From ZBrush Info
The document palette contains buttons that allow you to load or save ZBrush documents, import background images, export output images, resize the canvas, and set the background color.
The
Document palette does not save or load 3D models. Use the
Tool Palette for those operations.
Opening, Saving, Creating, Exporting
Open: Opens previously saved ZBrush documents. If a document is open with unsaved changes, a warning will appear. If you choose, the current document will be closed without saving changes and the new file can be selected. To save the current document and open a new one, click Cancel, then Save, then Open again.
Save: Saves the ZBrush document as a .zbr scene file with the currently assigned name. If you haven't chosen a name, the name 'ZBrush Document' is used.
Revert: Reloads the last saved version of the open document.
Save As : Saves the current ZBrush document as a .zbr scene file with a new file name.
Import : Imports .bmp (Windows Bitmap), .psd (Photoshop), .jpg (JPEG), or PICT (Mac) as a background image. ZBrush will resize the image to fit the current canvas size. The currently selected Material will be applied to the image and if there are objects or paint strokes with depth present, they will be shaded with the imported image.
Note: ZBrush relies on filename extensions. Any file that you wish to import using any of ZBrush’s palettes must end in an appropriate extension. For example, images must end in “.bmp”, “.jpg”, “.psd” or “.pct” to be recognized for import.
Export: Exports .bmp (Windows Bitmap), .psd (Photoshop), or PICT (Mac) as a RGB bitmap output to be published or used in another application.
New Document: Opens a new document with default settings. If a document is open with unsaved changes, a warning will appear.
Default Colors
First, a bit about what these controls actually do.
The area inside all of the controls is split into two parts; the border is just an empty area around the canvas, which is where drawing takes place. You can drag in the border to rotate your model or (with the appropriate modifier key pressed) do some other things, but aside from that, the border is basically a 'dead area'; it doesn't do much. At one point in time, you normally wanted to set your canvas size to be relatively small to take into account the limitations of the memory and CPU power that was available. Now you can often set the canvas size to be large enough that the border isn't visible any more. There are still advantages to having the border; if your model completely fills the canvas, you can still click and drag on the border to rotate the model or perform some other shortcuts. And, of course, there are still resource limits.
That said, the following controls affect the border or the canvas background colors.
Border: Sets the color of the border
surrounding the canvas. This is a color picker, which simply means click in it, hold the mouse down, and drag so the mouse cursor is over another color in the ZBrush window. The color of the border will be set to that picked color.
A more roundabout but perhaps precise route, is to use the Color Palette to choose the desired background color, and then click (without dragging) in the Border button. This sets the border to the color selected in the color palette.
None of the other controls in this section affect the border color.
Back: Sets the background color, i.e. the color on the canvas that appears where the model (or, if you're painting, your painting) isn't displayed. The background color is set in exactly the same way as the Border color, described above. However, the background color is affected by the following controls.
Note: When painting, it is best to select the background color before painting or adding objects because the object color can blend with the background color at its edges.
In ZBrush 3, the background of the canvas is no longer restricted to a single, monotone color. You can make quick adjustments to reflect the environment your model is likely to be viewed in. The following controls affect the canvas background color.
Range: In ZBrush 3, the canvas background can be thought of as a vertical fade, from black, through an intermediate color, to white. However, not all of these intensities need be displayed. The Range setting determines the shade intensities over which the background will be displayed. A value of 1 means from black to white, while a value of 0 will give a monotone background. Other values will give a range from, for example, light blue to dark blue.
Center: The Range control above sets the range of shades that will be displayed in the canvas' background. Center determines the vertical position at which this range will be halfway between white and black. For example, a higher setting for this control might make the top 2/3 of the canvas background darker, while a lower setting would make the bottom 2/3 lighter. This can be used to achieve effects such as an evening sky.
Rate: This determines how quickly the background of the canvas moves from black to white. At a setting of 0, the color of the canvas background is uniform. At settings less then 0, the change of shading will invert, i.e. instead of the canvas shading from dark to light, it will shade from light to dark. At setting near 1 or -1, the change in lightness/darkness will be very quick, emulating for example, a sky where the sun is setting or rising. Near 0, the change will be much more gradual, such as a noon sky.
Resizing
Half: Resizes the canvas size to exactly one half of its present dimensions, scaling the document contents down by the same factor.
Double: Resizes the canvas size to exactly double its present dimensions, scaling the document contents up by the same factor. This may result in 'blocky' edges.
Width: Shows the current width and can set a new width for the canvas when used with Crop or Resize.
Height: Shows the current height and can set a new height for the canvas and can set a new width for the canvas when used with Crop or Resize.
Pro: (Proportional.) When on, causes width and height to stay in proportion. When you change one, the other automatically adjusts proportionally.
Crop: Resizes the canvas to the new dimensions without stretching pixols. Use this to add space to your canvas if you run out of room, or to trim the edges if you have too much space. The Crop button adds or removes space from the bottom and right edges of the canvas.
Resize: Resizes the canvas to newly set values. If there are already pixols on the canvas, they will be stretched or compressed to fit the new dimensions.
Other
StoreDepthHistory: Normally, paint strokes on the ZBrush canvas are cumulative; for example, if two strokes made with the SimpleBrush cross one another, the depth information at the intersection of the two will be changed more than in the other parts of the strokes.
Pressing StoreDepthHistory alters this so that future brush strokes will interact with the depths on the canvas at the time StoreDepthHistory was activated, but will not interact with depth information from strokes painted after StoreDepthHistory was pressed.
DeleteDepthHistory: Reverses the action of StoreDepthHistory, returning ZBrush to its normal depth painting behavior.
