Adobe Color | FAQ

Perform the following steps to create a color theme:

The color wheel is designed to help with color palette selection in an intuitive manner by using presets based on the rules of color theory. You can also create a custom color palette from the wheel without any rules controlling it. Color rules are applied according to the selected base color.

Learn more about working with Color Harmony Rules. 

The base color (the center swatch in the color theme) is the main color controlling the position of the other swatch colors in a color theme, determined by the color harmony rule you have applied.

Set the base color by providing the HEX code, using the color mode sliders, or by dragging the base color selector on the color wheel. Note that when the base color is changed, other color selectors also move in unison while maintaining their strategic locations on the wheel, according to the color rule you have chosen. 

Color mood refers to how the shades are selected when extracting a harmonized theme from an image. The chosen mood determines the following two variables:

• how much color is contained in each shade (saturation)
• how much black is contained in each shade (luminosity)

Bright has high saturation, with low luminosity.

Dark has low saturation and low luminosity.

Deep has high saturation and low luminosity.

Muted has low saturation and high luminosity. 

Public color themes can be shared with the Adobe Color theme URL. To share a private color theme, go to Creative Cloud Libraries on the web and choose the theme's Library. Invite the person you want to share with as a collaborator to the Library. You can also share color themes from the Creative Cloud mobile app.

Your color themes can be edited in the My Themes tab. Select the Library and the theme, then click Edit. The theme will open in the Create workflow, where you can make adjustments. Once satisfied, click Update to save the changes. 

To delete any of your color themes in the My Themes tab, expand the Library and then click the delete icon . You can also delete a color theme from the individual theme page, by selecting Delete from the menu.

Note: Deleting a color theme only affects the copy of the theme in your Library, if you also wish to unpublish the theme, see How do I unpublish a color theme?

To share your color theme with the community, toggle the setting for Publish to Color before saving your theme in the Create workflow.

When you choose to publish a theme, a second public copy of the theme is created and is made available on the Explore page, in Search results, and is also indexed by search engines. It can also be copied and saved to other user's collections. If you delete the theme from your Libraries, it must also be unpublished separately. Unpublishing a public theme does not delete the copy in your Library. 

To unpublish a public theme, go to the Explore page and select My Published Themes from the filtering drop-down list. Find the theme you wish to unpublish, and click the delete icon to permanently delete the public copy of the theme. The private copy in your Library will remain.

All of your color themes are automatically saved in Libraries. You can select a different Library under the Save to drop-down in the Create workflow, or create a new Library.

In the desktop applications your color themes are available in the Libraries panel. You can also find your color themes, along with other exploration and creation tools, in the Adobe Color Themes panel. To learn more about the Adobe Color Theme panel in different desktop applications, see the tutorials in the application support table in the previous question. 

Your color themes are available in the Color panel of your mobile applications under the last tab, which has the name of the current Library folder. You can choose a different Library by selecting Change Library.

Under the Save to drop-down in the Create workflow, select a different Library, or create a new one. 

Color themes can be downloaded as ASE, and in LESS, CSS, SASS, and XML formats.  

From Galleries, download the ASE of a color theme by clicking the download icon () on the theme thumbnail. You can download color themes in a variety of formats by going to the theme page, selecting Download and choosing the format from the drop-down list.

From the Swatches panel in Illustrator, use the flyout menu to select Open Swatch Library > Other Library and navigate to your .ase file and select it. Clicking the individual swatches will add them to your swatch panel and set the active color. For more information on working with swatches in Illustrator, click here.

From the Swatches panel in Photoshop, use the flyout menu to select Load Swatches. Navigate to your .ase file and select it. Clicking the individual swatches will set the active color. For more information on working with swatches in Photoshop, click here.

From the Swatches panel in InDesign, use the flyout menu to select Load Swatches. Navigate to your .ase file and select it. Your Pantone colors will be loaded in their own folder named for the swatch file. Clicking the individual swatches will set the active color. For more infromation on working with swatches in InDesign, click here.

Select the My Themes tab and choose the library of color themes you wish to view. 

Select the Explore tab and view the curated feed of community, Behance, and Adobe Stock color themes or tailor your journey by searching by title, tags, colors, or Hex codes.

Adobe Color has three sources for color themes: Adobe Stock images, Behance projects, and the Adobe Color community. When you save a theme from a public theme, a copy of that theme will be saved to your Library. When you save a theme from Adobe Stock or Behance, a copy of the color theme only, without the image, will be saved to your Library.

If you wish to also license the Adobe Stock image, tap the Adobe Stock icon on the theme page to go to the Adobe Stock website.

If you wish to see more projects by the Behance artist who created a particular theme, click to open the theme page, then select their name to view their Behance profile. 

You can show appreciation for color themes that inspire you by clicking the heart icon .

You can add a color theme to your library by clicking the Add to Library icon  in the Galleries views, or by selecting Add to Library on a theme page. The library you are saving to can be changed from the Library drop-down at the top of the page. 

Trend Galleries are hand-picked collections from the Behance and Adobe Stock curators. These galleries reflect current trends and inspirational content from the very best of these communities.  

Dark mode can help you visualize colors against a dark background. It's available by clicking the moon icon  in the top menu bar. You can turn Dark Mode off by clicking the sun icon  from the top menu. 

Color themes on Adobe Color can now be instantly converted into Pantone® colors which are used in printing, textiles, and manufacturing. Use these colors in Adobe applications when creating your designs.  

Open a theme and scroll down to Pantone Matches. Open the Pantone Matches menu and select the Pantone book you wish to use. Your swatches will automatically be converted into Pantone colors. You can download an image with the color information, or an ASE file which can be used to add your Pantone colors to the swatch panel in Adobe applications. 

Your Pantone color themes are available in the Libraries panel. In Photoshop, double-click a swatch in your theme to add to your active color. In Illustrator and InDesign, right-click the theme and select Add Theme to Swatches.

For more information on working with swatches in Illustrator, click here.

For more infromation on working with swatches in InDesign, click here.