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### 13.2. Palettes Menu

The Palettes Menu

The Palettes Menu can be accessed by right-clicking in the Palettes dialog, or by choosing the top item from the dialog Tab menu.

#### Edit Palette

"Edit Palette" is an alternative way of activating the Palette Editor: it can also be activated by double-clicking on a palette in the Palettes dialog, or by pressing the "Edit Palette" button at the bottom of the dialog.

#### New Palette

"New Palette" creates a new, untitled palette, initially containing no color entries, and pops up the Palette Editor so that you can add colors to the palette. The result will automatically be saved in your personal `palettes` folder when you quit GIMP, so it will be available from the Palettes dialog in future sessions.

#### Import Palette

The Import Palette dialog

"Import Palette" allows you to create a new palette from the colors in a gradient or image. Choosing it brings up the "Import Palette" dialog, which gives you the following options:

- Select Source. You can import a palette either from any of GIMP's gradients (choosing one from the adjoining menu), or from any of the currently open images (chosen from the adjoining menu). In GIMP 2.2, you can also import a RIFF palette file (with extension `.pal`), of the type used by several Microsoft Windows applications.

- Palette name. You can give a name to the new palette here. If the name you choose is already used by an existing palette, a unique name will be formed by appending a number (e. g., "#1").

- Number of colors. Here you specify the number of colors in the palette. The default is 256, chosen for three reasons: (1) every gradient contains 256 distinct colors; (2) GIF files can use a maximum of 256 colors; (3) GIMP indexed images can contain a maximum of 256 distinct colors. You can use any number you like here, though: GIMP will try to create a palette by spacing the specified number of colors even across the color range of the gradient or image.

- Columns. Here you specify the number of columns for the palette. This only affects the way the palette is displayed, and has no effect on the way the palette is used.

- Interval. XXX I have no idea what this is.

The imported palette will be added to the Palettes dialog, and automatically saved in your personal `palettes` folder when you quit GIMP, so it will be available in future sessions.

#### Duplicate Palette

"Duplicate Palette" creates a new palette by copying the palette that is currently selected, and brings up a Palette Editor so that you can alter the palette. The result will automatically be saved in your personal `palettes` folder when you quit GIMP, so it will be available from the Palettes dialog in future sessions.

#### Merge Palettes

Currently this operation is not implemented, and the menu entry will always be insensitive.

#### Delete Palette

"Delete Palette" removes the palette from the Palettes dialog, and deletes the disk file in which it is stored. Before it acts, it asks you confirm that you really want to do these things. Note that you cannot remove any of the palettes that are supplied with GIMP, only palettes you have added yourself.

#### Refresh Palettes

"Refresh Palettes" rescans all of the folders in your palette search path, and adds any newly discovered palettes to the list in the Palettes dialog. This may be useful if you obtain palette files from some external source, copy them into one of your palettes folders, and want to make them available during the current session.

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