How To Make Different Shades Of Color In Coreldraw

Working with colour harmonies in CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6

by Suzanne Smith

Color styles tin can be combined into groups called harmonies. A harmony allows yous to link color styles into hue-based relationships and change them together equally a prepare. By editing color styles in a harmony, you can quickly create a multifariousness of alternate color schemes past shifting the colors together, or you can alter the color composition of your artwork in one step.

You can create a color harmony from scratch or from the colors of an existing object.

This tutorial will teach you:

how to create new color harmonies from colour swatches
how to associate the colors in a color harmony with objects within the document
how to create color harmonies from existing objects
how to edit the colors within a color harmony
how to exclude colors from a color harmony
how to create a gradient color harmony
how to export your colour styles and harmony folders as a CorelDRAW style sail for futurity use

For additional information on color harmonies, see:

Assist > Help Topics > Templates and Styles > Creating and applying color styles
Assist > Video Tutorials > Working with... > Working with Color Styles
Aid > Guidebook > Chapter 6: Color Nuts > Working with colour styles and harmonies

Creating a color harmony from scratch

To create color styles and color harmonies you must first open the Color Styles docker by clicking Window > Dockers > Colour Styles (or press CTRL + F6).
In the Color Styles docker, click the New colour harmony button and choose New Color Harmony from the driblet-menu (see Effigy one).

Figure i

Elevate a color swatch from any open palette to the harmony folder (see Figure 2).
To continue calculation colors to the harmony folder that you simply created, drag additional colour swatches directly onto the harmony folder icon (meet Figure 3).

Note: Dragging color swatches to the lower panel merely not onto the harmony folder icon will result in additional harmony folders being created.

Associating colors from the new color harmony with objects in your document

Choose a color swatch from the harmony folder and drag it to one or more objects (see Figure iv). This volition "link" the harmony colour with that object, so that it will exist automatically updated whenever you edit the harmony colors.

Figure four

Creating a color harmony from existing objects

Drag an object to the bottom office of the gray area in the Color Styles docker (see Figure five).

Figure 5

In the Create Color Styles dialog box, enable the Group color styles into harmonies cheque box and elevate the slider all the way to the left until 1 appears in the box (see Figure half dozen). This volition generate colour styles from the object'south colors and group the color styles into a single harmony folder (come across Effigy 7).

Editing a color harmony

When yous edit a color harmony, you tin modify all colour styles simultaneously by preserving the relationship between them, or you can alter individual color styles within the harmony.

This color harmony was created by dragging a clipart object from the certificate window to the colour harmony binder (aka, the bottom part of the greyness area) in the Colour Styles docker (see Figure eight).

Effigy 8

To modify the colors in a harmony, click on whatsoever of the color selector rings and then rotate the rings in the colour cycle (see Figure 9).
To change the value of ane colour just, click on a color selector swatch (in either the color harmony folder or the Harmony Editor). The corresponding color selector ring will become highlighted within the colour cycle so that you can arrange the colour.

Note: To select all colors again, click an area exterior of the color wheel.

Figure 9

Using the Harmony Editor, y'all tin experiment with unlike color schemes. By changing one color, you can also notice other colors that go well with that colour.

Applying precise color values to a harmony color style

After selecting a specific color from the harmony folder, the Colour Editor provides several options for editing the color. You can use the eyedropper to sample a new colour from within the CorelDRAW workspace, or from the desktop. You lot tin also use the various color sliders, colour viewers, and color palettes to selection a precise color (see Figure x).

Figure 10

Excluding colors from a color harmony folder

There might exist situations where you want to protect certain object colors.

For case, in the graphic below, you lot might want to protect the chocolate-brown color of the tree trunk only change the remaining leaf colors in a colour harmony folder. There are 2 options you tin can use to accomplish this:

The kickoff pick is to drag the brown swatch to the top part of the gray area in the Color Styles docker, which will remove the colour from the harmony folder and create an individual colour style (see Figure 11).
The second pick is to select the brown swatch and click on the Trashcan icon to completely remove the color from the colour harmony folder (meet Figure 11).

Figure 11

Gradient color harmonies

CorelDRAW allows you to create a special blazon of color harmony called a slope. A gradient consists of a principal color style and a number of shades of that color. In most of the available colour models and palettes, the derivative styles share the same hue as the master color manner just accept dissimilar saturation and effulgence levels.

Note: In the PANTONE MATCHING Organization and custom spot color palettes, the main color style and the derivative styles are linked to one another just have different tint levels.

To create a gradient color harmony

In the Color Styles docker, select a colour style swatch (or drag a color swatch from an open palette to the bottom role of the gray area in the docker).
Click the New color harmony button and choose New Gradient (see Figure 12).

Figure 12

In the New Gradient dialog box, accept the default settings, and click OK. The New Gradient dialog box allows you to specify the number and type of shades that you want to create from the selected master colour manner (run into Figure 13).

Figure thirteen

When you change the hue of the master color style in a gradient, yous automatically update the related color styles, based on the new hue and the original saturation and brightness values (see Figures 14 and xv).

Assigning slope colour harmonies to objects

After yous create a gradient, you can apply it to the design elements in your certificate.

Simply drag a colour swatch from the harmony folder to an object (see Figure 16).

Figure 16

You can utilise the Harmony Editor in the Color Styles docker to preview your design in various color schemes. Merely select the gradient folder, and then drag to rotate whatever of the color selector rings in the colour wheel (see Figures 17 and eighteen).

Saving colour styles and harmony folders as CorelDRAW style sheets

You can brand styles and style sets available for utilise in other documents past exporting them to a CorelDRAW style sheet (.cdss) file. A mode sheet contains all the object styles, style sets, colour styles, and default object backdrop in the active document. Yous tin can likewise use styles and fashion sets from other documents by importing the style sheet to which they were saved.

To export color styles and colour harmony folders equally a style canvas

In the Colour Styles docker, click the Import, export or save defaults button, and choose Export Mode Sheet (see Figure 19).

Figure nineteen

In the Export Style Canvas dialog box, blazon a proper name for your style sheet in the File proper name box and and so click Export (see Figure 20).

Effigy 20

In the side by side Consign Manner Sheet dialog box, enable merely the Color styles cheque box, and click OK (see Figure 21).

Effigy 21

To import colour styles and color harmony folders

In the Color Styles docker, click the Import, consign or salve defaults button, and choose Import Fashion Sheet (come across Figure 22).
In the Import Style Sheet dialog box, navigate to the folder in which the mode was saved, select it, and click Import.

Figure 22

Note: You can share your harmony folders and color styles with other CorelDRAW X6 users, or import them on another machine. Only electronic mail the stylesheet.cdss file and and so import it into CorelDRAW X6 by following the above steps.

Note: You can also import styles and way sets from an existing CorelDRAW file past selecting the file in the Import Style Sheet dialog box and clicking Import.