Preferences

An important feature of Harmony Paint is the Preferences panel. From here you can customize your interface, tool behaviour and shortcuts. Throughout this guide, you are often required to go to the Preferences panel to set parameters and options.

To access the Preferences panel:

In the top menu, select Edit > Preferences (Windows/Linux) or Stage > Preferences (Mac OS X). The [Ctrl] + [U] (Windows/Linux) or [⌘] + [U] (Mac OS X).

The Preferences panel is divided into the following tabbed sections:

Shortcuts Tab
General Tab
Some preferences require you to exit and restart the application or to close a view and reopen it.

To speed up your work, all of Harmony Paint’s keyboard shortcuts can be customized and you can even choose other software keyboard shortcut sets.

Refer to the following sections in the Harmony Stage User Guide.

Selecting a Keyboard Shortcut Set
Customizing a Keyboard Shortcut

Use the General tab to set general software behaviour and user interface.

Save

The Save preferences are used to specify if you want the following elements to be saved or not when using the Save command:

Save Palette Lists
When this option is enabled, the Palettes Lists will be save when saving your work with the Save command. Disabling this option prevents the Palette Lists from being saved without specifically using the Save Palette Lists command from the Colour view.
Save Palettes
When this option is enabled, the Palettes will be save when saving your work with the Save command. Disabling this option prevents the Palettes from being saved without specifically using the Save Palette command from the Colour view.
Save Drawings
When this option is enabled, the drawings will be save when saving your work with the Save command. Disabling this option prevents the drawings from being saved.

Options/Settings

Cycle Exposure

This option makes the navigation wrap-around from the last cell or column to the first.

HTML Browser for Unix

This option is used to view the online help on Linux machines. Enter the command to launch the browser, including the path if necessary.

Level of Undo

The Levels Of Undo preference determines the number of actions retained by the Undo List. By default, the system stores 50 actions in the list. You can alter the number if you want to.

Colours

The Colours preference allows you to modify the colours of the different User Interface views and elements. For example, you can change the Drawing view’s background colour from white to any other colour. This can be useful to easily and quickly distinguish details that are painted white which would not show on a white background, for example a character’s white eyeballs.

Altering these preferences require you to restart the application or to close a view and reopen it for the modifications to be applied.

Current View Border

The Current View Border preference sets the colour of the frame around the workspace view you are currently using, also known as focus. By default, the colour is red. Click on the red colour swatch to select a new colour in the Colour Picker window.

Edit Colours Button

Click on the Edit Colours button to open the Colours window.

In the Colours window, you can modify any of the colours from the list. Most of the modifications will require you to restart the application or close the view and reopen it to see them.

Click on any of the colour swatches and select a new colour from the Colour Picker window.

Onion Skin
Onion Skin After
Changes the colour display of the next drawing when using the Onion Skin feature.
Onion Skin Before
Changes the colour display of the previous drawing when using the Onion Skin feature.
Others
Background
Changes the background colour of the Drawing and Model view.
Backlight
Changes the display colour of the Backlight option.
Grid
Changes the display colour of the grid when using the Show Grid option.
Colour View Background
Changes the background colour of the colour list area of the Colour view.
Colour Highlight Mode Opacity
Changes the opacity value of the washed out art when using the Highlight Selected Colour option.

To restore all of the default interface’s colours, click on the Restore All Defaults button.