Layer colour problem

[Tony Webb]

I am trying to create stationary that matches the colour of my website that I am building. 

I have the website's hex codes for the colour that I want to use and have used them to create a backgound colour (see attached file).

However the logo (designed in infinity) that I have cut and pasted into the header looks a bit pale when compared to my website.

I thought that I would try changing the background of a layer and draw a white box between the footer and header to see if that resolves the issue. Unfortunately, the layer colour dialogue doesn't allow Hex to be used. Is there a way to add this feature?

[GarryP]

I don’t understand why you are using the Selective Colour Adjustment.

Can you give us an example of the website text and an Affinity document containing the layer coloured with the hex values, but displaying wrongly, so we can compare them.

[Alfred]

6 minutes ago, Tony Webb said:

I am trying to create stationary that matches the colour of my website that I am building.

Your stationery colours will be CMYK, your website colours are RGB. The gamut (range of colours) for CMYK is very much smaller than the gamut for RGB, so you need to restrict your website colours accordingly, but even then you’re not going to achieve an exact match across a range of monitors which may not be correctly calibrated.

14 minutes ago, Tony Webb said:

However the logo (designed in infinity) that I have cut and pasted into the header looks a bit pale when compared to my website.

It doesn’t really matter whether or not the logo was created in Affinity Designer. CMYK is a subtractive colour model — dealing with reflected light — but RGB is an additive colour model where the light is emitted rather than reflected, which means you should expect differences even under carefully controlled lighting conditions (which, of course, you can’t control where your site’s visitors are concerned).

[Tony Webb]

When I first created the file I C+P the logo over the coloured background. The logo looked dim and tinted with the background.

I tried to resolve this by adding a layer with the same colour background as the original rectangle at the top and the bottom of the page. I was then going to draw a white box to create a space between the header and footer. After this I was going to add a "normal" layer and paste my logo on it. 

I then had a sensible ide which was to add a a normal layer to cover the background and paste the label. Much easier and it worked!

However, I did notice that the colour wheel (see attached file) shows a hex number towards the botton right (#FF92CB).  I am unable to add this number to the selective colour panel for layers.

It's just that if I wanted to make a page the same colour as I have used in the whell ( #FF92CB ) I have to fiddle about with the sliders or draw a rectangle and use colour fill with the same hex number. It would be easier to be able to use hex number for a new layer. By being able to do this it would ensure that all the stationary that I want printed would match.

I thought that it would be a good idea to be able to add hex numbers to the selective wheel becuase it can make things a lot easier.

I understand that the stationary may not match my website but it woud be good if all the stationary matched and was as near to the background colour of the website as possible. 

[Alfred]

4 minutes ago, Tony Webb said:

However, I did notice that the colour wheel (see attached file) shows a hex number towards the botton right (#FF92CB).  I am unable to add this number to the selective colour panel for layers.

It’s not very easy to see unless and until you attach it!

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, GarryP said:

I don’t understand why you are using the Selective Colour Adjustment.

 

18 minutes ago, Tony Webb said:

I thought that it would be a good idea to be able to add hex numbers to the selective wheel [because] it can make things a lot easier.

The main reason for using the Selective Colour adjustment is to make colour balance corrections.

P.S. Which came first to Southend-on-Sea, Happy Home energy assessment or Happy House Chinese takeaway?

[Tony Webb]

Hi Alfred,

I could lend you some binoculars to see if they help. Silly me!

Since posting this comment I have had a little play with my page. I noticed that in the colour wheel you can use RGB and it gives the numbers that I am using.
However in layers you can only adjust the colours which show a percentage. I tried entering the umbers from the wheel but the selective colour box won't accept them (it reverts back to percentages).
I also noticed that you can use hex with fill and stroke which means that it's only colour balabce or selection for layers doesn't use them. I think that's strange but then it might be me in wanting to do a strange thing!

[Alfred]

11 minutes ago, Tony Webb said:

I could lend you some binoculars to see if they help.

11 minutes ago, Tony Webb said:

Since posting this comment I have had a little play with my page. I noticed that in the colour wheel you can use RGB and it gives the numbers that I am using.
However in layers you can only adjust the colours which show a percentage. I tried entering the umbers from the wheel but the selective colour box won't accept them (it reverts back to percentages).

It’s still not clear why you’re trying to use a Selective Colour adjustment.

11 minutes ago, Tony Webb said:

I also noticed that you can use hex with fill and stroke

That’s really all you need here, isn’t it?

[iconoclast]

Quote

I am unable to add this number to the selective colour panel for layers.

It's because the Selective Colour Panel is a filter, not a fill tool. You can only manipulate the colours of existing filled areas with it, but you can not insert a certain colour in it to fill an area with it. Use the Colour Panel or the Swatches Panel to fill shapes or curve objects, or even pixel selections in the Pixel Persona with the fill tool. But for Logos, I would recommend shapes or curve objects, if possible.

[Tony Webb]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

Hi Iconoclast,

I understand now. It's just that the colour adjustments that I used are found in the layer menu. I assumed that they could be applied to layers! Silly me!

