Color selector for desktop publishing

摘要

Techniques are disclosed for color selection in a desktop publishing application. A color selection technique includes receiving a selection of an image, automatically sampling a color from a pixel of the selected image, and adding the sampled color to a color swatch in a graphical user interface. The sampled color may be the predominant color in the image (e.g., the color that appears in the greatest number of pixels), or the sampled color may be the darkest or lightest color in the image. In another embodiment, several colors (e.g., two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine or ten) are sampled from different pixels of the selected image, and some or all of the sampled colors are added to the color swatch. A designer can then select the sampled color(s) from the color swatch and apply the selected color(s) to one or more elements of a layout.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented desktop publishing method comprising:
receiving a user input selecting a digital image associated with a page layout, the digital image comprising a plurality of pixels; sampling, in response to the user input, a color from any one or more of the pixels of the digital image; generating, within a graphical user interface, a color swatch including the color sampled from the one or more pixels, the sampled color being user selectable from the color swatch via the graphical user interface; and receiving a user selection of the sampled color via the graphical user interface and applying the user-selected sampled color to an element of the page layout; wherein the page layout includes a plurality of digital images; and wherein the method further comprises:
sampling different colors from each of the digital images;generating a multi-state object (MSO) corresponding to the element of the page layout having the user-applied color, the MSO having a plurality of states; andmapping each of the different sampled colors to different states of the MSO such that the MSO displays the color sampled from the respective digital image while the digital image is displayed in the page layout.