Tip#44: Tone Lock of the background color in MagicPicker

Did you know you can quickly change hue of the background color in MagicPicker while keeping its perceived brightness (tone)? Just press ALT + SHIFT while clicking and moving the cursor on the color wheel (or just ALT or your pen’s button with Tone Lock On). That lets you keep background color within the same gamut very easily and achieve constant organic coloration across your painting/design/photography/artwork.

Quickly adjust background's hue while keeping its perceived brightness
Quickly adjust background's hue while keeping its perceived brightness

Works with Color Temperature Wheel and on the color pane in H(SB) mode. In Color Temperature Wheel mode it will let you keep background color’s perceived brightness while changing its temperature.

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

MagicPicker and new Photoshop CC 2015/Illustrator CC 2015

Today Adobe issued an upgrade to their Creative Cloud. Namely Photoshop and Illustrator have been updated to version CC 2015. And I receive questions whether MagicPicker is compatible with the new platform. MagicPicker 4 was tested and totally works as is with the new Adobe’s products – Photoshop CC 2015 and Illustrator CC 2015. In most cases you don’t have to do anything after CC 2015 upgrade.

You don’t need to upgrade or reinstall, just please make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Extension Manager CC (you can always install it from Adobe Creative Cloud app).

MagicPicker in Photoshop CC 2015 and Illustrator CC 2015
MagicPicker in Photoshop CC 2015 and Illustrator CC 2015

There’s even more to it – some reported that Compact Mode didn’t work in the new CC 2014 software on selected system configurations. Seems there was a conflict that Adobe has resolved in the new versions of Photoshop/Illustrator. So if you still see your Compact Mode grayed out

or

If you face any issues with MagicPicker disappearing from the Extensions menu in new CC 2015 software – try to reinstall or update Adobe Extension Manager CC and then reinstalling MagicPicker.

Installing MagicPicker 4 with Adobe Extension Manager CC is easy and works the same on both platforms – Mac and PC (Windows):

1) Make sure your have the Adobe Extension Manager CC installed – go to your Adobe Creative Cloud, locate Adobe Extension Manager and click Install or Upgrade
2) Run  Adobe Extension Manager
3) Choose File -> Install Extension
4) Locate MagicPicker4.zxp and follow the installation steps

P.S. MagicPicker is still compatible with Photoshop & Illustrator CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6, CC, CC2014.

Download MagicPicker color wheel for Photoshop & Illustrator

Upgrade from older MagicPicker to version 4

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

Tip#42: Rotate color wheel the way you want

MagicPicker offers a wide variety of color wheel configurations in addition to new Temperature Color Wheel.

Rotate MagicPicker color wheel
Rotate MagicPicker color wheel

Use the classic scheme or rotate the wheel so the red points up at 0° (works best for design where you get the Hue=0 at the exact top of the wheel). Or even use Traditional color wheel based on classic 12 color scheme (which may also be rotated). Work with the color wheel the way you like it! You can rotate color wheel from MagicPicker’s fly-out menu choosing Settings. And switch to Traditional mode using the button on the right-bottom.

Works in Photoshop and Illustrator CS3, CS4, CS5, CS5.5, CS6, CC and CC 2014.

Download MagicPicker – advanced color picker and color wheel panel/plugin

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

Tip#40: Color wheel modes in MagicPicker 4

MagicPicker 4 color wheel modes
MagicPicker 4 color wheel modes

In addition to Triangle, Box and Diamond modes of the color wheel new MagicPicker adds Color Temperature Wheel mode. It lets you limit your color gamut to only warm or only cool colors (will be covered later in more detail). To switch modes click on the button on the top right to get the he tool best matching your painting style and a better color coverage in shades and saturation! You can also ALT-click to quickly switch to the Color Temperature mode.

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

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

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