Quick Tip 1 : Krita user interface, working with values

02 february 2013

Classified in : Tutorials

For black and white artworks or when you need to spend long time working on the values in your process , you 'll probably appreciate this ...

Specific Color Selector

- Add the docker 'Specific Color Selector' ( Top menu : Settings > Docker > Specific Color Selector )
- Check the box 'Show Colorspace Selector'
- Turn the model to 'Grayscale'
- Uncheck the 'Show Colorspace Selector'
- Resize the box to have a long width
... Now you have a wider range of selection for selecting precisely a value

Light pollution around

- To dim down all the polluting back-light of your display around artwork and help you to focus on your artwork, a good idea to change Krita for a darker theme.
Top menu : Setting > Theme > ...then choose.
I tend to work more in the 'Krita-blender' theme, or as on the screenshot above 'Krita-darker'
Note : Gnome / Xfce / Unity users may have a bad rendering. Install kde-style-oxygen package , and setup it with qt4-qtconfig to solve

- Also, you can dim the value of the color 'around the canvas' in Krita
Top menu : Settings > Configure Krita -> ( display icon on the left column ) -> Canvas border : 'Color'
Depending the mood, I use or a dark value here ( 50 ) or a mid one ( 128 ) , but rarely above

Keyboard shortcut

You can press at any moment while painting this two mnemonic shortcuts
K for 10% darKer value
L for 10% Lighter value
Also, as a reminder : I for less opacIty, and O for more Opaque are just above , and M for Mirroring view ...

Save your workspace

Krita can save 'workspace' witch mean you can save mukltiple dockers positions depending your activities, or workflow
Toolbar : Last icon -> Insert a name -> Save
ex : here I have my trusty 'Black-White_1200x1600' workspace ready to launch for my screen.

Classified in : Tutorials

blog post by David Revoy

6 comments

1. MrBeast

saturday 02 february 2013, 14:37

I am not sold on the darker color-space, I mean in what case will the artwork be shown in a dark environment? Probably only if you are working on a movie or a video game.

2. Yuri Fidélis

saturday 02 february 2013, 17:48

Cool, David.
I'm preparing a Krita quick reference with all shortcuts, for printing and folding to put on your desk. I'll post it on the forums soon and maybe you can spread it around.

3. Boudewijn Rempt

saturday 02 february 2013, 18:01

Hm... Reading this, I'm wondering whether a 5% increment for the light/dark shortcuts wouldn't be nicer.

4. David REVOY

saturday 02 february 2013, 21:01

@MrBeast : Also , I think I prefer darker UI for Krita since I'm working on the Cintiq ; the short distance of the screen and my eyes... I think I want to limit lightness and contrast all around the canvas to keep focused.

@Yuri Fidélis : Oh cool ! Sure, I'll spread it.

@Boudewijn Rempt : I never felt the need to change this value, always worked for me. But, I guess it's a easy value to tweak and test. It may be better , it may be worst

5. Sanjay Maurya

saturday 09 february 2013, 09:42

Hi,
Just checking your website today. It seems your RSS link is not working.

6. David REVOY

saturday 09 february 2013, 14:01

@Sanjay Maurya : Oh, thanks for the notification. I would love to fix that. What RSS agregator do you use ? ( I may need it to see if I can reproduce ) . Here I can access the infos here : http://www.davidrevoy.com/feed/ .

David Revoy