# Palettes and Color Management

How to use and manage color palettes.

## Short Summary

This page explains how to use built-in palettes, create custom palettes, and apply gradient mapping to your visual effects.

## Built-in Palettes

The application includes a curated collection of color palettes:

- Midnight Noir, Electric Dream, Cyber Punk, Desert Dusk, Ocean Deep, Crimson Night, Forest Mist, Sunset Bloom, Retro Wave, Arctic Fire, Lavender Dreams, Golden Hour, and more.

Each palette consists of 2 to 4 colors designed for specific aesthetic styles.

## Using Palettes

1. Open the Settings panel on the right side.
2. Scroll to the Palette section.
3. Click on any palette in the gradient bar to apply it.
4. The selected palette affects algorithms that support color quantization.

## Custom Palettes

### Creating a custom palette

1. In the Palette section, click the Add Palette button (+ icon).
2. Enter a name for your palette.
3. Add colors using the color pickers.
4. Save the palette.

### Managing custom palettes

- **Edit**: Click on a custom palette to edit its colors.
- **Delete**: Use the delete button to remove custom palettes.

## Gradient Map

Gradient mapping applies a color gradient based on image brightness.

### Using Gradient Map

1. In the Settings panel, locate the Gradient Map section.
2. Enable gradient mapping.
3. Select a palette to use as the gradient source.
4. The effect maps dark areas to the first palette color and bright areas to the last color.

## Best Practices

- Use 2-color palettes for classic duotone effects.
- Use 3-4 color palettes for richer gradients and more color variation.

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See [quick-start](/content/docs/quick-start/index.html) for palette usage in a workflow.