HilloColor Help
Use this guide to shape palettes, manage colors and understand every menu in HilloColor. The interface is tailored for iPhone, iPad and Apple silicon Mac.
Getting started
HilloColor presents a palette as large color fields. Tap and drag directly on a color instead of opening sliders. Drag left or right with one finger to adjust hue. Drag up or down with one finger to adjust saturation. Drag up or down with two fingers to adjust lightness.
The first movement decides whether a one-finger gesture controls hue or saturation. This prevents diagonal movement from changing both accidentally. Tap a color without dragging to reveal its values, actions, resize handle and move arrows.
Color actions
When a color is selected, X removes it, Copy duplicates it, Edit opens exact color values, Star saves it to My Colors and Expand opens it full screen. Use the arrows beside the resize handle to move the color one position in the palette.
Drag the handle at the edge of a selected color to change how much space it occupies. The other colors make room and always remain visible. Manual proportions stay fixed while animation is off; turning animation on resumes the slow movement. A palette always keeps at least one color and can contain up to seven colors.
Color values
Tap Edit on a selected color to open Color Values. You can enter exact HEX, RGB or HSL values, choose which formats are shown on palette colors and copy any value with the copy icon.
Display choices apply to every color, not only the selected one. All formats can be hidden, leaving only the color name. HilloColor assigns descriptive color names, and colors saved to My Colors can use a custom name in palettes.
Bottom dock
The bottom dock opens Palette Library, Color Library, Tools, Color Picker, Export and Settings. Tap an active icon again to close its panel. The music-note icon starts or stops music directly. The ? button inside a panel opens concise contextual tips.
Tools
Color Adjust Mode changes what direct gestures do. Color adjusts only the color you touch. Palette applies the same adjustment to every color. Harmonize draws the palette toward the hue, saturation or lightness of the touched color. Temperature moves the whole palette toward cooler or warmer light.
Long-press the Tools icon to cycle through the four adjustment modes without opening the panel. The current mode appears briefly above the dock.
Palette Tools includes Clear Palette, Create Palette, Create Variation and Create Gradient. Clear Palette leaves one fresh starting color. Create Palette makes a balanced three-, four- or five-color combination. Create Variation builds a related combination from the selected or current color. Create Gradient uses the current colors as anchors and fills the palette up to its seven-color limit.
Palette Library
The library shows My Palettes and HilloColor Inspiration palettes. It opens with everything visible. Search by palette name, color name, HEX value or a basic color family such as green or yellow, and use the filters to limit the visible sources.
Tap a palette's color strip to open it without closing the library. Tap + to name and save the current palette. Tap the name of your own palette to rename it or X to delete it. Opening another palette replaces the current canvas, so save unfinished work first.
Color Library
The Color Library combines My Colors, Seasonal colors and the built-in Color Chart. It opens with all colors visible and sorts search results by hue. Search understands names, HEX values and basic color families, so a search for green can also find green colors without the word green in their names.
Tap a swatch to add it to the current palette without closing the library. Select a color on the canvas and tap its star to save it to My Colors. Tap the name of your own color to rename it or X to delete it. Library filters can show any combination of My Colors, Seasonal and Color Chart.
Color Picker
Tap the image icon to choose a photo, image file or camera source. Touch or drag across the image to sample colors. The preview field shows the sampled color and its values.
Tap + to add the sampled color to the palette or tap the star to save it as a favorite. Without an image, the picker opens with a color from the seasonal collection.
Export and iCloud
HilloColor can export an editable .hillocolor file for backup or transfer, a HilloColor Link for the public web viewer, visual SVG and PNG exports, and TXT or CSS values for documents, design tools and code.
Sync with iCloud is available in Settings and keeps My Palettes and My Colors synchronized between your Apple devices. Inspiration, Seasonal and Color Chart content stays separate from your personal iCloud library. For Messages, a HilloColor Link is usually more convenient than the custom file format.
Settings
Show Shadows adds depth between color fields. Animate Colors controls their slow movement. Auto-Hide Controls releases a selected color after inactivity; turn it off to keep controls visible until you tap the color again or select another one.
Show Tooltips controls gesture feedback, while Show Notifications controls short messages after completed actions. Sync with iCloud manages synchronization of your personal libraries. Shadows, animation, tooltips and notifications do not alter palette values.
Using HilloColor on Mac
On Apple silicon Mac, HilloColor uses the same palette workspace with a layout tailored for the larger screen. Libraries expand to use multiple columns, controls use a larger scale, and panels remain compact so the palette stays visible. The app also provides native Panels, Tools, Settings and Music menus in the macOS menu bar.
Drag with the primary mouse button to adjust hue or saturation. Drag vertically with the secondary button to adjust lightness. Mouse and trackpad scrolling does not alter colors. With a color selected, the Left and Right Arrow keys move it through the palette. Command-1 through Command-4 select Color, Palette, Harmonize and Temperature modes.
Music
Tap the music-note icon to start or stop the included ambient music. Playback and stopping fade smoothly. Music is optional and does not affect palette data.
On Mac, Play, Stop, Previous Track, Next Track and Repeat are available from the native Music menu. Repeat loops the current track; with Repeat off, playback continues through the playlist and starts again from the beginning.