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Swatches panel overview



The Swatches panel (Window > Swatches) lets you create and name colors, gradients, or tints, and quickly apply them to your document. Swatches are similar to paragraph and character styles; any change you make to a swatch affects all objects to which the swatch is applied. Swatches make it easier to modify color schemes without having to locate and adjust each individual object.

When the fill or stroke of selected text or an object contains a color or gradient applied from the Swatches panel, the applied swatch is highlighted in the Swatches panel. Swatches you create are associated only with the current document. Each document can have a different set of swatches stored in its Swatches panel.

When working with a prepress service provider, swatches let you clearly identify spot colors. You can also specify color settings in a preflight profile to determine which color settings work with your printer.

Six CMYK-defined colors appear in the default Swatches panel: cyan, magenta, yellow, red, green, and blue.

Note: When you print a book whose chapters contain conflicting swatches, you can instruct InDesign to synchronize settings with the master document. (See Synchronize book documents.)

Swatch types

The Swatches panel stores the following types of swatches:

Colors
Icons on the Swatches panel identify the spot  and process  color types, and LAB , RGB , CMYK , and Mixed Ink  color modes.

Tints
A percentage value next to a swatch in the Swatches panel indicates a tint of a spot or process color.

Gradients
An icon on the Swatches panel indicates whether a gradient is radial  or linear .

None
The None swatch removes the stroke or fill from an object. You can’t edit or remove this swatch.

Paper
Paper is a built‑in swatch that simulates the paper color on which you’re printing. Objects behind a paper-colored object won’t print where the paper-colored object overlaps them. Instead, the color of the paper on which you print shows through. You can edit the Paper color to match your paper stock by double-clicking it in the Swatches panel. Use the Paper color for previewing only—it will not be printed on a composite printer or in color separations. You can’t remove this swatch. Do not apply the Paper swatch to remove color from an object. Use the None swatch instead.
Note: If the Paper color is not working as described, and you are printing to a non-PostScript printer, try switching your printer driver to Raster Graphics mode.

Black
Black is a built‑in, 100% process color black defined using the CMYK color model. You can’t edit or remove this swatch. By default, all occurrences of Black overprint (print on top of) underlying inks, including text characters at any size. You can disable this behavior.

Registration
Registration  is a built‑in swatch that causes objects to print on every separation from a PostScript printer. For example, registration marks use the Registration color, so that printing plates can be aligned precisely on a press. You cannot edit or remove this swatch.

You can also add colors from any color library to the Swatches panel so that they are saved with your document.

Customize swatch display

You can control the size of swatches and whether the name displays with the swatch.

  1. In the Swatches panel menu, choose one of the following:

    • Name displays a small swatch next to the name of the swatch. The icons to the right of the name show the color model (CMYK, RGB, and so on), and whether the color is a spot color, process color, registration color, or none.

    • Small Name displays compacted swatch panel rows.

    • Small Swatch or Large Swatch displays only the swatch. A triangle with a dot in the corner of the swatch indicates that the color is a spot color. A triangle without a dot indicates a process color.

  2. To set what type of swatches display, click one of the following buttons at the bottom of the Swatches panel:

    • Show All Swatches  displays all color, tint, and gradient swatches.

    • Show Color Swatches  displays only process color, spot color, mixed ink color, and tint swatches.

    • Show Gradient Swatches  displays only gradient swatches.

Note: The None swatch is always displayed regardless of which button you click.