The color line

The Color Line is displayed at the bottom of the window. It shows you the current fill and line colors, provides access to the color editor and provides a palette of pre-defined colors including a special "no color".

	Color swatch:The outer rectangle of the color swatch shows the line color and the center rectangle shows the fill color. These are the colors of any selected objects, or the current color attributes if no objects are selected.
	This button provides access to the Color Editor.
	Color picker: Use the eye-dropper to pick a color from any part of the document or any part of the computer screen. See Using the eye-dropper to pick colors for details.
	No color: Clicking this applies a "no color fill". Shift-clicking applies "no color" to a line. Note that this is not the same as 100% transparent. "No color" and transparency are different. A shape with transparency applied remains a solid shape whereas a shape filled with "no color" is effectively hollow. The No Color button can also be used to restore the original colors to a photo which has had a contone color applied.
	Current Fill color - the fill color of the currently selected object (displays a diamond marker on top left).
	Current Line color - the line color of the currently selected object (displays a diamond marker on top right).

If the length of the Color Line exceeds the window, you can scroll through the Color Line with the scroll bar below or by "Alt + dragging" the Color Line.

Xara Designer Pro provides several options for the displayed size of the Color Line (described in The View Tab).

If you do not want to display a Color Line, deselect "Window > Bars > Color line".

Colors on the color line

	Named Colors: The Named Colors appear with their complementary Linked Colors (if present in the document, see below).
	Linked Colors are represented differently on the color line by smaller rounded rectangles. When editing templates, to change the color scheme of the design you should only normally edit the Named Colors (large squares) and leave the Linked colors unchanged.
	Spot Colors: If your document contains spot colors, they appear on the Color Line (and in the Color Gallery) as circles.
	Palette colors: By default, there is a 'Standard Palette' of 46 pre-defined colors. There are 5 shades of 7 standard hues and 10 shades of gray, black and white. Standard Palette colors are not editable (i.e they are not Named Colors) and are designed as a simple, limited selection of colors to apply to objects (either by dragging on to the object or clicking). Use the Color Gallery to show other palettes like Web Colors or Pantone® Colors (if available).

Little markers in the color icons shows which of the named colors (if any) or palette colors have been applied to the selected object(s).

	Diamond markers show the colors used by the selected objects. A diamond in the top-left corner indicates the fill color, in the top-right corner indicates the line color.
	Cross-shaped markers show the current color attributes if there are no objects selected. Line color on the right, fill color on the left.
	Triangular markers show the colors of a fill type if you have applied one (linear, circular, elliptical, etc).

This works also when choosing a color with the color picker from existing objects, see Using the eye-dropper to pick colors. The color line markers update immediately and indicate the color of the object under the eye-dropper as you're dragging around.

Re-ordering colors on the color line

Only named colors can be re-arranged on the Color Line. "Ctrl + drag" colors along the Color Line. This also reorders the Color Gallery.

Color line context menu

Right click on a color on the Color Line to show a context sensitive menu with the following options:

Edit	Opens the color editor with the selected color (not available for palette colors)
Replace Color	This option is shown only when the selected object has multiple component parts or multiple colors, such as a button group.
Set Fill color / Set Line color	Set the fill or line color of the selected object with this color
Set Text Background	Set the the color for a text background - like a highlighter.
Rename	Rename a named color (not available for palette colors)
Delete	Delete a named color (not available for palette colors)
Options	Opens the "Page Options" > "View" tab where you can change the appearance and attributes of the Color line.

If the selected object is a bitmap, the fill and line color options are supplemented with Set contone dark color / Set contone light color. See Bitmap coloring for more information.

When right clicking the "no color" swatch, the fill and line color options are replaced by: Clear fill color / Clear line color. This sets the selected object's relative attributes to "no color". When applied to a contoned photo/bitmap, this restores the original image colors.