Ch. 024 Color Palettes

In eDocBuilder you can use Color Palettes to create multiple custom palettes that you can selectively utilize throughout your templates. Palettes can be made up of CMYK, RGB, Spot Colors, and Grayscale colors. Each text field within a template can be assigned to any one of the palettes you define. In addition, in Interactive Designer templates, you can allow users to select a solid background color from a palette you define.

Two reasons for creating a custom palette

1. To limit the colors a user is able to select to ink colors available in your particular printing process
2. To provide users with a predefined list of colors to insure consistent design results. This may be due to corporate design guidelines or the desire to use aesthetically pleasing color combinations throughout the document.

Let's walk through the process of creating a simple palette for a custom stamp

1. Login to eDocBuilder and go Libraries > Color Palettes.
2. Click "Add New Palette" and give your palette a name and Save. The palette will be added to your list of available color palettes. If you have a lot of palettes listed you may need to scroll to see the new palette.
3. Now click the "Add" button. The "Add/Edit color" dialogue box will open. Give the color a name. The name you assign to the color will be displayed to the user when customizing your eDoc template. Choose the appropriate tab and define your color. Your palette can have a mixture of CMYK, spot, and RGB colors.

   

   • CMYK: Enter the percentage of each color space in the C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black) boxes. If you would like this to be a spot color, then click the "Is spot color" box and fill in the spot color name in the field that appears when this box is checked.
   • RGB: Select an RGB option from the color grid. Its hex code will appear to the right of the selection area. Or, click the box above the hex code area to set the color to white.
4. After you have finished adding a color, click "Save."
5. After you have defined all the colors for that palette, click the "Save" button on the palette.
6. Now you are ready to use the palette in a template. When defining a template, there are three places to set which palette(s) can be used.
   • For each text field you can optionally specify which palette your client can use to select a text color. To use this option, select a palette from the "Color Palette" drop-down menu in a field's Data Capture tab.
   • For Interactive Designer templates where you have allowed your customer the ability to add additional text fields, you can specify which palette these new fields should utilize. To use this option, select a palette from the "Default color palette for new text" menu in the Interactive Options section of your template's Template Info area.
   • For Interactive Designer templates, you can choose a color palette in the Background Files section of a template's Assets area to allow your customer to select a color from that palette as a solid background for the template. Be sure to place a checkmark in the "Allow solid color as background" box, as well as select the correct palette. Then click "Save Background Files Options."
7. After making any changes to your template, be sure to click "Commit Changes" in the template's Field Setup page.