What's the difference between vector colours and bitmap colours?

In Harmony, vector and bitmap layers use colour information differently. Vector layer artwork is linked to swatch IDs, whereas bitmap layer artwork is independent from them. This results in some important differences when using swatches. 

Harmony colour palettes

The following are characteristics of all palettes and colours in Harmony:

• All palettes and colours are created, deleted and edited in the Colour view.
• Colours are stored in a palette as a colour swatch. The swatches have individual IDs that affect vector and bitmap layers differently.
• Swatches accessible on bitmap layers are the same swatches accessible on the vector layers, and vice versa. Editing, renaming, creating or deleting swatches in one palette type will do the same in the other.
• The palette and swatch IDs are stored in a .plt file in the scene’s folder structure.

Vector colour palettes

The following are characteristics of vector palettes and colours:

• Vector palettes are only active when selecting vector layers. This includes art layers.
• Vector palettes appear as vertically arranged swatches with names.
• Vector swatches can contain plain colours, gradients or textures.
• When using vector layers, colours that are used will be linked to the swatch IDs. Updating the colour of a swatch will also change the colour of any area in the scene that is using that swatch in a fill or line.

Picking vector colours

Vector colours can be picked by doing the following:

• The Colour Eyedropper tool can be used to identify which swatch ID has been used in parts of the artwork, but it cannot be used to pick new colours from a bitmap layer when a vector layer is selected.
• The dropper icon in the Colour Picker window can be used to pick colours from a bitmap layer for vector palette swatches. See How do I pick colours from a bitmap image to create a vector colour palette? for more.

Bitmap colour palettes

• Bitmap palettes are only active when selecting bitmap layers. This includes art layers.
• Bitmap palettes look different from vector palettes, they have HSV sliders and the swatches are shown horizontally at the bottom of the window. There are no visible swatch names.
• Any colours used in bitmap artwork are not linked to swatch IDs. Changing the colour of a swatch will not change areas of the bitmap artwork that was painted with that colour. However, this action will still change any vector artwork linked to that swatch.
• You cannot create swatches with textures on bitmap layers.

Picking bitmap colours

Vector colours can be picked by doing the following:

• The Colour Eyedropper tool can be used to pick colours on a bitmap layer. Keep the following in mind when using it:
  • Picking a colour will not create a new swatch nor change the colour of a selected swatch, it will simply switch to the current colour and deselect any swatches.
  • It can pick colours from an imported bitmap image when a bitmap layer is selected.
  • It cannot pick colours from gradients or textures that were created in Harmony.
• The dropper icon in the Colour Picker window can also be used to pick colours from a bitmap layer, but is less necessary than with a vector layer.