Corner blend, mixer and standard palettes in Vectornation

Finding colours can be the slowest part of a design. Vectornation by Zaweba has a Palettes window, under Window > Colour > Palettes, with three different ways to get there: a corner blend, a mixer and a set of standard palettes.

Corner blend

Choose four corner colours and the corner blend fills a grid between them. You can set the grid from 4x4 up to 16x16, then pick any shade from it. The corners might be a warm light, a cool light, a warm dark and a cool dark, which gives you a whole field of related tones for an illustration in seconds. Or they might be four brand colours, with the grid showing the in-between shades you can use for backgrounds and tints while staying in the family.

A small grid gives a few clearly different steps, good for a limited palette. A large one gives fine gradations, good when you need a precise in-between shade, like the exact colour halfway between two greens.

The mixer

The mixer lets you mix colours in parts, smoothly, either like light or like paint. The difference matters. Mixed like light, colours combine the way a screen combines them. Mixed like paint, blue and yellow make green, the way they would on a palette. Mixing in parts means you can say two parts of one colour to one part of another, and repeat the same mix later.

Paint mixing is especially natural for anyone who has worked with real paint, and for illustration that should feel traditional rather than digital. Mixing like light suits screen work and glows.

Standard palettes

The standard palettes are ready-made sets: a colour wheel, the Windows 16 colours, web colours, Material, Tango, artists' paints and skin tones. Each has its uses. Material and Tango are tidy, well-balanced sets often used for interfaces and icons, so they are a fast way to make graphics look at home next to modern software. Windows 16 and web colours suit retro looks and simple diagrams. Artists' paints give colours named and chosen like tube paints. Skin tones give a considered range for drawing people, which is far better than guessing.

Putting palettes to work

Pick colours from the Palettes window, then save the ones you keep as swatches, ideally global ones in a named group, so you use exactly the same colours throughout. If a palette gives you a starting point for a whole scheme, try Colour themes next for harmonies that go with it. And if a shade must print reliably, check it in CMYK and with colour proofing after choosing.

A good habit for illustrators is to start each piece with a corner blend built from the light and dark of the scene, then use the mixer for the few special colours that need careful balancing. Designers working to existing conventions can start from Material or Tango and adjust from there.

Three tools in one window may sound like a lot, but each answers a different question: what lies between these colours, what do these colours make together, and what is a sensible ready-made set. Between them, colour choice gets a lot quicker.