Category: panels

Tip#41: Temperature Color Wheel in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

MagicPicker 4 introduces a new innovative color tool – color temperature wheel.

MagicPicker 4 - color temperature wheel
MagicPicker 4 - color temperature wheel

In Photoshop or Illustrator with a single turn of the wheel you can change the temperature of the colors you pick. Get the exact colors for the lights, darks, on the sun, in the shadows, within the cool or warm gamma. Adding Tone Lock you can find the corresponding colors within different temperatures while keeping the same brightness.

To change the temperature of the colors:
1) Click the button on the top right of MagicPicker that switches between triangle/box and diamond modes until you reach the Color Temperature Wheel mode
2) Move the rectangular slider around the warm/cold wheel to change the temperature
3) Move the pointer inside the rectangle to choose colors with the same warmness/coldness
4*) You can use Tone Lock to keep the same brightness of the color

MagicPicker – advanced color picker and color wheel panel/plugin

Update – MagicPicker 4.3 – increased performance with realtime 64 fps refresh rate in CC 2014

MagicPicker 4.3 features increased performance with realtime 64 fps refresh rate in CC 2014*, when picking colors and dragging sliders. (Speed is much higher on high end GPUs). New update also features bug fixes and improvements across all platforms: CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6, CC and CC 2014 in Photoshop and Illustrator.

MagicPicker 4.3 - performance update, 64 fps refresh rate
MagicPicker 4.3 - performance update, 64 fps refresh rate

* as it was benchmarked on Intel Core i5 CPU and Intel Iris 5100 Integrated Graphics card in Photoshop CC 2014.2.2.

Upgrade MagicPicker color wheel/advanced color picker to v4.3

Tip#38: New Tone Lock

MagicPicker 4 introduces new mode for the Tone Lock.

Advanced Tone Lock - limit your gamut
Advanced Tone Lock - limit your gamut

With new Tone Lock 2.0 you can easily build a uniform and natural palette within the gamut of your choice. Change hue (and now saturation!) of the color and MagicPicker will automagically find the closest matching colors with the same percieved brightness (or tone). Works on color wheel and with the regular color box picker.

MagicPicker color wheel and other panels

Tip#36: BIG color swatches

MagicPicker color wheel - BIG color swatches
MagicPicker color wheel - BIG color swatches

Color size does matter! For better perception of color you can at last increase swatch size from MagicPicker’s fly-out menu! Switch between big and small swatches. (Works in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. New in MagicPicker 4.x).

MagicPicker color wheel and other panels

Tip#34: Use a different way of mixing colors with MixColors

A different mode of mixing colors (Photoshop)
A different mode of mixing colors (Photoshop)
Tip#34: The secondary mode of mixing colors is improved in new MixColors 1.2. Quickly mix colors, change amount of colors mixed and preview the result with MixColors in Photoshop. Turn Auto-sync off (the button on the top right) and then click, hold and move your pointer anywhere on the main color. You will also see current Photoshop’s color on the small box on the bottom of the panel. Click this box to apply color immediately.

Tip#32: Click and drag to change HSB/RGB/CMYK values

New MagicPicker 3.1 adds a hidden, but still very important feature.

Click and drag to change numeric values
Click and drag to change numeric values

You can change numeric values of HSB/RGB/CMYK color components by clicking on the individual values and then dragging your mouse or stylus up and down. Up increases the value and down decreases it. This way you can alter values very quickly and precisely.

MagicPicker 3.1, color wheel and advanced color picker for Photoshop and Illustrator

Tip#31: HSB/RGB sliders flexibility in new MagicPicker

Sliders variability in MagicPicker color wheel
Sliders variability in MagicPicker color wheel

New MagicPicker 3 increases flexibility of HSB/RGB sliders. Now you can scale them down to thin subtle lines that don’t obscure or block you from picking colors on the color wheel! Or scale them up to the big bold rulers. While having a precise color picking instrument in Photoshop and Illustrator.
Click and drag the divider between sliders and the color wheel/color picker to increase or decrease the size of the sliders.

MagicPicker 3 – Photoshop and Illustrator Color Wheel and color picking panel

Panels Tips & Tricks: Open MagicPicker with a shortcut

This time I will tell you how to toggle MagicPicker color wheel panel with a shortcut. You can open and close the panel with the same keyboard shortcut!
This is a Photoshop solution currently, we’re working to make it for Illustrator as well!
1) Download this script
2) Unpack and put file MagicPickerToggle.jsx into Presets/Scripts folder
3) Now launch Photoshop and click Edit -> Keyboard shortcuts… and assign a new shortcut for File / Scripts / MagicPickerToggle

*Note – in Photoshop CS3 you can skip steps 1,2 and assign shortcut to File / Scripts / Run MagicPicker

Works on Mac and Windows. Enjoy!

Panels Tips & Tricks. Tip#28: Hide unnecessary infos

Make your MagicPicker minimalistic with only necessary information visible. Enlarge MagicPicker and click on the double arrow near HSB/RGB switches to hide color wheel/color pane/RGB/HSB buttons. Click again to unhide it

Hide unneccessary info
Hide unneccessary info

Our new panel gets highlighted

Take a glimpse on our new upcoming Photoshop panel – Ethereal – in this episode on a weekly US show The Grid. Ethereal will allow you to tune our MagicPicker color wheel and draw with your bare fingers/hands/pencils/brushes in the air! (Starts at 14:55) The future is almost here!