The Colour Picker is a tool in the Colour Configuration Page that allows you to define Colour Bands using colours that are elsewhere on the screen. For an overview of the Colour Configuration Page, see the guide to Navigating the Colour Configuration Page. For information on how Mandelbrot Explorer uses Colour Bands to define colour schemes, see the article on Colour Bands.

To start using the Colour Picker, click on the Colour Picker in the toolbar. The cursor then changes to a pipette icon over parts of the screen for which the Colour Picker is relevant. Note: This changes the behaviour when you left-click on the squares to the left and right of the colour selection panel, as detailed below. This means you no longer can left-click on these to choose a colour from the colour dialog box. To do this, you must change from Colour Picker mode to one of the other modes.

When you are in Colour Picker mode, a coloured square appears to the right of the Colour Picker in the toolbar. This represents the colour currently stored in the Colour Picker. The way the Colour Picker works is that you can “collect” a colour from elsewhere in the screen and store it in the Colour Picker. This colour is then displayed in this square in the toolbar. You can then deposit that colour in the squares to the left and right of the colour selection panel, and thereby use that colour for creating new colour bands.

To collect the colour under the cursor, you right-click with the mouse anywhere in one of the following areas of the screen:

• Either of the Colour Preview Panes
• The colour selection panel

• Either of the squares at either end of the colour selection panel

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You then left-click with the mouse on one of the squares at either end of the colour selection panel. The colour of that square then changes to that stored in the Picker. This colour will then form one end of a colour gradient, when you add a new Colour Band.