The left panel
The left panel of the Color tab is your inline media browser. It brings the References and Clips views inside the Color tab so you can grab a reference or pull a clip onto the timeline without leaving the working surface. It has two main sections, top to bottom: a References panel and a Clips panel.
The References panel
The References panel is the most-used part of the left panel during an active grading session. It's where you select the reference you want to match a clip against.
Sort
At the top of the panel is a sort control. The sort modes are the same as the References tab: standard sorts (by name) plus the PIA Engine's perceptual sorts (similarity, color, exposure).
Anchor display
Below the sort control, if an anchor is currently selected, the anchored image is shown here — your visual yardstick for any of the perceptual sorts. See Anchors (coming soon).
Bin selector
Below the anchor display, choose what you're browsing:
- All references — every reference in the library.
- A specific bin — narrow the view down to a curated set.
This is one of the most useful workflows in Colourlab Ai 4: build your shortlist bins in the References tab (your "color bible" for the project), then come into the Color tab and pull from those bins directly while you grade. No context switch.
Next to the bin selector is a + button that creates a new bin without leaving the Color tab.
Working with a reference
Below the bin selector are the references themselves.
- Click a reference to select it, then press A to match it onto the current clip.
- Double-click the reference to match it in one step.
Right-clicking a reference
Right-click any reference in this panel for the full menu:
- Set as anchor — make this reference the anchor.
- Best match similarity / color / exposure — set the reference as the anchor and immediately sort the rest of the bin against it by similarity, color, or exposure.
- Add to bin — drop the reference into a bin of your choice.
- Delete — remove the reference.
The Clips panel
Below the References panel sits the Clips panel — every clip you've imported into the project, organised the same way as references.
Sort, anchor, bins
- Sort clips by name or by any of the perceptual modes (similarity, color, exposure) — the same controls you saw in References.
- Set any clip as anchor and sort the rest around it.
- Add clips to bins via the right-click menu.
Right-clicking a clip
Right-click a clip in the Clips panel to:
- Add to bin.
- Add to Timeline — push the clip onto the active timeline. Works for one clip or several selected at once.
Clips are always appended. When you right-click → Add to Timeline, the selected clips land at the end of the current timeline. There's no insert-at-position option in this menu; for finer placement, drag the clip onto the timeline directly.
The right-click menu also carries the same anchor, best-match, and Show Detail actions you saw on the standalone Clips tab.