Working with palettes

A palette is just a list of colors, each one given a name. For example, X Window System comes with pre-defined system palette, containing hundreds of colors, from simple ones such as "red" or "blue" to exotic ones such as "LavenderBlush". You can also define your own palette, or several of them, as described below. Each palette is saved as a separate file; for example, the system palette is defined by the file rgb.txt, located in X11 library directory, usually /usr/lib/X11R6/lib/X11).

Opening and closing palettes

By default, GNOME Color Browser shows you 2 views of the system palette: one list view and one grid view. You can also open any other existing palette file by selecting File->Open or using the Open button in the toolbar. You can also open another window containing one more view of the current palette by selecting File->New->New view.

To close the current view of a document, select File->Close->Close view; to close all views of the current palette, choose File->Close->Close document.

Creating new palettes

In addition to system colors which an ordinary user can not change, you can also create your own color lists. To do so, select File->New->New Document. This will launch a dialog allowing you to select a new document type (choose File), short description, and a short name (this will be used for the tab label). YOu will also have to select a view mode for the new document (you can select several if you want to). After you click Finish, a new document view sub-window will appear in the main window of GNOME Color Browser. Originally this window is empty; you can add any colors to it as described below.

Editing and saving palettes

Once you have created your own palettes, you can add and remove colors to them, change palettes' name etc. Note that unless you are logged in as system administrator (root), you can not change system palette.

To add a new color to a palette, right-click anywhere in the palette and select Insert color from the pop-up menu, or select Insert color from the Edit menu. This will create a new dialog, allowing you to specify the name and RGB values for the color.

To copy a color form one palette to another, select this color in the first palette, copy it to the clipboard using Edit->Copy switch to the second palette and select Edit->Paste. You can also use keyboard shrotcuts Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V for copying and pasting respectively.

To remove a color from the palette, select this color by clicking on it and select Edit->Remove selected colors. An easier way of removing a color is to right-click on it and select Remove selected colors from the pop-up menu. In the same way, you can select several colors and remove them all: to do so, click on the colors you want to select while pressing CTRL key. You can also select a continuous block of colors by clicking on the first color, and then clicking on the last color of the block while pressing SHIFT key.

Finally, you can change other properties of the document, such as the name and view mode used by selecting Document/View Properties from Edit or pop-up menus. This will launch Properties dialog.

After modifying a palette, you can save your changes by selecting File->Save palette. You can also change modified palette under a new name by using Save palette as... command; this will prompt you for a new file name and location.

Editing a color

To change a color in a palette, select it by clicking on it and select Edit->Edit selected color, or just right click on the color and select Edit selected color from the pop-up menu.