Choose the colors

Filafy picks a palette for you, and then hands you five ways to argue with it. They all live on the Filament & colors tab of the Design step, or on the palette strip beside the preview. A note at the bottom of the tab tells you how many of your filaments Filafy can pick from, with a link to My Filaments.

• Swap. Click any swatch in Filaments in this preview and choose a different spool for that color. The rest of the palette stays where it is.
• Pin. Force one of your filaments into the print, whether or not Filafy would have chosen it. A pin makes a color available, not used: it prints only where part of your image is close to it. To make sure it prints, bind it to a color. If a pin prints nowhere, a note under your pins names it.
• Exclude. Push a spool out of consideration for this conversion, without un owning it.
• Background / base color. This is the filament that everything the artwork does not cover prints in. It is the rest of the face, around your images. There is always one, so the field shows whichever color is currently doing the job and says where it came from. Chosen automatically means Filafy picked it, and clicking opens the picker. User selected means you did, and clicking puts it back to automatic. To change a color you picked, reset it and pick again.

One material per print. Filafy never mixes filament materials in one print, because PLA and PETG cannot print together. Types within one material, such as matte and silk PLA, mix freely. If you own more than one material, Filament material under More options on Setup picks it. Best match, the default, takes the material that fits your image best.

Max colors is your budget: the most filaments one print may use. It is the dial for the count. Move it when you want fewer spools to load, or more colors in the print. Color fidelity decides how closely Filafy matches your image using that budget. The two dials are side by side at the top of the Filament & colors tab, with their notes under them. If the two do not fit side by side, Color fidelity goes under Max colors.

• Low. Merges near identical colors and stops adding filaments sooner. Use it when a simpler print matters more than an exact match. You load fewer spools, make fewer swaps at the printer, and spend no slot on two grays you would struggle to tell apart.
• Normal. The default, and right for almost everything. It adds a filament whenever the color that filament buys is worth a slot. It also respects the Priority you set on your spools, and Filafy's mild preference for keeping one finish family together.
• High. Chases the closest match it can. It looks at your image more finely, and weighs the whole image evenly instead of favoring the middle. A small but distinct area can then still earn a spool. It also sets your spool priorities and finish preferences aside, so nothing but color accuracy decides the palette. Use it when getting a color exactly right matters more than which spools get used. Expect more swaps.

Missing a color? ranks the filaments that would improve this specific image most. It shows your preview now beside one preview with the suggestions added, as many as your Max colors leaves room for. It is the fastest way to find out that one spool is the difference between an acceptable print and a good one. It also beats guessing as a shopping list.