What a colour group is
When you ignore a colour, ZeroCount doesn't just suppress that one exact RGB value — it builds a colour group that includes near-matches within a tolerance. So if you ignore one shade of green, the slightly different greens nearby on the drawing usually go with it.
Each ignored entry you see in the Ignore Colours section is actually a colour group, not a single pixel value. The swatch shows the representative colour, but the group covers a range of similar tones.
For the basic Ignore Colours workflow: Ignore Colours.
When colour groups matter
You'll notice the distinction in two scenarios:
- A drawing has gradients or banding. A single sampled colour catches part of the gradient. You might need to ignore a second sample to cover the rest — but the result is still treated as one logical "ignore" entry per pick.
- A drawing has anti-aliased edges. Symbol edges sit on a band of transition pixels between the symbol colour and the background. ZeroCount's tolerance handles this automatically; you don't usually need to ignore every micro-shade.
In other words: the "groups" name reflects how ZeroCount handles tolerances internally. You won't normally manage them differently from individual ignored colours — they just give you better coverage from a single click.
Where they appear
In the Ignore Colours section of the Ignore Colours & Remove Background dropdown , look for the heading Colour Groups: above the list of ignored swatches. Each swatch in the list represents one colour group.
The thumbnail on each swatch shows the colour-group's preview — sampled from the drawing at the position you clicked. Each swatch tooltip reads "Click to remove colour group".
Adding more colour groups
The same workflow as ignoring a single colour:
- 1
Click + in the Ignore Colours section.
- 2
Click on the drawing at a pixel whose colour you want to ignore.
- 3
A new colour group appears in the list, suppressing that colour and its near-neighbours.
- 4
Repeat for each distinct colour family on the drawing.
There's no hard limit, but realistically two or three ignored colour groups handle most messy drawings. If you find yourself adding many more, it's a sign the drawing wants Remove Background instead.
Removing a colour group
Same as removing a single ignored colour:
- 1
Hover the swatch in the Colour Groups list. The trash overlay appears.
- 2
Click. The swatch is removed and the canvas re-renders without that colour group suppressed.
How the tolerance works
Without going into the maths: ZeroCount samples your clicked pixel's RGB value and builds a small region of "near" RGB space around it. Pixels whose colour falls inside that region are treated as part of the ignored group.
This is why one click usually covers anti-aliased edges and slight gradients — the tolerance includes them by default.
You can't tune the tolerance directly. If a single ignored colour catches too little (gradients spanning a wide range), add a second sample from a different part of the gradient — the two groups combine and cover more ground.
If the tolerance catches too much (symbol outlines being suppressed along with the shading), the only fix is to remove that ignore and accept the noise — try Remove Background instead, which is more conservative.