Get percentages of custom palette colors?

[shokan22]

I want to detect percentages of my artist's oil colors in any area of a vectorized photo that I point to.

So, I want to first vectorize a photo to reduce it to manageable separate color areas. Then, I want to be able to get a list of the various percentages of 108 different colors that make up any of the vector color shapes I point to or select. These 108 different colors are somewhat accurate small bitmap swatches that correspond to 108 artist's oil paint colors.

Alternatively, can I just somehow plug in this 108 swatch palette and have a software (Xara?) break down a bitmap into areas of vector color using only this custom palette?

Is this possible in Xara, or by any other means you know of?

Thanks.

[handrawn]

ok here's one way:

1] first you need a vector [pdf] file that contains only swatch squares of your 108 colours - import this into a new document in xara designer, go to the name gallery 'used colours', and give them all a meaningful names - then save the file as your reference file [leaving the swatches in the file - you can lock and hide the layer they are on]

2] if you now import a vectorized photo pdf into a copy of this reference file - all the colours in it will be listed in the name gallery - and you can select and identify them individually there

if you only have a bitmap of your swatches you can bitmap trace these in xara - then ungroup, separate out the 108 shapes you need, delete the additional incidental ones, make sure the ones you want are all in the page area, and export as pdf - this is then your vector file for stage one above

if you want to create your vectorized photo file in xara designer then you need to export it as pdf after bitmap tracing - and then import it as per stage 2

hope I have understood what you were asking and that this is helpful

[shokan22]

2] if you now import a vectorized photo pdf into a copy of this reference file

What is the "vectorized photo pdf"? Do you mean the photo I am trying to identify colors percentages in, such as a vase photo (in my case)? And, how do I import a file into a file?

I'm at a disadvantage here, because I barely know Xara at all, just having fooled around with very basic stuff over the years.

Here is a link where people describe how to do what I want to do using various methods and softwares:
http://ask.metafilter.com/108437/How...r-in-Photoshop

There's no mention of Xara among the posts of the thread.

[molucca]

I think I would index the colors in something such as photoshop and save to a MS pal. Then read the PAL into XPal ( xara Sharewre page), and save to EPS. Then load the EPS file into Xara. This will give vector objects ao the indexed colors. I don't think palettes from images are ever accurate. You really ned the colors by the numbers. You can save a Xara type Pal from XPal. XPal saves to a Jasc type Pal too. Jasc type required 256 places reguardless if there is a color, but Xara doesn't. You can use the color probe to check the areas of the image. The EPS files loiads as vector.

Rich

[handrawn]

2] if you now import a vectorized photo pdf into a copy of this reference file

you open your saved xar reference file and select import from the file menu.... - sorry, I was assuming you were familiar with xara designer...... it being a vector editor [like illustrator] a xar file is an editor file full of objects, some of which may be images - unlike photohop where each image is its own file

looking at the link you supplied - do you want to provide a paint by numbers plan for a photograph?... sorry but I do need to be clear exactly what it is you want to do, and to me the link is a different scenario to your original post - if you do want to do this you need to convert the photograph to 'block colour' by posterizing or tracing, and you need to decide whether to use the colours you end up with or different ones from a standard palette? - am I on the right lines here?

[shokan22]

I have found a software called Oil Paint Assistant that will do exactly what I want.

http://www.mxac.com.au/

Only $25 and seems to work very well.

It will vectorize an image using options of: broken down into vector shapes that are 100% only of colors from the palette of standard artist's paint colors; broken down into 100% of colors from the palette but with the addition of black or white with an indication of what percentage mix, and a couple more involved percentage mix options. There is also the ability to create a custom palette of colors the program will reference, using a standard Photoshop-type color picker. This would be done just as approximations by eye, using the actual paint out of the tube as a guide. Here's where an ISP monitor with calibration would be great, but I'll make do. I have also found that my old computer cannot handle the computation required by the more involved mix options. So, I have just bought an Intel i2600k CPU to start a new build. Something I needed to do anyway since I am still using an Intel P4 rig with a very outdated weak onboard ATI graphics chip.

Thanks for your help.

[handrawn]

- no xara can't do that, neither as far as I know can photoshop [corel painter might ?]

looks like a good find, one I could have done with back in the day

[BTW for doing actual digital painting artrage is good inexpensive option]

[shokan22]

- no xara can't do that, neither as far as I know can photoshop [corel painter might ?]

looks like a good find, one I could have done with back in the day

[BTW for doing actual digital painting artrage is good inexpensive option]

Yes, I tried out Artrage a few months ago and it's great. I wanted to see if I could get convincing calligraphic wet-on-wet effects and I was able to achieve it easily using a background field of white strokes first and then black strokes over that. I then enhanced this by hand in detail in Phototshop. Here is the result of the experiment:

http://screencast.com/t/QEDCqGOa

[handrawn]

worked very well