Working with Swatches

Swatches are materials that you can save to use again. For example, if you create a material that is a certain shade of green with a fog texture, you can save it as a swatch. Swatches are displayed on the Swatches tab of the Materials palette.

To create a new swatch:

  1. On the Materials palette, click the Swatches tab .

  2. Click the Create New Swatch button . You can also click the More Options button and choose New Swatch.

  3. Type a name for the swatch. This name appears as a ToolTip when you hold the cursor over the swatch on the Materials palette.

  4. Press Enter. The Material Properties dialog opens.

  1. Select the style (color, gradient, or pattern) and the texture for the material.

  2. Click OK.

To select a swatch:

  1. On the Materials palette, click the Swatches tab .

  2. Do one of the following:

  3.  To select a swatch as the foreground material, left-click the swatch you want to use.

  4.  To select a swatch as the background material, right-click the swatch you want to use.

To edit a swatch:

  1. On the Materials palette, click the Swatches tab .

  2. Double-click the swatch you want to edit. You can also click the swatch, click the More Options button , and then choose Edit Swatch. The Material Properties dialog opens.

  3. Edit the style (color, gradient, or pattern) or the texture for the material.

  4. Click OK.

To delete a swatch:

  1. On the Materials palette, click the Swatches tab .

  2. Click the swatch you want to delete.

  3. Click the Delete Swatch button or click the More Options button and choose Delete Swatch.

To rename a swatch:

  1. On the Materials palette, click the Swatches tab .

  2. Click the swatch you want to rename.

  3. Click the More Options button and choose Rename Swatch.

To change how swatches are displayed:

  1. On the Materials palette, click the Swatches tab .

  2. Do one of the following:

  3.  To select which swatch types are displayed, click the View button and choose All , Colors , Gradients , or Patterns . You can also click the More Options button , choose View, and then choose the swatch type to display.

  4.  To change how swatches are sorted, click the More Options button , choose Sort, and then choose By Style or By Name. By default, the swatches are sorted by style.

  5.  To change between small and large thumbnails of the swatches, click the More Options button and choose Small Thumbnails or Large Thumbnails. By default, small thumbnails are displayed.

Related Topics

Using the Materials Palette

Understanding Color and Color Models

How Monitor and Print Colors Differ

Working with Color Channels

Understanding Color Depth

Working with Image Palettes

Making a Palette Color Transparent