Adobe Photoshop CS3

Working with Color Swatches

For easy and accurate color selection, the Swatches palette provides over 130 of the most used colors. If you are working with a specific color scheme, you can customize the Swatches palette to display your choice of colors and color names in addition to the pre-selected colors.

The Swatches palette consists of small color squares called "swatches." When selected, a swatch-color becomes the active foreground color for the image you are working with. For more information about selecting colors in Photoshop CS3, refer to Working with Colors.

Accessing the Swatches Palette
Selecting Swatches
Creating New Swatches
Renaming Swatches
Deleting Swatches

Accessing the Swatches Palette

The Swatches palette shares a window with the Color and Styles palettes. If the Swatches palette is not visible, do the following:

From the Window menu, select Swatches
OR
If the window is open, but the Color palette or Styles palette is active, select the Swatches tab
The Swatches palette appears.

Selecting Swatches

To select a color currently displayed on the Swatches palette:

Position the mouse over the Swatches palette
The arrow becomes the Eyedropper Tool.
Click the desired color
That color becomes the active foreground color.

Creating New Swatches

In addition to using the pre-selected Swatches palette colors, you can customize new color swatches for a specific color or set of colors that you use frequently. For more information on selecting a color, see Working with Colors.

Creating New Swatches: Button Option

Set the foreground color to the color you wish to save as a swatch
From the Swatches palette, click CREATE NEW SWATCH OF FOREGROUND COLOR
A new color swatch is added to the unused portion of the Swatches palette.

Creating New Swatches: Swatch Option

Set the foreground color to the color you wish to save as a swatch
Position your mouse over the unused portion of the Swatches palette
NOTE: The pointer appears as the Paint Bucket Tool.
Click the unused portion of the Swatches palette
The Color Swatch Name dialog box appears with a sample of the new color swatch next to the Name text box.
In the Name text box, type the new swatch name
Click OK
A new color swatch is added to the Swatches palette.

Creating New Swatches: Color Picker Option

In the Toolbox, click SET FOREGROUND COLOR or SET BACKGROUND COLOR
The Color Picker (Foreground Color) or Color Picker (Background Color) dialog box appears.
Select the appropriate color
Click ADD TO SWATCHES
The Color Swatch Name dialog box appears.
In the Name text box, type the new color name
Click OK
A new color swatch is added to the Swatches palette.

Renaming Swatches

You can rename the pre-selected color swatches that Photoshop has already named or change the name of your own saved swatches.

Renaming Swatches: Swatch Option

Double click the color swatch you wish to rename
The Color Swatch Name dialog box appears.
In the Name text box, type the new color name
Click OK

Renaming Swatches: Right Click Option

Right click the color swatch you wish to rename » select Rename Swatch...
The Color Swatch Name dialog box appears.
In the Name text box, type the new swatch name
Click OK

Deleting Swatches

Deleting the unused swatches from the color palette makes finding your other swatches easier and faster.

Deleting Swatches: Swatch Option

Click and drag the color swatch to DELETE SWATCH
Release the mouse button
The color swatch is removed from the Swatches palette.

Deleting Swatches: Right Click Option

Right click the color swatch you wish to delete » select Delete Swatch
The color swatch is removed from the Swatches palette.

Deleting Swatches: Keyboard Option

Position the mouse over the Swatches palette
The pointer appears as the Eyedropper Tool.
Press [Alt] + click the color swatch you wish to delete
The pointer appears as a scissors and the color swatch is removed from the Swatches palette.