Menu: Modifiers -->Fill col,  Menu: Modifiers -->Outline col

The colour used for colouring individual objects can be set using the above menu options

Each of the above modifiers displays a dialog box having three entries:

• The first button selects transparency.
• The second button selects default solid fill (in the default colour (see Tool colours later) ).
• The third button selects a custom colour.
  

The first two buttons (transparency and solid fill) are all that is needed to produce a black and white schematic;  Solid fill represents black while transparent represents a white background.  Custom colours are set using the third button. e.g. to set the solid fill of a rectangle to red etc.  Note that lines can not be transparent.

The solid fill colours for each type of object are defined in the Tool colour scheme dialog menu (see later).  The third button displays a colour select dialog and then fills in the objects with the user selected colour. See also Modifiers  for further details on using these modifiers.

Third button - custom colour

The main use for setting the custom colour is to add decorations to schematics such as highlights (behind component parts) or backgrounds (behind all parts) using layers (see capabilities and layers ). 

Note that when a custom colour is used that colour is printed out on a colour printer - regardless of the option 'Colour print' setting.

Note see the rest of this page for how setting custom colours interacts with the current colour scheme.

Tool colour scheme

Menu: Edit --> Options --> Colour

The colour scheme editor changes the appearance of the overall schematic from the above menu allowing schematics to be viewed in any desired colour scheme.   The following schematics are the same but the first uses the 'Classic' colour style while the second uses the 'High contrast' colour style.

These schematics will BOM  and netlist in exactly the same way i.e. they are identical except for their colour presentation.  Note that no user modifications are made in switching between the two displays other than to select the style from Menu: Edit --> Options --> Colour.

Note that the three schemes 'Classic', 'High Contrast' and 'Mono' can not be deleted but they can be used as the basis for other schemes - using saveas.  Note that the current scheme in use is saved in the schematic file so that the schematic is displayed as the writer intended.

Understanding the colour fill and colour outline modifiers.

In order for the automatic colour switching to operate each object in the canvas is labeled as a type of object i.e. although wires an lines are created from the same element (a canvas line) one is labeled as wire and one is labeled as line - this allows the colour switcher to assign different colours when a new scheme is selected. e.g.. for the above two schematics the line colour is changed from black to  blue between the schemes. 

To allow the user control of colours the either the colour scheme can be changed (using the colour scheme editor (see above)) or colours can be set using the custom colour button.

Note that using the custom colour forces the colour of the object to be the same in whatever colour scheme is used.  The objects can be set back to default colours by selecting the default fill button.

Note : (see Modifiers)

Note : The tool colour scheme in use does not affect printing.