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Design 101: Saving & Exporting Your Own Color Swatches in Illustrator

Kyle Christensen

Kyle is the Lead Graphic Designer at Cherry-red Branch Media.

#bestpractices, #design101

Updated for macOS Large Sur February 4, 2021

If you're working with multiple clients and creating a lot of pattern work, you lot're probably working with a lot of different company colors and color palettes. Rather than copying and pasting their colour codes in all of the time, yous might desire to consider creating a custom swatch library in Illustrator. This way, you'll always have all of your clients' colors set up to become at any time. In this commodity, I'll prove you how to create your own swatch library, how to export it and how to load it up into any Adobe Creative Deject program.

Creating Your Swatch Library

First, open Illustrator and create a new bare document at whatever dimensions (y'all won't be saving the document, merely the swatch library). There are two ways to create your swatch library, merely I'll show y'all how I create the library. Open up your swatches panel and click on the white color swatch, then hold downward shift and click on the final swatch (including all folder icons besides) and click on the trash can to delete all of the swatches. Now, click on the folder icon to create your custom color group and title it as you'd like. I titled mine "Cherry-red Co-operative Media." To start building your swatches, you can do this two ways:

Images-for-Article-021. The beginning manner is to draw out a shape and then double-click it to enter the colour value or find a custom color. Now, click and concord the swatch color from your left toolbar and elevate it next to the folder icon in your swatch console to place your colour in your colour group binder. To name your color, double-click on the swatch and enter in the name under "Swatch Name" in the Swatch Options card.

Images-for-Article-03two. Y'all could also add swatches to your swatch library is by opening upwardly your swatch panel and clicking on the "New Swatch" icon. Here, you can proper noun your swatch, define the color blazon and switch between color modes to enter in the colour value.

Exporting Your Swatch Library

Images-for-Article-04Now that you've created your swatch library, information technology's time to export it. Open up your swatch console and click the icon in the pinnacle right corner and from the drop downwardly menu, select "Relieve Swatch Library as ASE" (Adobe Swatch Commutation). The reason for selecting this option is so you tin can load this library in any Adobe Creative Deject program . The only disadvantage is that this library doesn't save tints, gradients or patterns.

If you select "Salve Swatch Library equally AI" (Adobe Illustrator), you tin can save all tints, gradients and patterns simply can just open the swatch library in Illustrator files. After saving your swatch library, it'south ready to get!

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Opening Your Swatch Library in Illustrator, Photoshop & InDesign

To begin using your custom color palette, hither'due south how you can do so with Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. With Illustrator, open a new document and open upwards your swatch panel. Click on the icon in the top right corner of the swatch panel to bring downwards the drib down menu and select "Open Swatch Library" and and then "Other Library." Notice your saved swatch library and click "Open up" to find your colour palette at present loaded into Illustrator equally its ain color swatch tab/menu!

For Photoshop, open up a new certificate and open upwards your swatch panel. Merely similar Illustrator, click on the icon in the top right corner of the swatch panel to bring downwards the drop down menu, but instead of clicking "Open Swatch Library," you select "Load Swatches" instead. From there, find your saved swatch file and click "Open" to see your swatches at present added to the terminate of default colors in the swatch panel. Y'all can delete all of these default swatches if you'd like.

For InDesign, open up a new document and open your swatch panel. Similar to Photoshop, you'll click the icon in the top right corner of the swatch console to bring down the driblet-down menu, and select "Load Swatches" to load your swatch library. Afterwards yous load your swatch library, y'all'll run into a folder announced in the swatch panel under the default swatches that's titled as information technology was in Illustrator, with all of the swatches appearing under it.

Creating and storing colour palettes is a great way to keep all of your clients' or your own color palettes organized and consistent. Yous won't have to type in color codes every time yous create a new document and you can merely load upward a color palette in seconds to get started with blueprint work. Amongst creating and exporting swatches, you can likewise create and export custom patterns equally well. At that place is another type of swatch library Adobe offers, and they're called Adobe CC libraries. For more information on what they are and how they tin can be used, click here !

Kyle Christensen

Kyle is the Lead Graphic Designer at Red Branch Media.

Kyle leads our Graphic Design Section at Red Branch Media. His ability to manage incoming tasks, collaborate with the design squad, hit deadlines and keep our file storage system well-organized has helped to shape the pattern section clients love today. While he's away from the branch, he spends his time playing drums, video games, cranking the latest emo, pop-punk and screamo songs on Spotify, drinking local Omaha brews, and enjoying life with his married woman. Kyle has a BASA with a Concentration in Graphic Design and a Modest in Art History from UNO.