created: 20140216102454178
modified: 20140216102722184
tags: Concepts
title: ColourPalettes
type: text/vnd.tiddlywiki

Colour palettes bind logical colour names (such as ''page-background'') to actual CSS colours (such as ''#fe0'').

Entire colour palettes are stored in a single [[data tiddler|DataTiddlers]].

The title of the tiddler containing the current colour palette is identified by the tiddler [[$:/palette]].

To retrieve a named colour from the current palette you can use the ''colour'' macro:

```
<<colour page-background>>
```

The ''colour'' macro is defined like this:

```
\define colour(name)
<$transclude tiddler={{$:/palette}} index="$name$"/>
\end
```

By convention, each theme provides a default colour palette in the tiddler [[$:/config/DefaultPalette]] tiddler. Thus, setting the tiddler [[$:/theme]] to the string `$:/config/DefaultPalette` will revert to the palette packaged with the current theme (as long as it hasn't been redefined, since it is a shadow tiddler).

Palette tiddlers should have the following fields:

|!Field |!Description |
|title |Any title can be used, typically a system title starting with "$:/" |
|type |`application/x-tiddler-dictionary` to identify this tiddler as a [[data tiddler|DataTiddlers]] |
|tags |`$:/tags/Palette` to identify this tiddler as a palette |
|description |Description to be displayed in palette browser |
|text |Colour definitions (see below) |

The text of a palette tiddler consists of name value pairs like this:

```
foreground: #000
background: #fff
```