Path start on different hues - with text

[Karen Hochman Brown]

How do I have strokes only begin with certain colors? I am working with text brushes and I want to use one set of letters when the source is red. I would then switch to another set of letters when the source is blue.

[Synthetik]

If you want to target painting to only happen in a certain area of the source image, you can use selection masking to do that. Select the appropriate area you want to work with by switching to Selection operation mode, then select the appropriate area(s). 

If you just want to mask the painting, then just turn on masking by clicking the Mask checkbox in the main Operation toolbar. Then paint with the specific preset you want to work with.

Here's a tip on region selection and masking.

Then repeat above as needed by selecting other parts of the canvas, and using a different paint preset.

...

So, if you want to just force the path start locations to start in certain selected areas, you can do that in the Path Start control panel of the paint synthesizer.

There is a parameter in there called Inhibitor. Set it to SelectRegion Only.

Then hit the action button.

Path starts will only occur in the selected area of the canvas. But the full paint stoke will paint out from those restricted start locations.

You can use the Lum Range control at the bottom of the Path Start control panel to restrict path start locations to specific source luminance areas.

We should really add a Color Range option as well. Just added that to my 'to do' list.

Here's a tip on controlling where automatic paint strokes are drawn.

...

So, when i first read your question, i was thinking you were interested in only painting with a set of specific colors. I'm include that info below for anyone who is interested.

If so, then you could build a custom source palette in the source area. So select the Palette tab in the Source Area.

Then build you palette. You can adjust the # of colors using the Edit : Palette : Gen Algorithm : Set Num Color... menu command.

If you option click one of the palette squares, then the current source color will be recorded in that square.

Note that the lower popup in the Source Area screen shot above is set to Palettize. That option will only paint with the set of palette colors you have specified.