete Color” removes the selected color entry from the palette. If the palette is one that you are not allowed to edit, then the menu entry will be disabled.

Zoom Out

  “Zoom Out” reduces the vertical scale of the entries in the palette display.

Zoom In

  “Zoom In” increases the vertical scale of the entries in the palette display.

Zoom All

  “Zoom All” adjusts the vertical size of the entries in the palette display so that the entire palette fits into the display area.

Edit Active Palette

  When this option is checked (default), you can edit another palette by clicking on it in the “Palettes” dialog.

3.5. Gradients Dialog |  | 3.7. Tagging

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