About Global Color Palettes

GENESIS64 provides the ability to create Global Color Palettes that provide the following benefits:

Swappable Palettes of Colors

One possible use for Global Color Palettes is for applications that require separate distinct Day/Night modes, such as for navigation purposes, marine use, etc.

For example, one defined color could be named “Background” and could be set to be white for “Day Mode” and to black for “Night Mode”. Then, the color setting of “Background” could be configured as (assigned to) the Background property for a Display or Control. Switching the active palette from 'Day' to 'Night 'mode would cause the background of the Display/Control to switch from White to Black.

Named Colors

Another possible use for Global Color Palettes is 'color standardization' within a project. For example, a defined color named “HighAlarm” could be set to red.

Later on, that color could be redefined as yellow, but the change would only need to be made in one place (the Global Color Palette). All references to that color in HMI displays will automatically use the updated color.

Dynamic Colors

This use for Global Color Palettes is useful for colors that get their values from tags. For example, one single tag could provide one 32-bit color value. Three tags could provide Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) values. Four tags could provide Alpha (for transparency/opacity), Red, Green, and Blue values.

Limits

NOTE: Switching between a solid block color and a gradient color is not supported, leading to a gradient Global Color appearing white after re-selection. This is a "limitation" of the Global Colors implementation, as it cannot change the "type" of brush bound to a visual object on-the-fly. So, in this scenario:

If you bind to the Global Color (in configuration mode) while it is a gradient, switching to a theme where it is a solid color will not actually change it to a solid color brush. It will just set all of the gradient steps to the same color (so that it looks like a solid color).
If you bind to the Global Color (in configuration mode) while it is a solid color, switching to a theme where it is a gradient color will not actually change it to a gradient brush. It will just set the solid color using the first gradient step color.

For consistency, it is recommended that a Global Color should not be solid in one theme and gradient in another theme.