How to Add Swatches in InDesign

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Last Updated: July 21, 2024

Color adds emotion, detail, emphasis and interest to print documents. Adobe InDesign, a desktop publishing program that allows designers to create a variety of print materials, allows you to add color swatches for use in your print documents. Using swatches allows you to uniformly apply and modify the color schemes used in your documents.

Steps

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1
Open the Swatches panel, which is located in the far right side of your workspace.
- If this panel is not already in your workspace, open it by selecting Windows>Colors>Swatches.
Navigate to the file from which you would like to add swatches. Click Open and then select the swatches you would like to add.

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Method 1

Method 1 of 4:

Adding All Swatches from an Existing File

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Method 2

Method 2 of 4:

Adding Swatches from a Pre-Loaded Color Library

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You may also select Other Library from the Color Mode list and navigate to the library file from which you would like to add a swatch or swatches.

Method 3

Method 3 of 4:

Creating a New Color Swatch

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If you are using a spot color, select your color from the Color Mode menu.

Method 4

Method 4 of 4:

Adding Color to Your Document

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1
Begin creating your document and adding color as desired.
- To add color to text, highlight your text using your Selection tool. Open your Swatches panel and click the Type icon. Select your desired color from the Swatches panel.
- To add color to a frame or other object, select the frame or object using your Selection tool. Open your Swatches panel and click either the stroke or fill icon. Select your desired color from the Swatches panel.

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Tips

Spot colors are premixed colors that should be used when a document contains only a few colors and the color's accuracy is important. Process colors are colors that are created using a specific combination of cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks. Process colors are used for documents that contain a large number of colors, such as documents containing photographs.

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Adobe InDesign allows you to add swatches from other InDesign documents, Adobe Illustrator files, Adobe Photoshop files or from one of several pre-loaded color libraries. InDesign's pre-loaded color libraries include ANPA Color, DIC Color, Focoltone, Pantone, HKS, Toyo, Trumatch, Web and Windows and Mac system libraries.

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InDesign's Swatches panel includes six default CMYK colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, red, green and blue, as well as black.

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