LiquidPixels Blog: Industry Insights from the Dynamic Imaging Experts

Use Color to Create Infinite Possibilities

Written by Amanda Ross | August 9, 2019

Use Color to Create Infinite Possibilities

By: Amanda Ross | August 9, 2019 | 2 Min Read

Color, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. 

If you’ve ever designed something for a client and struggled with the right decision on how blue or how purple the color “Periwinkle” is, then you know that colors can be difficult to produce accurately.

From its inception in 2000, LiquiFire® OS has incorporated full color management. This allows ICC color profiles to be used to manage color in a LiquiFire OS workflow. In this post, we will discuss basic color management in LiquiFire Image Chains™, including:

  • Borders
  • Text
  • Overlay
  • Alpha Colors

In LiquiFire OS, users can capitalize on using RGB (#RRGGBB or #RRGGBBAA) or CMYK (#CCMMYYKK or #CCMMYYKKAA) with full support for transparency.

Named colors are available, including CSS named colors, XWindows names, and more. Named colors are supported regardless of RGB or CMYK colorspace.

When you want to start with a fully transparent image, color names such as “none” are available for common use cases.

Flexibility is important. In the top example below, we create a “skyblue” border around the image of the cat. In the example on the bottom, we use the HEX code #FF8674.

color[skyblue]

source=name[cat],url[file:/Cat-and-Butterfly.jpg]
scale=size[500]
border=width[10],height[10],color[skyblue]
sink

color[#FF8674]

source=name[cat],url[file:/Cat-and-Butterfly.jpg]
scale=size[500]
border=width[10],height[10],color[#FF8674]
sink

Of course, adding colored borders is a tiny example of the power available in LiquiFire OS. Users can modify text colors, overlay colors on the image, colorize masked portions on the whole image, and much more.

Here, the text is colored as #F8E07C.

source=name[cat],url[file:/Cat-and-Butterfly.jpg]
scale=size[500]
annotate=fill[#F8E07C],font[Aspira],pointsize[20],text[Hello],tracking[25],x[30],y[375]
annotate=fill[#F8E07C],font[Aspira],pointsize[80],text[Friend],x[25],y[450]
sink

In addition to text color changes, we can add an overlay color. This is “teal” with an opacity of 45 percent.

source=name[cat],url[file:/Cat-and-Butterfly.jpg]
scale=size[500]
colorize=fill[teal],opacity[45]
sink

You can also place a border anywhere on the image. In this example, we’ve changed the text to be semi-transparent with a stroke and we’ve added an internal border called “violet”.

source=name[cat],url[file:/Cat-and-Butterfly.jpg]
scale=size[500]
colorize=fill[teal],opacity[45]
annotate=fill[white],font[Aspira],pointsize[20],text[Hello],tracking[25],x[30],y[375]
annotate=fill[#F8E08ED0],font[Aspira],pointsize[80],text[Friend],x[25],y[450],stroke[seashell],swidth[1]
draw=primitive[rectangle],points[9,9 (cat.width -10),(cat.height -10)],swidth[4],stroke[violet]
sink

LiquiFire OS supports print outputs in PDF, PS, and EPS, including spot colors, which makes it ideal for true webtoprint needs. By inserting spot colors directly into LiquiFire Image Chains, a single image can be referenced from website all the way through print production.

All of these commands are standard in LiquiFire OS and are waiting for you to add your creative touch to your images.

Do you have questions about our color features or ways we can help streamline your production processes? Talk to us at sales@liquidpixels.com.