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Color Inspector |
Introduction
Color Inspector is a color browsing application. Its purpose is to help you find the colors you need for projects quickly and easily. It can help you quickly find and save color schemes to fit your needs. The application is built using Filemaker® Pro and is enhanced using a few FileMaker® Pro plug-ins from Comm-Unity Networking Systems (cnsplug-ins). Following are the plug-ins used:
Main Window
The main window is where you can begin browsing through colors and color schemes. You can update the main color chip using one of the following techniques: (Note: Color Inspector includes several themes, so your main window make appear slightly different, however, all elements will remain in the same positions.) Value Fields
In the upper center of the main screen you will see several text fields including: Red, Green, Blue, Hue, Saturation, Value, Hex value, and Dec Value. Click on the field to change its value. Field Value Sliders
The RGB and HSV fields will display a slider and a color well while adjusting the color. Hex and Decimal Dialog Box
The Hex and Decimal value fields will display an input dialog for you to type in a new number. Right Click Fields (contextual menus)
If you right click on these fields you can copy their values. If you right click on the Hex or Decimal fields, you can copy information for use with CSS as well as the FileMaker® Pro "TextColor" function for FileMaker users. The "Sliders" menu
You can access all available sliders from the "Sliders" menu. From here you can activate the component sliders such as R, G, B, H, S, V, and the color space sliders including RGB, and HSV. Drag and DropYou can drag and drop colors from the "Color Match" area to the main color chip area. You can also drag and drop color chips from the Favorites window, the Quick Picks window, and the Font Maker window. Color MatchWhen the main color chip changes, the Color Match colors update accordingly. There are six color match types included with Color Inspector including: Shade, Tint, Complementary, Analogous, Triadic, and Split Complementary. For a full description of what each type is, click on its name. The Toolbar
The toolbar includes seven different buttons to help you browse for the color you are looking for. The first two buttons, RGB Sliders and HSV Sliders, simply pull up the color space sliders already mentioned in this document. (The last two icons, "Font Maker" and "Favorites" have their own sections later in this document.)
System Color Picker
Rainbow Palette
The fourth icon will open the "Rainbow Palette" which allows you to see a full spectrum of colors and values at once. Clicking anywhere in the Rainbow Palette will update the main color chip with the color you click on. Quick Picks
The fifth icon will open the "Quick Picks" window which will display several related colors for you to choose from based on the main color chip. You can drag and drop colors from this window into the main color chip. Font Maker
The Font Maker window allows you to quickly and easily generate code to use in a FileMaker database or in your CSS for a web page. To change the color of the text example, simply drag a color from any drag enabled source, including the main window color chip and the color match colors to the "Font Color" container field. You can also change the background color in a similar fashion. To change what the actual example text is, simply click on the text and change as necessary. To change the font, style, and size of the text, use the "Format" menu as needed. Once you have something you would like to use, select and copy from the calculation fields as you would copy any normal text. FileMaker Pro users will want to change the "theText" variable to their field name, and create either a text calculation field or an auto-enter text field which is set to always replace. Favorites
The Favorites window is simply a place to keep colors that you like or use frequently. To add a color, simply drag one from any other drag enabled source. You can overwrite colors by dragging over them, and if you need to delete a color, simply click on the color you want to delete, and hit the "Delete" key on your keyboard. You can create new sets by going to the "View Sets" menu and choosing "New Set". Be sure to give your new set a Title and a Category so that you can navigate to it from the "View Set" menu. To generate an HTML report, choose "Export Set as HTML" from the "View Set" menu. You can read more about this feature and see an example report from the "HTML Reports" section of this document. HTML Reports
Color Inspector currently has two different HTML Reports.
Themes
Color Inspector ships with several themes for you to use. To change your current theme, simply go to the "Theme" menu in the main window and choose any theme listed there. Themes are application wide, so you when change to a new theme, the entire application will reflect the change. Try opening the "Splash Screen" using the "About" menu on the main window, and then switching to a few different themes. If you want to try your hand at making your own theme, choose "Edit Themes" from the "Theme" menu. This will open up a very plain window with several fields that you can drag or paste color and graphics into. The secret to creating transparent graphics is to use a PNG file. A PNG file can be inserted into the menu bar or backdrop field by right clicking on the field and choosing "Insert Picture..." You should then be greeted by a choose file dialog. Locate your graphic and click the "Open" button. Your graphic should now appear in the field. The same thing can be done for the "header", "body", and "footer" fields. For the "header color", "body color" and "footer color" fields, you can drag a color from any drag enabled field in the application, including the main color chip and the color match colors. Note that the "header" field lays on top of the "header color" field, so if you have a graphic in the "header" field, it will need to be somewhat transparent in order for the color field to show through. The same concept goes for the body, footer, and backdrop fields. (The backdrop field lays on top of the body field, which lays on top of the body color field.) If you like some of the elements that you already see in other themes, simply drag them to your new theme. For example, if you like the brushed metal menu bar from the "Red" theme in the "Theme 3" category, simply drag it to your new theme. Lastly, don't forget to name your new theme so that it will show up in the "Theme" menu in the main window. The Color Inspector Website
Don't forget to stop by the Color Inspector Website where we have demonstration movies, online documentation, and more.
Purchasing Color Inspector
You can purchase Color Inspector at https://secure.comm-unity.net/. A single user license is $35, and a developer license is $55. A developer license allows you to view the entire FileMaker solution without any limitations, however, plug-ins needed to run the solution are available at an additional cost.
Other Comm-Unity Networking Systems (CNS) products
CNS Plug-ins are the makers of many FileMaker plug-ins including:
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