Very Computer

hello,

i'm rather new to graphic design, but i'm hoping someone can help me
out with a few questions.

first, is there a program that can help calculate colors? for example,
if i have something with red and i want to change it to a specific
shade of purple, what colour of blue should i fill the picture in
order to get that exact shade of purple?

second, let's say i have 6 squares on a page, and the first square is
blue and the last square is green. i'd like to make the middle four
squares gradually change colour from blue to green. how can i find out
what shades they should be?

any help would be much appreciated.
bruno

Quote:> first, is there a program that can help calculate colors? for example,
> if i have something with red and i want to change it to a specific
> shade of purple, what colour of blue should i fill the picture in
> order to get that exact shade of purple?

> second, let's say i have 6 squares on a page, and the first square is
> blue and the last square is green. i'd like to make the middle four
> squares gradually change colour from blue to green. how can i find out
> what shades they should be?

> any help would be much appreciated.

Actually, first you have to tell us what Corel program you're using. Are you
working with vector graphics or raster graphics?

hello again,

i'm using corel photo-paint 11. i'm quite new to working with graphic
design, so i honestly don't know if i'm working with vector graphics
or raster graphics. i just have some pictures/artwork i've scanned in.
i want to somehow add a colour on top of the previous color, but i'm
wanting a specific "output" coloUr so it's basically:

COLOUR1 + COLOUR2 = COLOUR3

i know colour1 and i want colour3, so i would like to figure out what
colour2 is.

does that make any sense?

Quote:> > first, is there a program that can help calculate colors? for example,
> > if i have something with red and i want to change it to a specific
> > shade of purple, what colour of blue should i fill the picture in
> > order to get that exact shade of purple?

> > second, let's say i have 6 squares on a page, and the first square is
> > blue and the last square is green. i'd like to make the middle four
> > squares gradually change colour from blue to green. how can i find out
> > what shades they should be?

> > any help would be much appreciated.

> Actually, first you have to tell us what Corel program you're using. Are you
> working with vector graphics or raster graphics?

Quote:> hello again,

> i'm using corel photo-paint 11. i'm quite new to working with graphic
> design, so i honestly don't know if i'm working with vector graphics
> or raster graphics.

Photopaint is a raster/bitmap editor. It will help you to learn more about
vector and raster before you do much more with design so you can choose the
right tool for the job.

Quote:> i just have some pictures/artwork i've scanned in.
> i want to somehow add a colour on top of the previous color, but i'm
> wanting a specific "output" coloUr so it's basically:

> COLOUR1 + COLOUR2 = COLOUR3

> i know colour1 and i want colour3, so i would like to figure out what
> colour2 is.

> does that make any sense?

Not totally... is this for print or for onscreen? You're talking 2 totally
different color spaces, additive vs. subtractive, reflected vs projected,
RGB vs CMYK... if it's for print, you can't totally judge what will be
output by looking at your monitor due to the various color
managment/calibration issues involved.

As for your process of this on color on top of another .. then you're
talking lenses (possibly), merge modes (possibly)... but if you know you
want "color 3" why are you trying to get to color 3 by adding "color 2"
instead of just replacing a color, etc?

hello again,

hmmmm...it's more complicated than i thought. you asked me why i'm
trying to get "colour 3" when i could just replace it. well, i have a
couple of scans that should have had the same background colour, but
when they scanned in, the colours are slightly different on each one.
i want to figure out what colour is needed to change the colour of one
to match the colour of the other. if i try to place them next to each
other in corel, you can see the colour difference. this is what i'm
trying to resolve. i've tried replacing colours, but the results don't
look good at all. i guess there's no real easy answer to this.

bruno

ps. is there some book that someone can recommend that tackles a lot
of these "how do i do that in corel" questions?

Quote:>hello again,

>hmmmm...it's more complicated than i thought. you asked me why i'm
>trying to get "colour 3" when i could just replace it. well, i have a
>couple of scans that should have had the same background colour, but
>when they scanned in, the colours are slightly different on each one..............

I have not done a lot of scans in recent years but I used to see that
problem.  Even if you are scanning parts of the same pic (say
oversized), unless you can lock the scanner exposure between scans,
the partial scans will come out different.  The trouble is that the
differences are non-linear ie applying a simple filter will not do the
trick.  Colours shift by varying degrees. Using the replace filter
usually does not work because correcting one spot makes the rest of
the pic worse.  I think the only solution is to eyeball the pics and
adjust manually.

There are various guides on the Net for doing colour corrections.
Although it's not much use to you I find it best to use something like
ThumbsPlus (for example).  It is not a precise editor (no tone curves
or black/mid/white point control) but has Brightness / Contrast /
Gamma / Hue / Color Balance sliders all available at the same time
with auto preview at full size.  Makes fiddling easier and getting
approximately correct.  It saves the settings after the edit so less
fiddling next pic.  RGB only.

Save in lossless format and do final tune up in Photopaint if needed.

Starman*
.
Remove !buzzoff! from email address to reply

one..............

Bruno, could you repost this? I didn't get the message on my news server
(saw this in a reply)....

As for sky color not matching - why not just cut out the sky and replace it
with the same sky in both pictures?

A good place for tips on scanning can be found at www.scantips.com, too.

Quote:> hello again,

> hmmmm...it's more complicated than i thought. you asked me why i'm
> trying to get "colour 3" when i could just replace it. well, i have a
> couple of scans that should have had the same background colour, but
> when they scanned in, the colours are slightly different on each one.

Odds are they are different colors on each photo, too. If you're talking
outdoors pix, the lighting is always changing and if you're using something
like a polarizing filter, the lighting/color saturation will change
depending upon the rotation angle of the filter. If indoors, were you using
daylight film? Using a flash? Was the flash powerful enough? What kind of
lights were there (halogen, flourescent, incandescent, etc?)?

Quote:> i want to figure out what colour is needed to change the colour of one
> to match the colour of the other. if i try to place them next to each
> other in corel, you can see the colour difference. this is what i'm
> trying to resolve. i've tried replacing colours, but the results don't
> look good at all. i guess there's no real easy answer to this.

well, what is the final product going to be? is this for online or for
print? You can't judge onscreen what will print unless you've had your
monitor and printer color calibrated together, etc.

Quote:> ps. is there some book that someone can recommend that tackles a lot
> of these "how do i do that in corel" questions?

check out unleash.com, altman.com for some pointers... also check out
Corel's newsgroups over at cnews.corel.com.