Color Coding

Color coding assigns a distinct color hue to each open project, making it easy to tell at a glance which project you are looking at. When multiple projects are open simultaneously, subtle color tints appear on icons, text, grid lines, and other UI elements throughout the application.

Enabling Color Coding

Color coding is available only when Multi-Project Mode is enabled (General settings).

1. Open Settings → Color Coding
2. Check Enable color coding
3. All sub-options become available

Color coding only takes visible effect when two or more projects are open. With a single project, no tinting is applied regardless of the setting.

How It Works

Automatic Hue Assignment

When you open a new project while others are already loaded, BitEdit automatically assigns it a hue offset. The first project keeps the default yellowish icon hue (50°). Each subsequent project gets a hue shifted by 60° from the previous one, cycling through the full color wheel:

Project #	Hue Delta	Approximate Color
1st	0°	Yellow (default)
2nd	60°	Green
3rd	120°	Cyan
4th	180°	Blue
5th	240°	Purple
6th	300°	Red/Magenta

Manual Hue Adjustment

You can manually set a project's hue using the hue picker in the Workspace tool toolbar:

1. Select any item belonging to the target project in the Workspace tree
2. Click the color wheel button in the toolbar
3. Use the slider (0°–359°) to set the desired hue
4. Changes apply live — all tinted elements update instantly

Tinting Areas

Color coding can be applied to many parts of the UI independently. Each area has its own toggle in the Settings page:

Workspace Tree

• Tint project icons — applies a hue-shift pixel shader to all icons in the project subtree
• Tint tree item text — applies a slight color tint to text labels in the tree

The Text tint mode controls which tree items receive text tinting:

Mode	Effect
Both	Tint the project node and all its children
Project Only	Tint only the project node label
Children Only	Tint only the child items (maps, folders, groups)
None	Disable text tinting entirely

Editors

• Tint map editor text — axis labels and header text in the single map editor
• Tint 2D grid lines — grid lines in the SeqEdit 2D data editor
• Tint HEX address column — address text in the HEX editor
• Tint DTC editor text — text in the DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Code) editor
• Tint value editor text — text in the Values editor (strings, flags, bitfields)
• Tint version control text — text in the Version Control tool

UI Accents

• Tint Properties button background — the main ribbon's Properties button gets a subtle background tint matching the active project
• Tint 2D scrollbar zones — zone minimap colors in the 2D editor scrollbar

Tint Intensity

The Tint Intensity slider (10%–100%) controls how saturated the color tint appears:

• Low values (10%–30%) — very subtle, barely noticeable tint
• Medium values (40%–70%) — clearly distinguishable colors without being distracting
• High values (80%–100%) — vivid, strongly saturated colors

The default intensity is 60%, which provides a good balance of visibility and subtlety.

Theme Support

Color coding works with both light and dark themes:

• In light themes, the tinted text starts from a dark warm brown (#332A00) baseline
• In dark themes, the tinted text starts from a warm yellow (#FFE97F) baseline

The hue is shifted from this baseline to produce the project-specific color. When you switch themes, all cached colors are automatically recalculated.

Tips

• Color coding is a transient property — hue assignments are not saved with the project file. They are re-assigned each time projects are opened.
• If you prefer specific colors for specific projects, use the hue picker to set them manually after opening.
• With many projects open (6+), hue values may repeat since the step is 60° on a 360° wheel. Use the hue picker to differentiate them further.
• The hue picker button is only enabled when a project item is selected in the Workspace tree and color coding is enabled in settings.