Swatches are named colors, tints, gradients, and patterns. The swatches associated with a document appear in the Swatches panel. Swatches can appear individually or in groups.

You can open libraries of swatches from other Illustrator documents and various color systems. Swatch libraries appear in separate panels and are not saved with the document.

The Swatches panel and swatch library panels can contain the following types of swatches:

A process color is printed using a combination of the four standard process inks: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. By default, Illustrator defines new swatches as process colors.

A global color is automatically updated throughout your artwork when you edit it. All spot colors are global; however, process colors can be either global or local. You can identify global color swatches by the global color icon  (when the panel is in list view) or a triangle in the lower corner (when the panel is in thumbnail view).

A spot color is a premixed ink that is used instead of, or in addition to, CMYK process inks. You can identify spot-color swatches by the spot-color icon  (when the panel is in list view) or a dot in the lower corner (when the panel is in thumbnail view).

A gradient is a graduated blend between two or more colors or tints of the same color or different colors. Gradient colors can be assigned as CMYK process colors, RGB colors, or a spot color. Transparency applied to a gradient stop, is preserved when the gradient is saved as a gradient swatch. The aspect-ratio and angle values of elliptical gradients (those created by adjusting the aspect ratio or angle of a radial gradient) are not saved.

Patterns are repeating (tiled) paths, compound paths, text with solid fills or no fill.

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

The registration swatch  is a built‑in swatch that causes objects filled or stroked with it 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 can’t remove this swatch.

note: If you use the Registration color for type, and then you separate the file and print it, the type may not register properly and the black ink may appear muddy. To avoid this, use black ink for type.

Color groups can contain process, spot, and global process colors. They cannot contain pattern, gradient, none, or registration swatches. You create color groups based on harmonies by using either the Color Guide panel or the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box. To put existing swatches into a color group, select the swatches and click the New Color Group icon  in the Swatches panel. You can identify a color group by the folder icon .

You can also create tints in the Swatches panel. A tint is a global process color or spot color with a modified intensity. Tints of the same color are linked together, so that if you edit the color of a tint swatch, all associated tint swatches (and the objects painted with those swatches) change color, though the tint values remain unchanged. Tints are identified by a percentage (when the Swatches panel is in list view)

Swatches panel overview

You use the Swatches panel (Window > Swatches) to control all document colors, gradients, and patterns. You can name and store any of these items for instant access. When a selected object’s fill or stroke contains a color, gradient, pattern, or tint applied from the Swatches panel, the applied swatch is highlighted in the Swatches panel.

Change the display of swatches

Show a specific type of swatch and hide all others

Select all swatches that aren’t used in artwork

If you want to limit your Swatches panel to only the colors that are used in a document, you can select all unused swatches and then delete them.

Select a color group

• To select the entire group, click the color group icon .

• To select swatches inside the group, click individual swatches.

Select a swatch by name

Move swatches into a color group

Change the order of swatches

You can reorder individual swatches as well as swatches inside a color group.

Use swatch libraries

Swatch libraries are collections of preset colors, including ink libraries such as PANTONE, HKS, Trumatch, FOCOLTONE, DIC, TOYO, and thematic libraries such as camouflage, nature, Greek, and jewel tones.

When you open a swatch library, it appears in a new panel (not the Swatches panel). You select, sort, and view swatches in a swatch library the same as you do in the Swatches panel. However, you can’t add swatches to, delete swatches from, or edit the swatches in the Swatch libraries panel.

Open a swatch library

Create a swatch library

You create a swatch library by saving the current document as a swatch library.

Edit a swatch library

Move swatches from a swatch library to the Swatches panel

Do any of the following:

• Drag one or more swatches from the swatch library panel to the Swatches panel.

• Select the swatches you want to add, and select Add To Swatches from the library’s panel menu.

• Apply a swatch to an object in the document. If the swatch is a global or spot-color swatch, the swatch is automatically added to the Swatches panel.

Create color swatches

You can create process color, spot color, or gradient color swatches.

Create a process color swatch

Do one of the following:

• Select a color using the Color Picker or Color panel, or select an object with the color you want. Then, drag the color from the Tools panel or Color panel to the Swatches panel.

