PagePlus

Using color schemes

In PagePlus, a color scheme is a cluster of five complementary colors that you can apply to specific elements in one or more publications. The Schemes tab displays preset schemes which can be selected at any point during the design process.

Each publication can have just one color scheme at a time; the current scheme is highlighted in the Schemes tab. You can easily switch schemes, modify scheme colors and create custom schemes. Color schemes are saved globally, so the full set of schemes is always available.

How color schemes work

Color schemes in PagePlus work much like a paint-by-numbers system, where various regions of a layout are coded with numbers, and a specific color is assigned (by number) to each region. For example, imagine a line drawing coded with the numbers 1 through 5. To fill it in, you’d use paint from jars also numbered 1 through 5. Swapping different colors into the paint jars, while keeping the numbers on the drawing the same, would produce quite a different painting.

In PagePlus, the “paint jars” are five numbers you can assign to objects in your publication. They’re known as “Scheme Color 1,” “Scheme Color 2,” and so on. When you apply Scheme Color 1 to an object, it’s like saying, “Put the color from jar number 1 here.”

• The Schemes tab shows the various available schemes, each with a different set of five colors in the five “jars.” Whichever named color scheme you select, that scheme’s first color (as shown in its sample) will appear in regions defined as Scheme Color 1, its second color will map to Scheme Color 2, and so on throughout the publication.

The example below shows three different schemes as applied to a design that’s been marked with Scheme Colors 1 through 5 as in the example above.

 

To select a color scheme:

1. Click the Schemes tab. The currently assigned scheme is highlighted in the list.

2. Click a different color scheme sample. Objects in the publication that have been assigned one of the five color scheme numbers are updated with the corresponding color from the new scheme.

You can repeat this selection process indefinitely. When you save a publication, its current color scheme is saved along with the document.

Applying scheme colors to objects

When you create publications from pre-defined design templates, you can choose the starting color scheme that you want to adopt; you can always change it later from the Schemes tab. This flexibility creates endless possibilities for the look and feel of your publication! However, if you then create new elements in your schemed publication, or start a publication from scratch, how can you extend the current color scheme to the new objects? Although you’ll need to spend some time working out which color combinations look best, the mechanics of the process are simple. Recalling the paint-by-numbers example above, all you need to do is assign one of the five current scheme color numbers to an object’s line and/or fill.

To assign a scheme color to an object:

1. Select the object and choose a  Fill,  Line, or  Text button at the top of the Swatches tab depending on the desired effect.

2. From the bottom of the Swatches tab, click on the scheme color that you want to apply to the fill, line, or text (or you can drag the color instead).

   

If an object’s fill uses a scheme color, the corresponding sample in Swatches tab will be highlighted whenever the object is selected.

• If you copy an object using scheme colors to another publication, it will take on that publication’s color scheme. Don’t be surprised if the object’s color(s) change—they’re supposed to!

Using color schemes