Introduction

Color swatches are groups of preset colors. Users can select colors from the generic swatch preset or load any number of custom swatch sets. To open swatch panel, go to Window and then clicking on Swatches.

Filter Swatches

By default, the panel displays all the available swatch types (colors, gradients, patterns, groups). To filter swatches open ‘Show Swatch Kinds menu’, which can be found within the bottom section of the panel, and then choosing from different available options.

Use a Swatches

To use a swatch, whether it’s a color, gradient, or pattern, select a shape or group of shapes, and then click on the desired swatch, which should immediately apply it to the Fill and/or Stroke.

Advanced Swatch Libraries

Click on ‘Swatch Libraries menu’ located in the bottom-left corner of the swatches panel, which should bring up a dropdown menu of collection of categories, some of which come with their own subcategories indicated by the right-facing arrow.

As soon as you click on one of the swatch libraries, it will open up a separate panel, which lists its different available colors/gradients/patterns from which you can then choose.

Add Color Swatches

To add a specific color group from a swatch library to the Swatches panel, click on ‘New Swatches’ option as highlighted in the below image.

‘New Swatch’ button, which will bring up a new window, set below properties as required

  • Assign a name to swatch
  • Adjust Color Type. Process Color defines as a print value using a combination of the four standard process inks (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black), and which is the default swatch color type. Spot Color is a premixed ink that is used instead of or in addition to CMYK process inks
  • Adjust Color Mode, we can choose RGB, which is a digital colorspace, or CMYK, which is intended for print.
  • Global check box, global color is automatically updated throughout your artwork when you edit it. All spot colors are global; however, process colors can be either global or local. You can identify global color swatches by the global color icon (when the panel is in list view) or a triangle in the lower corner (when the panel is in thumbnail view).