TechNote

How to Change the On-screen Color of Text in FrameMaker for UNIX

You can remap the color of text in an Adobe FrameMaker for UNIX document so that it appears in a different color on-screen, without affecting printed output. You can remap any of FrameMaker's eight predefined spot colors or any custom color that has been defined for a document by editing the resource Maker.[color] (by default, this is Maker.Black). Custom colors must be defined before remapping them or they will default to the previous setting.

To map a color, use a text editor (e.g., vi or emacs) to add the following line to either your $HOME/.Xdefaults, $HOME/.vue/machine_name/current/vue.resources, or $HOME/.vue/machine_name/home/vue.resources file (if you are unfamiliar with UNIX text editors, please see your UNIX system administrator for assistance):

Maker.[color A]: [color B]

For example, if you add the line "Maker.Black: Blue", objects created using a pen color of black will be blue on-screen, but will be black in print.

NOTE: Maker.White represents the color of the paper to which you are printing, therefore, you should not set Maker.White to a color other than black if you are running FrameMaker in reverse video. Because the color white matches the color of the paper, objects rendered in white will not appear.

Custom colors must be defined before you can select them in the Tools palette. To set the resource to a custom color (e.g., gold), define that color in a template, and then import the template's format into the FrameMaker document:

1. Open a document for which the custom color is not defined.

2. Choose File > Import Formats, and then select a template for which the custom color is defined.

3. Save and close the original document.

4. Reopen the document. Text will appear in the custom color.