ColorRanger II has been created to allow you to re-color or to create multi channel "duotone" like images. ColorRanger II like ColorRanger converts color based on its luminosity rather than on original hue. As most applications, including Photoshopｪ, allow 256 levels of gray, i.e. 256 luminosity levels, ColorRanger II accepts up to 256 colors simultaneously.
The current color at any given instance is always shown in the "Current Color" box or swatch. The color may be picked by various methods;
a: click on any color box in the palette to use that color as the current color
b: click on the current color box to bring up a color picker
c: option click on the current color box to call up the eyedropper and release the mouse button after positioning the cursor over a suitable color anywhere on the screen.
d: bring up a starting pattern from the presets and then modify the pattern
The color palette can be modified to remember your favorite colors by option clicking on any box within the palette. The current color will be then transferred to that palate box and remembered for later use.
After creating a current color, click within the "Scale" and slide the cursor left or right to pick at "center of interest" point. A scale index will appear over the scale as long as the mouse is held down over the scale. At this point the just placed color will be applied to the image whenever a pixel in the original image has the same luminosity as the index just picked. You can place as many colors as you wish on the scale until all 256 locations are used. Placing a new color over an old color will replace that color.
The Linear Increase, Linear Decrease and Gradient allow anti-aliasing of the color. Linear Increase will automatically "increase" the luminosity of the applied color across the gray scale range. The decrease function performs exactly the opposite, decreasing the luminosity automatically. We must place a single color near the left side of the scale when using Linear Increase, or Linear Decrease. The Gradient button creates a color gradient between every adjacent pair of colors. If you place many colors, there will be many gradients created. As opposed to the Linear Increase and Decrease color can be placed anywhere when using the Gradient control. One trick is to apply a Linear Increase or Decrease first then apply other colors using the Gradient button.
The "Smear" bar under the scale allows you to drag a color above the smear in either direction. The smear will not be anti-aliased and is used to create bands of color. You can add color after using any of the functions and reapply a function. For example you can use a single color followed by Linear Increase or Decrease, add more colors wherever you wish and then either leave them as unaliased, or use the gradient function. You may for example the Gradient button after smearing to anti-alias the smear.
ColorRanger II can apply the luminosity to color transform either in transparent or opaque mode. In transparent mode the original color will be seen through the applied colors while opaque mode replaces the old colors with the new colors. The Opaque button may be used for this choice. The Reverse button may be used to reverse the color scale at any time. As Linear Increase and Decrease operate only from left to right, the reverse direction button may be clicked after the linear control has been used to choose the right hand side as being the origin of the increase or decrease.
