The Bench

The Bench (梅皿, Umezara, a plum-blossom dish traditionally used for mixing pigments) is where you can compare colors, adjust them, and experiment with spectral pigment mixing.

Arrange colors side by side, examine the differences between them, or open a mixing well to create something new.

Open the Bench with ⌘B, or press B while hovering over or selecting a swatch to send that color directly to it.

You can also drag colors onto the Bench from palettes or harmonies, or use the Bench’s own dropper to sample a color from anywhere on your screen.

Colors on the Bench

Each color occupies a column displaying its name and color values. Drag columns to change their order.

A column can be linked to a palette or held independently on the Bench.

Linked colors

When you send a swatch from an open palette, it remains linked to its original.

Change the color on the Bench and the palette updates. Edit the swatch in the palette and the Bench follows.

The color’s name travels with it, including any custom name you’ve assigned.

Staged colors

Colors sampled directly onto the Bench, or sent from a harmony rather than a palette, are staged.

A staged color belongs to the Bench alone. Editing it doesn’t change a harmony or another palette.

If you close a palette containing a linked color, the Bench keeps the color and marks it STAGED · FROM, followed by the palette’s name. When the originating palette becomes available again, the link can be restored.

The Bench’s footer shows how many colors are not currently held in an open palette.

Names are preserved as colors move between these states, including across application launches.

Moving colors between windows

Drag a swatch from a palette onto the Bench to add it. You can also drag a Bench column back onto a palette.

Harmony colors can be dragged onto the Bench or sent using B. Because these are generated colors rather than independent palette swatches, they arrive staged.

If a Bench color is also held in Nōtan for contrast checking, a small indicator appears on its column.

Comparing colors

Between neighboring columns, Suisai displays measurements describing how the colors differ.

• ΔH — Hue difference: How far apart the colors are in hue.
• ΔL — Lightness difference: How their lightness differs.
• ΔE — Perceptual color difference: An overall measure of how different the colors appear.

The Bench identifies the color space used for these calculations in its footer.

Below the difference measurements, a WCAG contrast ratio shows the contrast between the neighboring colors, together with the same grading symbols used in Nōtan.

Click the contrast result to open that pair in Nōtan for closer examination.

Mixing colors

The Bench uses spectral pigment mixing rather than simply averaging RGB values.

This produces mixtures inspired by how pigments interact with light. For example, mixing blue and yellow can produce green, rather than the muted result of conventional RGB interpolation.

Opening a mixing well

Click MIX in the gutter between two neighboring colors to open a well.

The well uses those colors as its parents. It calculates a new color from three adjustable controls:

• Ratio: Changes the proportion of the two parent colors.
• White: Adds white to lighten the mixture.
• Black: Adds black to darken the mixture.

The gradient behind the Ratio slider shows how the mixture changes between its parents.

The result updates as you move the controls. If either parent color changes, the well recalculates the mixture automatically.

Keeping a mixture

Colors created in a well are marked DERIVED, distinguishing them from sampled or imported colors.

You have two ways to keep a mixture.

Add to Palette sends the result to an open palette, where it can be edited and used like any other swatch.

Add to Bench creates a new staged column, marked DERIVED · STAGED.

Once a mixture has been staged as its own column, it becomes independent of the well. Changing the parent colors or mixing ratio later doesn’t alter that saved result.

Editing colors and mixtures

The Bench provides different controls depending on whether you’re working with an individual color or a mixing well. One column or well is always active, normally the most recently added.

Individual colors can be edited using RGB, HSB, HSL, or CMYK controls. If the color is linked to a palette, changes are reflected in the original swatch; editing a staged column affects only the Bench.

Mixing wells replace those controls with the well’s own three sliders, Ratio, White and Black, described above. The resulting color updates as you move them, and recalculates if either parent color changes.

The editor identifies what you’re working on, displaying the active color’s name — ADJUSTING · EUCALYPTUS — or the names of the two colors being mixed.

The header and footer

The Bench header contains its own sampling dropper and a control for color-vision simulation.

The simulation control lets you view the Bench under typical vision or one of four simulations: Protanopia, Deuteranopia, Tritanopia, and Achromatopsia.

These modes change the display without altering the underlying color values.

The footer displays information about the Bench’s colors and their comparison space.

Depending on the available window width and current activity, the header may also indicate how many colors are present, how many are visible, or whether a mixing well is open.

Choose CLEAR to empty the Bench, or press ⌘K while the Bench is the active window.

Keyboard controls

You can navigate and work with the Bench without using the mouse for every operation.

Removing a column or closing a mixing well can be undone.

The Bench menu in the macOS menu bar also provides commands for sampling onto the Bench, mixing with the next color, keeping a mix, and removing colors.

Right-click a column or well to access its available copy options, including copying a color in your selected output format.

For the full list of commands, see Keyboard shortcuts.

Starting again

Clearing the Bench removes its columns and mixing wells, leaving an empty workspace ready for another comparison.