Tip#46: All in one place!

Hide Photoshop or Illustrator toolbar and let MagicPicker unclutter your workspace. All active shortcuts from the original toolbar for quick color management are in one place available on the panel: foreground and background swatches (can be bigger than originals, stroke/background colors in Illustrator), default colors, color exchange and foreground/background link (specific to MagicPicker, covered in previous tutorials).

Essential buttons
Essential buttons

MagicPicker, the color wheel/advanced color picker and other panels for Photoshop & Illustrator

Tip#45: Quickly switch to Color Temperature Wheel mode and back with one click!

If you want to quickly tune color’s temperature while working in the classic color wheel mode – ALT-click on the Triangle/Box/Diamond modes button. The MagicPicker will switch to the Color Temperature Wheel mode and if you ALT-click the button again it will bring you back to the previous state of the color wheel!

Quickly adjust color temperature with MagicPicker
Quickly adjust color temperature with MagicPicker

Works in MagicPicker since version 4.3. Works in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CC 2015, CC 2014, CC, CS6, CS5, CS4 and CS3.

MagicPicker, the advanced color wheel and color picker (and other panels for Adobe software).

Tip#43: Using MagicPicker’s automatic color correction in Illustrator

In Illustrator MagicPicker smartly keeps colors within the chosen color space – for selected shapes. If you work in CMYK in Illustrator:
1) select a shape
2) try to change its color with the MagicPicker so it falls outside CMYK space
3) MagicPicker will correct it immediately so you would get the color that can be reproduced in CMYK

It’s slightly different from how Illustrator handles it. With MagicPicker you will see the result right away.
In recent version of MagicPicker it works with Tone Lock and on the Color Temperature Wheel.

MagicPicker in Photoshop and Illustrator - different approach to color space
MagicPicker in Photoshop and Illustrator - different approach to color space

Download 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#39: Change relationships between secondary colors on the color scheme

Easily change relationships between secondary colors on the color schemes in MagicPicker. Choose the desired color scheme and then just drag secondary color (click and move) to increase or decrease distance. Click and move main color and the new distances will “stick”.

You can pick the color from the secondary color by Cmd/Ctrl-Clicking it.
Make it active with Right- or Double-click.
Add Alt- to select background.

Move secondary colors in color schemes
Move secondary colors in color schemes

Works in Photoshop and Illustrator CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6, CC and CC 2014.

MagicPicker color wheel and other panels

Tip#37: Get secondary colors in MagicPicker with one click

Secondary colors in MagicPicker (color schemes)
Secondary colors in MagicPicker (color schemes)

Easily get secondary color in MagicPicker assigned to the background (without making it active) by Ctrl-Alt-Clicking it. This way foreground gets assigned automatically when you move the active pointer and you get secondary color with one click assigned to the background swatch. Works on color wheel with any color scheme active: complementary, triad, tetrad, analogic or accented analogic.

MagicPicker color wheel and other panels

Here you go! MagicPicker 4.0 upgrade brings full CC 2014 support, more features!

MagicPicker 4.0 with Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 support, new color wheel, new features
MagicPicker 4.0 with Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 support, new color wheel, new features

Happy to announce new MagicPicker 4.0 – our most innovative update to the Color Wheel/Color Picking panel. Rewritten from the ground up MagicPicker supports new Adobe CC 2014 platform (Photoshop and Illustrator), brings new Color Temperature Wheel for separating cold/warm colors. Brings (optional) BIG color swatches for better color perception and new color engine optimized for speed. Tone Lock 2.0 lets you keep color’s tone while changing hue or saturation and now works with sliders. Color schemes improvements, more features – all supported across CC2014, CC, CS6, CS5, CS4 and CS3 platforms.

Upgrade to MagicPicker 4.0 color wheel/advanced color picker

What is MagicPicker?

Tip#35: SHIFT temporarily locks colors’ brightness

MagicPicker - shift for Tone Lock
MagicPicker - shift for Tone Lock

Press SHIFT while dragging the pointer on the color wheel (or the stripe in the color pane mode) to bring the colors you pick to the same tone. SHIFT activates temporary Tone Lock mode (usually switched on with the button). While moving your mouse MagicPicker will bring all the colors you choose to the same gamma.

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