Virtual Paint Mixers
Welcome to the virtual paint mixers [MXR] and Golden Artist Colors! With these tools artists can explore and experiment with oil or acrylic color mixtures, sample color from images, match colors from RGB and CMYK color systems, and save & share palettes and mixtures. While you can probably get the hang of the mixers just by playing with them, this primer may help you get there more quickly and get more out of its features and capabilities.
TWO PRIMARY PARTS OF MXR
1. PALETTE & MATCHING is first, top, or on the left in "desktop" view, is the four tab tool box:
MATCH COLOR allows you to select colors from the two pre-loaded images or images your upload. (NOTE: the mixer doesnt save uploaded images) Simply tap or click on the image to move the picker icon to the color you'd like to match. When you have selected a color, click "MATCH COLOR" and a mixture will be created from the paint colors in the selected palette.
COLOR SYSTEM matches colors using either RGB or CMYK color systems using the paints (colors) in the palette selected.
PALETTE BUILDER allows you to create or edit palettes of colors for creating mixtures. You can save pre-loaded paletttes as a starting point or build a palette from scratch.
? (HELP) is there to assist you while using the mixer.
2. MIXTURE/SWATCH is where the resulting mixture appears from any inputs you provide in the palette and matching tools.
TUBES for each color in your mixutre, you can manipulate the mixture by dragging the cap, clicking the white arrows, and changing or adding colors. You must clear the (<font color = "#CB4335">X</font>)tube before selecting a new color for that tube.
NOTE: When mixing very light colors, especially with oils, very small quantites of paints are sometimes necessary. When clicking to decrease paint quantity value below 1 the mixer uses increments of 0.1 and when decreasing from 0.1 will reduce value by 0.01. These values are available when matching colors.
TARGET COLOR is the color the mixer attempted to match. The color in the swatch graphic is closest matching mixture possible using the paints available in the selected palette.
TINTS to the right of the swatch graphic show your mixuture in tint ratios from 10 parts color to 1 part titanium white, to 1 part color with 10 parts titatniuim white.
ADD TO PALETTE adds the colors from the mixture/swatch to a palette you have created or will start a new palette.
CLEAR ALL empties all the tubes and removes the color from the swatch graphic and target.
REDUCE COLORS will reformulate color mixture using one less color.
SIMPLIFY RATIO reduces the complexity of mixture values first by converting the numerical total to 100 for simple conversion to percentages, then to parts of 20, 10 and 5 for easier mixing by eye. Simplification will affect the overall mix to a noticable impact on color shown in the swatch - the target will not change.
CIE dist & ALERT indicates the distance between CIE (international color standard) value of the target color and that of the mixture, this alert appears when the distance is greater than five. If the color distance is unacceptable, the mixture is not sufficiently matching the target, additional colors should be added to the palette.
MIXTURE WEIGHTS is the ratio of weights (Wt ratio:) for the mixture from top to bottom. Mixing by weight is the most accurate way to recreate a mixture.
SAVE mixtures you create. (sharing mixtures via email and social media is coming) Clicking on a saved mixture loads it the tubes and swatch for tweaking, replacing your current mix.