Choose a Color

You will frequently need to choose colors for various elements in Paint S, including:

  • Lines and borders
  • Fills and backgrounds
  • Text
  • Shadows
  • Gradients
  • Outlines
  • The canvas grid

Tips

A color is one of three ways to paint a fill, a border, or text — the other two are a gradient and a tiled pattern.

Using the Color Picker Panel

Click any color button in the Attributes panel to open the Color Picker. It offers three modes:

Color picker panel

1. Common Colors

Quickly select from a palette of standard colors.

2. All Colors

Use the color wheel to select any custom color.

Color picker panel in all colors mode

Tips

You can also adjust the opacity (alpha channel) of the color in this mode.

3. Favorite Colors

Access your saved custom colors.

Color picker panel in favorite colors mode

  • Add: Click the + button at the top right to save the current color.
  • Rename: Click the edit icon next to a color to change its name.
  • Delete: Click the stop (✕) icon to remove a color.
  • Reorder: Drag and drop colors to organize your list.

Tips

To sync your favorite colors across devices, use Help > Export Favorite Colors… and Help > Import Favorite Colors….

Keep the Color Picker Open

By default, the Color Picker closes when you click away. To keep it open on your screen, you can:

  • Click the panel icon at the top left of the panel to detach it into a separate window.
  • Double-click a color button to open the panel directly as a separate window.

Tips

Double-click the color button again while the panel is detached to return it to the popover.

Input a Color Manually

If you have a specific color code, click Input Color Manually at the bottom of the Color Picker.

Color input panel

You can enter the color values in Decimal (RGB) or Hexadecimal (HEX) format.

Sample a Color from the Canvas

To use a color that already exists in your image, use the Eyedropper Tool.

After sampling a color, a Picked Color dialog appears. Click Add to Favorites there to save the color for future use; the dialog also lets you set it as the foreground, background, or text color, or replace all occurrences of that color in the image.