ColorSmith Plugin: Fewer Colors, Easier Matching
Count the real colors in your image, cut it down to a palette you can actually print, and send the result straight back into HueForge. Free, and it runs inside HueForge.
From a Color Soup to a Palette
Most photos come back with a color count in the hundreds of thousands. Almost none of those colors are doing anything you can see. They're noise, compression leftovers, tiny blends. ColorSmith finds the ones that matter and drops the rest.
What is the ColorSmith Plugin
Counts First, Then Cuts
Open ColorSmith and it tells you how many distinct colors your image holds. Pick a target count, or let it search for one using the quality score. Every decision is made in a color space built to match how the eye judges color difference (OKLab by default), so the swatches you get back are the ones you would have grouped yourself, not the ones that happen to be most common in the file.
Color and Gray Are Kept Apart
JPEG compression leaves a haze of near-gray pixels around every edge. ColorSmith sorts the colored pixels and the gray pixels into separate groups before it reduces either. The real grays in your image get their own swatches, and the haze never takes a swatch away from a color you wanted.
Tools for the Last Few Percent
The automatic pass gets most images most of the way. When one region needs a different call, there is a tool for that job, and each one has its own interactive tutorial inside the plugin.
- Number of ColorsSlide the count up or down. Counts you have already visited come back instantly.
- Merge SwatchesFold two swatches into one.
- Split ColorsSplit one swatch into two or more pixel groups to be independently adjusted.
- Extract PixelsPick a patch of pixels and give them a swatch of their own.
- Preserve a ColorKeep a small, important color from being absorbed into a bigger one.
- Change a ColorRecolor a swatch in place.
- Local ClaimMove one region's pixels to a neighboring swatch and leave the rest of that color alone.
- Refine GradientAdd shades where a smooth fade came back as visible steps.
- Recover a Missed ColorFind and display a color the automatic pass dropped.
- Clean Swatch EdgesFold stray anti-aliasing pixels along a boundary into the swatch beside them.
Straight Back Into HueForge
Apply Image sends the reduced image into HueForge as the working image. A region you mask in ColorSmith (Mask Region or Mask by Lasso) is held out of the count, so a sky or a face never has to compete with the rest of the image for a color. You choose how it comes back: as one flat swatch of its own, or with its original pixels kept as they were. Nothing gets saved and re-imported. And if you would rather leave the image alone, Use in Palette Dock instead of Apply Image puts the new palette beside your filaments and changes nothing else.
The Palette Dock
Like the image as it is and just want help building the Mesh Core? Press Palette on HueForge's toolbar. A ColorSmith Palette tab opens beside the Filament Library with the image's colors laid out by hue, grays last. Drag a swatch onto the Mesh Core, the same drop as a Ctrl+drag off the Base Image, without hunting for the right pixel. The image itself is not changed.
A photo with more than 256 colors is reduced first, to the number in the dock's own Colors box. The dock hands HueForge the color. Choosing the filament is still up to you.
What Changes Day-to-Day
| Step | Without the Plugin | With the Plugin |
|---|---|---|
| Find out how many colors you're dealing with | Guess, or squint at a histogram | Read the number |
| Get to a printable color count | Posterize in an image editor → check in HueForge → repeat | Set a target, or let ColorSmith pick and score one |
| Gray noise from JPEG edges | Shows up as extra colors you have to hunt down | Handled separately, never becomes a swatch |
| One region needs a different call | Back to the editor, back to HueForge | Fix it in place with the tool for that job |
| Get the result into HueForge | Save, reopen, re-import, re-set | Apply Image |
Works With Your HueForge Workflow
Inside HueForge
- Opens with HueForge's current image already loaded
- Apply Image replaces the working image in one click
- Mask a region: one flat swatch of its own, or its original pixels kept
- Palette dock beside the Filament Library: drag a swatch onto the Mesh Core
- Works in FlatForge mode too, for flat multi-color prints
- Guided tour plus nine tool tutorials behind the Tutorials button
Made for Printed Color
- Perceptual color matching (OKLab, with CIELAB options)
- A 0–100 quality score on every result, measured against the source at full resolution; the automatic color-count search uses it
- Large images are reduced at a working resolution, then applied at full resolution
- Settings and metric choice persist between sessions
- Same engine as the browser demo at colorsmith.app
How It Works
Where It Lives
The ColorSmith button on HueForge's mode toolbar, next to HueForge, switches the window into the plugin with the current image loaded. Reduce, review the swatches, press Apply Image. The count you chose is now the image HueForge is working from. Press HueForge to switch back.
Getting Started
The first time in, press Tutorials at the top of the ColorSmith window and pick Getting Started. It walks you through the window. Every tool has its own tutorial in the same list, run on a sample image so you can try it without touching your own project.
Working Resolution
Big images are reduced at a working resolution so the automatic pass stays quick, then the result is applied at the image's full resolution. You pick the tier when a large image comes in.
Get the ColorSmith Plugin
Free Add it to your cart and check out. No payment is asked for. The download shows up in your account's Downloads, next to HueForge.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it free?
Because it makes HueForge prints easier, and that's the business we're in. ColorSmith is made by the developer of HueForge.
Why do I have to check out for a free plugin?
Checkout is what attaches the download to your account. It shows up in your Downloads next to HueForge, and updates come from the same place. No payment details are asked for on a $0 order.
Does it replace Edit Image?
No. Edit Image adjusts the whole picture. ColorSmith decides which colors survive. Use both: adjust first, then reduce.
What's the difference between the plugin and colorsmith.app?
Same engine. The site runs it in your browser so you can check an image before committing to it. The plugin adds the hand tools for fixing what the automatic pass got wrong (the tiles under "Tools for the Last Few Percent" above), each with its own tutorial. No image data leaves your browser on the site.
Does it change my source file?
No. ColorSmith works on a copy. Apply Image replaces HueForge's working image; the file on disk is untouched.
Does it need an internet connection?
No. The plugin runs on your machine and sends nothing anywhere.
How do masks work?
Pick a region with Mask Region or Mask by Lasso and it is held out of the reduction, so it never competes with the rest of the image for a color. It comes back one of two ways: as one flat swatch of its own (Flat Color), or with its original pixels untouched (Keep Original). Either way it arrives in HueForge as part of the applied image.
Do I get updates?
Yes. New versions land in the same Downloads entry. Drag the new zip into HueForge and it replaces the old one.
Which platforms?
Windows, macOS, and Linux. Same plugin, same tools, wherever HueForge runs.
How do I install it?
Drag and drop the plugin zip onto HueForge while it is running. It is signed, so it installs without a prompt. A ColorSmith button appears on the mode toolbar, with a Palette button beside it, and you're ready to go.