Tip#55: The secret to printing brilliant uniform colors: using Tone Lock together with K-Lock in MagicPicker

Keep colors bright or dark when rotating Hue° while saving low level of K ink of CMYK – all at once! That lets you find colors on the color wheel within the same dynamic gamut range that look bright when printed! To do that switch on both Tone Lock and K-Lock in MagicPicker – they work together very well! Then rotate Hue° on the color wheel and you will see how MagicPicker adjusts the color so it sustains same perceived brightness and the same K value!

Tone Lock and K-Lock in MagicPickae
Tone Lock and K-Lock in MagicPickae

This technique works in Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop CS6, CC, CC2014, CC2015, CS5, CS4 and CS3.

From series of tutorials for MagicPicker, the advanced color picking plugin and color wheel for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

Tip#54: Find colors with the same brightness but different temperature

It’s easily possible with MagicPicker! In the Color Temperature Wheel mode switch on Tone Lock and start shifting the slider on the wheel. This option lets you quickly find corresponding colors having the same brightness for lights and shadows or for foreground and background. Or keep the same brightness level across the surface when editing textures.

Change color temperature while keeping color's brightness
Change color temperature while keeping color’s brightness

MagicPicker is the advanced color picking plugin and color wheel for Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator

Tip#53: Make use of MagicPicker’s versatility (Feel free to indulge yourself!)

MagicPicker is designed to be easily dockable and to fit automatically any kind of Photoshop or Illustrator environment. In any combination with other panels, like Layers, Brushes it will smartly take up your space. With quick access to all of its numerous controls and modes.

Use MagicPicker in horizontal or vertical layout inside your favorite Adobe software. Dock it to any part of the interface or leave as a standalone panel. Or even keep it incredibly small in Compact Mode if you’re a fan of ascetic UI configuration!

Magic Picker: versatility

MagicPicker, the color wheel and advanced color picking panel

Extension Manager for Adobe software is out of beta and is free!

Install, Remove, Update, Manage any extensions on Adobe Creative Cloud & Creative Suite easily! Anastasiy’s Extension Manager is finally out of beta and is free!

Extension Manager for Adobe Creative Suite/Cloud
Extension Manager for Adobe Creative Suite/Cloud

WHAT’S NEW IN V1.24:
– Supports all .zxp and .mxp extensions, including 3rd party plugins
– Windows & Mac OS X compatible – native app for both platforms!
– Full Adobe CS5, CS6, CC, CC2014, CC2015 and CC2016 support (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro, Flash Pro, Fireworks)
– Bugs fixed and UI is improved by users’ feedback

Download Anastasiy’s .zxp/.mxp extension manager for Adobe Creative Suite/Cloud

Tip#52: Background/foreground and fill/stroke color picking in MagicPicker

Picking foreground/background colors in Photoshop and Fill/Stroke in Illustrator
Picking foreground/background colors in Photoshop and Fill/Stroke in Illustrator

Pick foreground or background colors separately with MagicPicker! Click the appropriate color swatch on the panel to make it active in Adobe Photoshop. In Adobe Illustrator switch between Stroke and Fill colors

MagicPicker, the advanced color picking and color wheel panel for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

Tip#51: K-Lock in MagicPicker 4

K-Lock lets you keep your colors bright in CMYK and decrease K level to 10% or zero in any given color! You can make colors darker or brighter while keeping value of K the same so they all come out vivid when printing. Just set the value and then click the button to lock it down. You can adjust K on the fly in that mode making colors even darker!

MagicPicker, the advanced color wheel and color picker for Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator

Image © Marcelo Maiolo, colorist on Batman Beyond, Pacific Rim

MixColors 2.1 improves color swatch groups renaming and more

New update to the MixColors panel – v2.1 improves color swatch group renaming, speeds up panel loading and more in Photoshop!

MixColors 2.1 improves color swatch groups renaming and more
MixColors 2.1 improves color swatch groups renaming and more

WHAT’S NEW:
– Color groups became better and faster
– Renaming of color groups is now easier and more flawless
– Performance improvements on Adobe Photoshop CC2015, CC2014, CC, CS6, CS5, CS4 and CS3 platforms
– Bug fixes by your feedback

MixColors, the one and only color mixer and advanced swatch group manager for Adobe Photoshop

Tip#50: MixColors 2 and new swatch groups

New MixColors 2.0 is the fastest way to organize swatches in groups in Photoshop.

  • Click on the folder icon to create new group
  • Click on the group name to activate it
  • Click on arrow next to group name to hide/show colors in the group.
MixColors panel with swatch color groups in Photoshop
MixColors panel with swatch color groups in Photoshop

You can move colors between groups and inside one group using drag’n’drop! The feature works across all modern versions of Photoshop from CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS6 up to CC 2015.

MixColors, the color mixer and swatch group manager for Adobe Photoshop

MixColors 2.0 brings Color Swatch Groups, Cloud Sync, more!

MixColors 2.0 finally delivers intuitive Swatch Groups, adds Cloud Sync, gets next-gen color mixing formula, brings full Adobe Photoshop CC2015 support and more!

MixColors 2.0 for Photoshop with Swatch Colors Groups, Cloud Sync
MixColors 2.0 for Photoshop with Swatch Colors Groups, Cloud Sync

WHAT’S NEW:
– Color groups. Reimagined! New simple and intuitive color group management with drag’n’drop support.
– Sync colors and color groups with the Cloud – safe 256-bit encryption on the server side! Easy cloud handling.
– Color mixing improved – next-gen color mixing formula for faster and more accurate results.
– Adobe Photoshop CC 2015+ and CC 2014 support – MixColors has been rewritten from scratch to support new Adobe Creatve Cloud platform.
– Color history is improved.
– Small/large color swatches handling improved.
– Tons of performance improvements on CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6 and CC platforms.
– A lot of bug fixes and improvements by your feedback.

MixColors, the one and only physically accurate color mixer for Adobe Photoshop

Tip#49: Traditional color wheel

With MagicPicker you can pick colors on the Traditional Color Wheel – a color wheel based on 12 basic colors used in traditional painting. That allows you to pick colors having relationship based on physical pigments of the paints. For example in this color scheme complement colors red is the opposite to green and yellow is opposite to purple. This color wheel is often referred to as Itten’s Color Wheel.

MagicPicker - switch to traditional color wheel
MagicPicker - switch to traditional color wheel

Switch to this mode by clicking on the button to the right-bottom of the color wheel.

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