• In the Swatches panel, click the New Swatch button or select New Swatch from the panel menu. In the dialog box that appears, select Global if you want the swatch to be a global color. Set additional swatch options, and click OK. (See Swatch options.)

Create spot-color swatches

Do one of the following:

• Select a color using the Color Picker or Color panel, or select an object with the color you want. Then, Ctrl‑drag (Windows) or Command‑drag (Mac OS) the color from the Tools panel or Color panel to the Swatches panel.

• In the Swatches panel, Ctrl‑click (Windows) or Command‑click (Mac OS) the New Swatch button, or select New Swatch from the panel menu. In the dialog box that appears, select Spot Color for Color Type. Set additional swatch options and click OK. (See Swatch options.)

Create gradient swatches

Create a swatch from the Color Guide panel

Add colors from artwork to the Swatches panel

You can automatically add all the colors from selected artwork or all the colors in your document to the Swatches panel. Illustrator finds the colors that are not already in the Swatches panel, converts any process colors to global colors, and adds them to the panel as new swatches.

When you automatically add colors to the Swatches panel, all colors in the document are included, except the following:

• Colors inside opacity masks (when not in opacity mask editing mode)

• Interpolated colors in blends

• Colors in image pixels

• Guide colors

• Colors in objects that are inside compound shapes and are not visible

If you change a gradient fill, pattern fill, or symbol instance to a new global color, the color is added as a new swatch and the original color swatch is retained.

Add all document colors

Add colors from selected artwork

Import swatches from another document

You can import all swatches or individual swatches from another document.

• To import all swatches from another document, choose Open Swatch Library > Other Library from the Swatches panel menu. Select the file from which you want to import swatches, and click Open. The imported swatches appear in a swatch library panel (not the Swatches panel).

• To import individual swatches from another document, copy and paste objects that use the swatches. The imported swatches appear in the Swatches panel.

Share swatches between applications

You can share the solid swatches you create in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign by saving a swatch library for exchange. The colors appear the same across apps as long as your color settings are synchronized.

Manage swatches

You can manage the swatches in your Swatches panel by duplicating, grouping, replacing, merging, or deleting them. You can also specify swatch options such as swatch name, color type, color mode, or preview.

Duplicate swatches

Group swatches

When you want to keep specific colors together in the Swatches panel, create a color group. For example, you can create a color group for colors you select in the Color Guide panel. When you save a color group in the Edit Colors dialog box, it is automatically saved as a color group in the Swatches panel. You can also manually group any set of solid color swatches.

Replace, merge, or delete swatches

• To replace a swatch, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and drag the color or gradient from the Color panel, Gradient panel, an object, or the Tools panel to the Swatches panel, highlighting the swatch you want to replace.

  Replacing an existing color, gradient, or pattern in the Swatches panel globally changes objects in the file containing that swatch color with the new color, gradient, or pattern. The only exception is for a process color that does not have the Global option selected in the Swatch Options dialog box.

• To merge multiple swatches, select two or more swatches, and select Merge Swatches from the Swatches panel menu. The first selected swatch name and color value replace all other selected swatches.

• To delete a swatch, select one or more swatches. Select Delete Swatch from the panel menu, click the Delete Swatch button, or drag the selected swatches to the Delete Swatch button.

  When you delete a spot-color or global process-color swatch (or a pattern or gradient containing a spot or global process color), all objects painted with those colors are converted to the non-global process color equivalent.

Swatch options

To set swatch options, double-click an existing swatch or select New Swatch from the Swatches panel menu.

Specifies the name of the swatch in the Swatches panel.

Specifies if the swatch is a process color or spot color.

Creates a global process-color swatch.

Specifies the color mode of the swatch.

After you select the color mode you want, you can use the color sliders to adjust the color. If you select a color that is not web-safe, an alert cube appears. Click the cube to shift to the closest web-safe color (which is displayed to the right of the cube). If you select an out-of-gamut color, an alert triangle appears. Click the triangle to shift to the closest CMYK equivalent (which is displayed to the right of the triangle).

Displays color adjustments on any objects to which the swatch is applied.