Importing and Linking Palettes

Before starting colouring work such as Ink and Paint or even creating new colour models, you may want to load existing colour palettes to your scene. You can do so by linking colour palettes to your palette lists.

You may encounter a case where only a colour palette is visible when a layer is selected. If you need that palette in a second layer, you can link the palette to the second layer's palette list, A good example would be a scene where there is a character on one layer and its arm is on another. In order for both layers to access the palette, you must link both Element Palette lists to that palette. If you palette is linked to the Scene Palette list, it will be accessible by all layers.

If you created a palette in another project and you want to import it in your current project, you can browse for the palette file on your computer and add it to your scene. When the palette is imported in your scene, the file is copied in the project’s directory. It is not linked to the original file.

With Toon Boom Harmony as a stand-alone application, every scene is local to the machine. This means that all of the scene’s data is only accessible from that particular scene. Palettes are also local to the scene; they can be shared between all drawing layers, but not between scenes.

However, you may want to share palettes across a whole project. Harmony offers that possibility. By default, a palette is an independent file stored in your scene. This file can be copied, moved, or deleted.

To link a palette throughout an entire project, you need to create a central directory where you can copy all the palettes you created. Every time you link a palette in an element, it is linked to this folder. If you modify the palette, it will be updated throughout the whole project.

You will notice that when you create or link a palette, a small icon appears on its left. These icons represent the palette linkage status.

Icon Description

Indicates that the palette is safe.

There won’t be any trouble once the scene will be exported. For example, the palette file is stored in the scene folder and is linked to the Scene Palette List.

Indicates that the palette file is stored in a directory external to the scene’s structure.

The palette file is probably stored in a Master Palette directory on a hard drive external to the palette-libraries planned for the palette storage. The warning in this case is that if you move your Master Palette directory to another location, you may loose the palette in your scene.

Indicates that a palette file stored in a level such as Element, Scene, Job or Environment is linked to a Palette list that is not on the same level.

For example, a palette file is stored into the Environment folder and is linked to the Element Palette list. The palette is shared.

Indicates a potentially dangerous situation.

Problems may occur when trying to export or link to the palette file. For example, a palette file is stored into the element folder and is linked to the Scene Palette list. The issue in this case is that if you decide to delete the layer containing the palette, you will loose it from your scene.