Tool short-cuts

3-digit hex colours (form)

Hex colour values are always displayed here in upper case but you can enter them in either case for them to be understood.

Valid hex colour values are always 6 numbers in length. However, if you enter one digit for each of red, green and blue, the resource automatically doubles them up for you. For example, if you enter R: 9 G: C and B: F, the resulting colour will be #99CCFF.

Since hex colours from the 216 "safe" palette happen to have pairs of the same number for each of red, green and blue, this feature offers a short-cut for entering "safe" hex colour values.

3-digit hex colours (URL)

You can choose a new colour by editing the URL on tool pages. Add c=rgb to the end of the URL where r, g and b represent single hex digits (e.g., c=9cf for #99CCFF). The resource doubles up each value to create a new hex colour of #rrggbb (e.g., #99CCFF). You can do this even if you've chosen to show colour values in decimal.

If the URL ends with c=369 (that is, c= followed by three hex values), edit the 3 digits after the c= to display a new colour (e.g., c=9cf).
If, the URL includes a question mark, add &c=rgb at the end of the URL to display a new colour (e.g., ...?field=value&c=9cf).
Otherwise, if the URL doesn't contain a question mark, add ?c=rgb to display a new colour (e.g., ... .lml?c=9cf).

To minimise load time of the palettes, the palette links make use of this shortened way of referring to colours (c=rgb) in the "safe" palettes. In the "safe" palette, all hex colour codes include pairs of the same value of red, green and blue in hex (e.g., #99CCFF); the resource doubles up each digit to produce the actual hex colour value.

Hex colours entered this way can be entered in upper, lower or mixed case.

Button scope

Buttons apply all the settings changed on a tool page (such as the variation amount, colour value or number of swatches). The exception is the square size and spacing palette settings and Adjust button, which are independent to the other settings.

This means that if you want to change more than one thing on a tool page, such as the variation amounts, the number of swatches per row and the current colour - make all your changes in the drop-down boxes and input boxes and then click on any button on the page for them to take effect. This applies to variations buttons too (such as +20% R).

For those familiar with HTML: each tool page includes a single form and so every button submits the whole form.

Note that if you enter a new colour value and click on a variation button, the colour specified by the variation button is used. Also, changes made as a result of following links (such as changing from hex to decimal values, clicking on a palette or changing the palette style) ignore any changes you've made in the form settings that haven't been submitted yet.

Bookmarking of colour pages

You can recreate a tool page for visiting later by bookmarking it. For all the settings to apply, you'll need a version of the page that has all the relevant (non-default) settings in the URL. For each tool page, the link at the very bottom of the page is to a bookmarkable page that will recreate the page.

For instance, on the bottom of Navigate colour you'll see:

To bookmark the tool page with all the current settings, click on the link and then bookmark the resulting page (the URL now contains the current settings relevant to the current tool).

Persistent settings

Settings, such as the current colour, variation amounts or palette style, persist during your visit; as you move from page to page, settings remain the same until you change them to something else.