Color Match Mode
Map Colors to Heights with a Reference Image
What It Does
Color Match is the most advanced mesh mode. Instead of using brightness or color formulas, you build a Mesh Core — a user-defined layer stacking order based on color. The Mesh Core tells HueForge exactly which colors belong at which heights.
HueForge then compares each pixel in your image to the Mesh Core and assigns it a height based on the closest color match. You have complete control over exactly which colors appear at which layer in your print.
This replaces the standard brightness pipeline entirely — many of the usual controls (smoothing, flatten, sRGB linearize) are disabled in this mode because they don't apply. Color Match is for users who understand their filament stack and want to precisely engineer the height mapping for complex multi-color prints.
When To Use It
- Complex multi-color prints where automatic brightness/color modes don't produce the result you want.
- When you need precise control over which colors appear at which layer heights.
- Advanced filament stacking — designing exactly how your filaments overlap and blend.
- Experienced users who understand Transmission Distance, blend depth, and filament ordering.
Not the Best Fit For
- Fine details and small text — Color Match can lose fine detail. Combo mode is better at preserving these.
- JPG images — Color Match is very sensitive to JPG compression artifacts. Use PNG source images when possible.
- Beginners — Color Match requires understanding Transmission Distance, blend depth, and filament ordering. Start with Standard/Combo to learn the basics.
- Quick projects — Color Match takes more setup time to build the Mesh Core and dial in the mapping. Practice makes building the Core faster, but it is always more work than simpler modes. If Standard or Color Aware gets you close enough, it's faster to use those.
Start Here: Setup the Mesh Core
Before you start building your Mesh Core, click on it or use the hotkey to toggle the preview to Mesh Core colors instead of Color Core colors. This is much less confusing than trying to edit the Mesh Core while the Color Core prediction is active. Get your Mesh Core right first, then switch back to see how your filaments will look.
Key Controls
Build and edit the Mesh Core — the user-defined layer stacking order that tells HueForge which colors go at which heights. This is the heart of Color Match.
Press
T over a Mesh Core color flag, then use arrow keys or mousewheel to adjust the Transmission Distance. This lets you control how much blending each color allows — useful for removing saturation marks and blending more shades to better match your filaments.
Drag-select groups of sliders on the Mesh Core and cut, paste, or reverse them to quickly try different color orders. Finding the best stacking order is key to a good Color Match result, and this makes iteration fast.
Ctrl+Left Click and drag colors from the image directly onto the Mesh Core. < > , . for adjusting match colors; C for core selection.
Tips for Building a Good Mesh Core
A common practice is to move black from the bottom of the Mesh Core to the middle, creating a light-to-dark-to-light pattern. This avoids pits and conflicts between dark color matches — Color Match will always match the lowest layer of a color, so keeping darks in the middle prevents them from fighting for the bottom.
Saturated color layers (shown with a vertical = sign between them in the Mesh Core) are generally wasted space. They add height without adding useful color information. Reduce or eliminate them to keep your Mesh Core efficient.
You don't have to work only with filaments you own — Ctrl+Click and drag colors from the image to the Mesh Core to sample the exact colors your image needs. Then recreate the colors with your own filaments on the Color Core without worrying about modifying the mesh.
Color Drop Strategy: Color Match traditionally favors thin models. The Color Drop plugin changes this — for maximum nesting benefit, blend everything in one direction (either dark to light or light to dark) throughout the Mesh Core. This often results in a higher required Blend Depth and pits/islands around the shared colors, but if built correctly, these are resolved when each section gets dropped to the base color. The model is thicker before Color Drop but shorter after.
Example
Click an image to see it full size