A/B - The Amount/Blend Mixer

The Amount/Blend Mixer (below and labelled A/B) controls how the contents of the Palette are blended or applied to the Canvas. Its default setting is 50,50, and the adjacent label shows “50% Replace” as shown in the screen-grab below. Replace is one of the 11 Blender Mixer Modes described in detail below.

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Horizontal movement of the crosshair controls the Amount or intensity of the blend, the numerical value of which is the first of the two numbers above the Mixer. It is also given as a percent in the label.

Vertical movement of the crosshairs sets the Blend type or Mode, the numerical value of which is the second of the two numbers above the Mixer and its name or function appears in the label. Certain Modes are exclusive to a single number and between some of them there are 23 or 24 possible settings.

The following illustrations of Mixer Mode settings will make this clearer and to keep things simple the Amount of blend has been shown at 100% throughout.

At Blend position 100, you are in Pure Colour Mode and just the pure colour elements of the Palette will be applied to the Canvas – any greyscale elements are ignored. This is the only setting for Pure Colour Mode.

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At position 99 you are in Dark Tint Mode and the contents of the Palette are blended on to the Canvas by way of darkly tinting what is already on the Canvas. NB: If the Canvas is blank nothing will be added-in. This is the only setting for Dark Tint Mode.

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Between positions 98 and 76 there are 23 possible settings or Modes between Dark Tint Mode and Light Mode (the next one down) and you will see these two names in the adjacent label. Setting 82 is illustrated.

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At position 75 you are in Light Tint Mode and the contents of the Palette are blended on to the Canvas by way of lightly tinting what is already on the Canvas. NB: If the Canvas is blank nothing will be added-in. This is the only setting for Light Tint Mode.

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Between positions 74 and 51 you have 24 possible settings or Modes between Light Tint Mode and Replace Mode. Setting 69 is illustrated and again you will see the two Modes in the label.

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At position 50 you are in Replace Mode and the contents of the Palette will completely replace whatever might be on the Canvas.

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Between position 49 and 26 you have 24 possible settings or Modes between Replace Mode and Darken Mode. Setting 39 is illustrated.

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At position 25 you are in Darken Mode and the contents of the Palette are blended onto the Canvas by straight addition i.e. the RGB pixel values are added together.

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Between position 24 and 2 you have 23 possible settings or Modes between Darken Mode and Pure White Mode. Setting 15 is illustrated.

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At position 1 you are in Pure White Mode in which only the white and light elements of the Palette are blended onto the Canvas.

Note: The Pure White Mixer Mode is key to blending in Sources taken from the Highlights Tabs.

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At position 0 you are in Greyscale Mode and only the greyscale elements of the Palette can be blended on to the Canvas.

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Try experimenting with the Blend Mixer settings (there are 10,000!). You will often find that settings between Mixer Modes will produce very subtle and interesting results. Also alter the Amount or strength of the Blend by sliding the Mixer left and right.

In the two screen-grabs below, the settings are at 19,84 i.e. blending Dark Tint and Light Tint; and 66,10 blending Darken and Pure White.

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