If you click on the Choose Palette... button in the Render dialog or the Palette... button in the Render toolbar, a new dialog box appears. This is the Select Palette dialog. Using this dialog, you can change what colors your Mandelbrot and Julia set images will be rendered in. Let's look at each option available:Use 256-Color Rainbow or 256-Color Grey Scale Palettes: The first two radio buttons let you choose one of the two built in palettes available in MM! There is a 256-color "rainbow" palette and a 256-color gray scale palette. If you choose one of these, no other options are needed, and the words "Rainbow" or "Grey Scale" will appear as the current palette on the Render Info dialogs.
Define Color Scale: If you choose this radio button, you can create a palette that will be a smooth transition between two colors. There are two colored bars here, and under each is a button. The dark color is the color of items actually in the Mandelbrot set or Julia set. The light color is the brightest possible color on the graph. You can set these by clicking the appropriate button, which will launch the standard Windows color selection dialog. Next, you can change the number of colors in your palette in the drop-down box below the Light color... button. You can choose either 16 or 256 colors. When you click the Ok button, a new palette will be generated with the number of colors specified. The colors will create a smooth transition from the dark color to the light color. Palettes created this way are named "Custom Color Scale" elsewhere in the program.
Note that the designations of "dark" and "light" are arbitrary. You can have your colors "in" the Mandelbrot set bet any color your want. Reversing the colors (make "dark" a light color and vice versa) can produce some interesting "negative image" results. Choosing two strong colors (say green as "dark" and red as "light") can produce some striking contrasts. Experiment!
Load Palette from File: If you choose this radio button, you can load a saved palette from a file on disk. This radio button enables the Load Palette... button. When you click this button, you will be presented with a dialog box where you can load any accepted file that contains palette data: PAL, MOB, or MM XML files. The file will be read and converted into MM!'s internal palette format. Loaded palettes will be named "Loaded from [filename]" whenever the palette's name is displayed.
Of course, clicking the Ok button will set your chosen palette as the current active one so it can be used in rendering, and clicking the Cancel button will close this dialog without altering the current palette.
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© Copyright 2007, Jeffrey T. Darlington. All rights reserved.