HSL Correction

The HSL tool lets you grab the color you want to adjust, and move it toward the color you want it to become. HSL lets you nudge the Hue, Saturation and Lightness of individual colors or ranges of colors. The tool is spilt into two color wheels and each wheel has nine different color channels that appear as moveable dots. There is also a Numeric Entry view that has columns for entering specific values of Hue, Saturation and Lightness. HSL correction is especially good for correcting memory colors like the blue of a sky or believable skin tones.

Saturation & Lightness wheels

The wheel on the left is the Saturation wheel. It adjusts for Saturation and Hue. There are eight color dots. Value range for each color dot is -100 to 100%. Default value of each color dot is 0, or 50% of total saturation. Increasing the value adds saturation and moves the dot outside the wheel. Decreasing the value removes saturation and moves the dot into the wheel center.

The wheel on the right is the Lightness wheel. It adjusts for Lightness and Hue. There are eight color dots. Value range for each color dot is -100 to 100%. Default value of each color dot is 0, or 50% of total lightness. Increasing the value adds lightness and moves the dot outside the wheel. Decreasing the value removes lightness and moves the dot into the wheel center.

The two wheels are linked. Either wheel can be used to adjust the ranged hues. Moving a dot radially (left or right) causes the corresponding dot to move in the other wheel. If you move the red dot in the Saturation wheel, for instance, the red dot in the Lightness wheel also moves. This linked adjustment keeps the Hue value the same for both wheels.

Saturation at 100 for red.

Saturation at -100 for red.

Lightness at 100 for purple.

Lightness at -100 for purple.

Getting around the wheels

There is a lot of power packed into the Saturation and Lightness wheels. Let's go over the finer points of how to use them.

- Each wheel can have independent dot distances from its center, which control Saturation on the left and Lightness on the right. The dots can be pulled off the wheel to show high values.
- The movement of the dots from left to right are linked to each other and control the Hue value.
- Each of the color dots has a predefined range. They can't move into another color's range. If you shift red to 100%, for instance, it will touch but not overlap into the orange.
- Dots cannot move any farther radially (left or right) than the home point for the neighboring dot. You can turn an orange dot into red, but not into blue. This saves you from creating disconcerting and incorrect color changes.
- The Shift key will constrain the dot's movement to left and right, and allow just Hue changes around the wheel. No Saturation or Lightness change will occur.
- Double-clicking a dot resets its value to 0.

HSL dots can touch each other but they never overlap.

Numeric Entry switch

Numeric Entry is an alternate way of looking at the HSL values. Click the switch icon to display the RGB value readouts for the two color wheels. This view is very helpful for getting exactly the color you want. There are numeric columns for Hue, Saturation and Lightness.

- Each of the nine colors corresponds to a color dot in the wheels.
- Numbers can be scrubbed to reach a value. However, the numeric value can't be typed in.
- Double-clicking a number resets its value to 0.

The numeric display for HSL values.