LEAP Color Palette Files


Color palettes are now saved in the _Settings\Palettes folder as .pal files. Each palette"s name is taken from the filename of the .pal file (without the .pal extension). A .pal file is a text file with each row of text defining a color in the palette. No rows may be blank. You can define colors in five ways:

  1. As standard color names (e.g. Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black, White, etc.). For example, a three-color red, green, blue palette would be written on 3 rows as:
     
    Red
    Green
    Blue
     

  2. As single integer values (or more commonly as hexadecimal values). For example: $000264FF.

  3. As internet-style color values written with the "#" character followed by 3 hex values. For example: #f3cac8.

  4. As 3 RGB byte values separated by commas. For example: 223, 229, 142.

  5. As 4 CMYK percentage values separated by commas.

If a row contains 3 values, it is assumed to contain RGB values. If it contains 4 values, it is assumed to contain CMYK values. Lines containing 2 or more than 4 values will cause the whole palette to be ignored.

.Pal files can also be placed in your LEAP area folders. Any named palettes in the area folder take precedence over similarly named palettes in the _Settings\Palettes folder. Thus, you can distribute customized palettes along with your area and use them (for example) in favorite charts.

You can create .pal files from within LEAP by going to the "Customize Palettes" option (at the end of Colors selection menu which is located on the Chart toolbar in the Analysis and Results views). From there, you can select among existing palettes and then add, edit, reorder or delete colors. You can then save the Palette you've created to a .pal file either in the current Area folder or in the _Settings\Palettes folder. If you ever want to reset LEAP to use the default set of palettes, delete the _Settings\Palettes folder and LEAP will recreate it next time it restarts.

Charlie Heaps, 3/29/2023