I have one other question; Is there a way of stopping history showing in the layers window? I've unclicked history in the windows bar. 
It's just that I have so much history in one file that I am unable to scroll down to a layer.

 

 

 

[iconoclast]

14 minutes ago, Tony Webb said:

I understand now. It's just that the colour adjustments that I used are found in the layer menu. I assumed that they could be applied to layers! Silly me!

These are the so called "Adjustment Layers". They are in fact filters that can be used non-destructive. That means that you can simply deactivate or delete them to undo what you did with them or even change the settings whenever you want - without using the History or Undo function. Even if you have closed and reopened the document in the meantime.That's very helpful, because it makes you much more flexible.

Quote

I have one other question; Is there a way of stopping history showing in the layers window? I've unclicked history in the windows bar. 
It's just that I have so much history in one file that I am unable to scroll down to a layer.

You mean the Brush History? It only concerns the Brush Presets you used on that certain layer. That should usually not be too many. I don't know if it can be deactivated. It is a relatively new feature, and it is very cool if you forgot which Brush Presets you used. But take care: the Brush History will get lost when you close the document.

[Tony Webb]

3 hours ago, iconoclast said:

You mean the Brush History? It only concerns the Brush Presets you used on that certain layer. That should usually not be too many. I don't know if it can be deactivated. It is a relatively new feature, and it is very cool if you forgot which Brush Presets you used. But take care: the Brush History will get lost when you close the document.

Brush history, I am not sure if you mean the use of the paint brush. I've attached a copy of a file that I have saved and opened. As you can see it is still showing the history. It appears to never be deleted.

sadly, I am disappointed with this product. it is very difficult to work out. I used to use draw plus which was OK for me as it did what I wanted. However, my PC that it was on is no more!

I don't understand the why ther i s black around the page (?board). I can't see anything that I drag onto it.

 

[Alfred]

11 hours ago, Tony Webb said:

sadly, I am disappointed with this product. it is very difficult to work out. I used to use draw plus which was OK for me as it did what I wanted. However, my PC that it was on is no more!

DrawPlus should work OK on your current computer, but in order to install it you would need to have a record of your product key (in the format DPXnx-xxxxx-nnnnn-nnnnn-nnnnn).

11 hours ago, Tony Webb said:

I don't understand the why ther i s black around the page (?board). I can't see anything that I drag onto it.

It’s black because you have it set like that. You can change it via the UI Brightness slider under ‘Edit > Settings… > User Interface’, but it isn’t the blackness that makes things disappear. Go to the View menu and choose ‘Clip to Canvas’ from the View Mode submenu — keyboard shortcut \ (backslash) — to toggle between showing and hiding items on the pasteboard.

[iconoclast]

I suspect that you don't really mean "History" but the Child Layers. Is that possible? There is no History in the Layers Panel, but the Brush History. The Layers Panel only contains the layers stack. The History is the Panel that lists up all steps you made during your work. And you can use it to undo steps. The Brush History is a drop down menu that appears as a brush symbol on a layer if you painted on it with the Paint Brush. It lists up the brush presets you used on that layer. Many users, including me, asked for a feature like that, because otherwise you have to note yourself what presets you used if you want to find them again if you need them.

Child Layers are different kinds of layers that are attached to layers. You could also call them "Sub-Layers". E.g. if you use an Adjustment Layer, it can be attached  to a Layer. Or a Mask, it appears as a Child Layer too. You can also attach e.g textures to a Layer, just by placing an image containing a texture in your document and by dragging its layer on the Layer, you want to attach it to.  There are two different ways to do that with two different results: 1. Drag it on the Thumbnail; 2 Drag it on the Layer Name. Just test yourself what happens in the single cases.

In each of this cases, the Sub-Layers are nested in the Main Layers and appear in a kind of drop down menu. So theses are not Histories, but content of your document you shouldn't delete if you possibly still need it.

Hope I didn't misunderstand your question. If you are not lucky with too little space for the layers panel, you can configure your GUI-layout yourself. I have placed my Layers Panel so that it reaches almost from the top to the bottom of the screen. And you can also save different GUI-layouts as so called "Studios" for different needs, so that you can easily switch between them. In Photoshop and Krita the equivalent to the Studios is called "Workspaces", by the way.

[iconoclast]

As an additional annotation (not sure if it is necessary): Designer handles layers a little bit different than other vector graphics apps. Usually vector graphics apps work with objects (curve objects, pathes) and the layers are only an additional feature there. In Designer, each object is a seperate layer right from the start. It is not really a huge difference, but it often causes some confusion. It makes it a little bit more complicated for people who are used to work with other apps, in the beginning. And it can create some mess in the Layers Panel if you are not aware of it. For complex projects it is always recommended to put the single layers of figures or objects you create out off a lot of layers, into groups. Otherwise you will probably loose the overview.

And, as I said above, a single layer can contain several others, depending on if you attached e.g. other Layers, Masks, Adjustment Layers or Live Filters to it. Which will be Child Layers to that Layer in that case. I recommend to read the Help File about Layers and check the opportunities. It is an important and really amazing feature.