Beginner's Guide to Adobe Flash/Filters and Blend Modes/Color Properties

The Color menu in the Property inspector provides some options for modifying the appearance of symbol instances without changing the original symbol stored in the Library. After a Color adjustment type is selected from the Color drop-down menu, the controls needed to apply the color adjustment appear in the Property inspector. By default, "neutral" settings (O-percent change) are loaded as a starting point. After the values for a property are modified, they will be stored and loaded as the default when you select another instance. The settings loaded in the Property inspector for the items in the Color menu are simple and intuitive and enable you to make basic color adjustments using familiar controls:

Brightness: The Brightness Color property has the same range as the Brightness slider in the Adjust Color filter (-100 to 100); however, as we described previously, the Brightness property creates more drastic color transformations because it is applied as a relative or percentage-based value. At the minimum Brightness setting (-100), all RGB values are forced to black (0,0,0), and at the maximum Brightness setting (100), all RGB values are forced to white (255,255,255).

Tint: The color theory definition of a tint is a color produced by adding white to a pure color. The Tint property in flash enables you to select any color (not just white) to "mix" with the original color. You can also select how much of the new color you want to mix with your original colors-from the lowest setting of 0 percent to the maximum setting of 100 percent. At the minimum setting, the original colors will be unchanged. At the maximum setting, the new tint color will completely replace all of the original colors. At the default setting of 50 percent, the rendered color values will be an even mix of the original colors and the selected tint color.

Alpha: This setting controls how opaque the selected instance will be. The values that control alpha are counter-intuitive (as they are in the Color Mixer). At the minimum alpha level of 0 percent, the item will be transparent. At the maximum alpha level of 100 percent, the item will be fully opaque or "solid."