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- <h3 class="title"><a id="gimp-palettes"></a>4.11. Palettes</h3>
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- <p>
- A <span class="emphasis"><em>palette</em></span> is a set of discrete
- colors. In GIMP, palettes are used mainly for two purposes:
- </p>
- <div class="itemizedlist">
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- <li>
- <p>
- They allow you to paint with a selected set of colors, in the
- same way an oil painter works with colors from a limited
- number of tubes.
- </p>
- </li>
- <li>
- <p>
- They form the colormaps of indexed images. An indexed image
- can use a maximum of 256 different colors, but these can be
- any colors. The colormap of an indexed image is called an
- "indexed palette" in GIMP.
- </p>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </div>
- <p>
- Actually neither of these functions fall very much into the
- mainstream of GIMP usage: it is possible to do rather
- sophisticated things in GIMP without every dealing with palettes.
- Still, they are something that an advanced user should understand,
- and even a less advanced user may need to think about them in
- some situations, as for example when working with GIF files.
- </p>
- <div class="informalfigure">
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- <img src="../images/dialogs/dialogs-palettes.png" />
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- <p>
- The Palettes dialog
- </p>
- </div>
- </div>
- </div>
- <p>
- When you install GIMP, it comes supplied with several dozen
- predefined palettes, and you can also create new ones. Some of
- the predefined palettes are commonly useful, such as the "Web"
- palette, which contains the set of colors considered "web safe";
- many of the palettes seem to have been chosen more or less
- whimsically. You can access all of the available palettes using
- the <a href="ch04s13.html" title="13. Palettes">Palettes dialog</a>.
- This is also the starting point if you want to create a new
- palette.
- </p>
- <div class="informalfigure">
- <div class="mediaobject">
- <img src="../images/dialogs/dialogs-palette-editor.png" />
- <div class="caption">
- <p>
- The Palette Editor
- </p>
- </div>
- </div>
- </div>
- <p>
- Double-clicking on a palette in the Palettes dialog brings up the
- <a href="ch04s13s03.html" title="13.3. Palette Editor">Palette Editor</a>, showing
- the colors from the palette you clicked
- on. You can use this to paint with the palette: clicking on a
- color sets GIMP's foreground to that color, as shown in the Color
- Area of the Toolbox. Holding down the Ctrl key while clicking, on
- the other hand, sets GIMP's background color to the color you
- click on.
- </p>
- <p>
- You can also, as the name implies, use the Palette Editor to
- change the colors in a palette, so long as it is a palette that
- you have created yourself. You cannot edit the palettes that are
- supplied with GIMP; however you can duplicate them and then edit
- the copies.
- </p>
- <p>
- When you create palettes using the Palette Editor, they are
- automatically saved as soon as you exit GIMP, in the
- <tt class="filename">palettes</tt> folder of your personal GIMP
- directory. Any palette files in this directory, or in the system
- <tt class="filename">palettes</tt> directory created when GIMP is
- installed, are automatically loaded and shown in the Palettes
- dialog the next time you start GIMP. You can also add other
- folders to the palette search path using the <a href="ch04s18s16.html" title="18.16. Data Folders">Palette Folders</a> page of
- the Preferences dialog.
- </p>
- <p>
- GIMP palettes are stored using a special file format, in files
- with the extension <tt class="filename">.gpl</tt>. It is a very simple
- format, and they are ASCII files, so if you happen to obtain
- palettes from another source, and would like to use them in GIMP,
- it probably won't be very hard to convert them: just take a look
- at any <tt class="filename">.gpl</tt> and you will see what to do.
- </p>
- <div class="simplesect" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
- <div class="titlepage">
- <div>
- <div>
- <h4 class="title"><a id="id3425449"></a>Colormap</h4>
- </div>
- </div>
- </div>
- <p>
- Confusingly, GIMP makes use of two types of palettes. The more
- noticeable are the type shown in the Palettes dialog: palettes
- that exist independently of any image. The second type,
- <span class="emphasis"><em>indexed palettes</em></span>, form the colormaps of
- indexed images. Each indexed image has its own private indexed
- palette, defining the set of colors available in the image: the
- maximum number of colors allowed in an indexed palette is 256.
- These palettes are called "indexed" because each color is
- associated with an index number. (Actually, the colors in
- ordinary palettes are numbered as well, but the numbers have no
- functional significance.)
- </p>
- <div class="informalfigure">
- <div class="mediaobject">
- <img src="../images/dialogs/dialogs-indexed-palette.png" />
- <div class="caption">
- <p>
- The Colormap dialog
- </p>
- </div>
- </div>
- </div>
- <p>
- The colormap of an indexed image is shown in the <a href="ch04s05.html" title="5. Indexed Palette dialog">Indexed Palette
- dialog</a>, which should not be confused with the Palettes
- dialog. The Palettes dialog shows a list of all of the palettes
- available; the Indexed Palette dialog shows the colormap of the
- currently active image, if it is an indexed image---otherwise it
- shows nothing.
- </p>
- <p>
- You can, however, create an ordinary palette from the colors in
- an indexed image---actually from the colors in any image. To do
- this, choose "Import Palette" from the right-click popup menu in
- the Palettes dialog: this pops up a dialog that gives you
- several options, including the option to import the palette from
- an image. (You can also import any of GIMP's gradients as a
- palette.) This possibility becomes important if you want to
- create a set of indexed images that all use the same set of
- colors.
- </p>
- <p>
- When you convert an image into indexed mode, a major part of the
- process is the creation of an indexed palette for the image.
- How this happens is described in detail in ??. Briefly, you
- have several methods to choose from, one of which is to use a
- specified palette from the Palettes dialog.
- </p>
- <p>
- Thus, to sum up the foregoing, ordinary palettes can be turned
- into indexed palettes when you convert an image into indexed
- mode; indexed palettes can be turned into ordinary palettes by
- importing them into the Palettes dialog.
- </p>
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