Colorizing Objects

Use the Colorize command to tint vector objects with solid color fill or pen inks when you want to mix two colors, or shade one color with another. Doing this in the Presets palette can be complicated, since you have to create a custom color and set the correct values to approximate a two-color mixture. The Colorize command lets you simply select two colors and choose the percentage of each.

To Colorize a Vector Object:

1. Select at least one vector object that has a solid color fill or pen ink. Colorize has no effect on gradient, hatch, texture, and symbol inks.
2. Choose Effects | Colorize.
3. In the Colorize dialog box, turn on the Fill and Stroke options to colorize both, or select the one ink you want to colorize.
4. In the pop-up color palettes, select the colors you want to add to the inks of the selected objects.
5. Use the sliders or enter a percentage in the text boxes to set the amount of color to mix with the object’s color.
6. Turn on Preview to see the effect or click OK to colorize the object.

How Colorization Works

Canvas X Draw uses the specified percentages to determine the new color values for the selected object. For each color value (e.g., Red, Green, and Blue in the RGB color model), Canvas X Draw finds the difference between the tint and the original color. Then, Canvas X Draw multiplies the differences by the percentage you specify, and adds these values to the original color values.

Colorization Calculations

An object’s color has a red value of 40%. To tint 50% with a color that has a red value of 100%, Canvas X Draw calculates a new red value of 70%. The same calculations apply to the green and blue values for an RGB color.

Original R=40%

Tint color R=100%

Result R=70%

Difference in red values: 100 - 40 = 60

Value difference multiplied by tint percentage: 60 * 50% = 30

Original color value plus tint value is new value: 40 + 30 = 70% red