Create color labels for page thumbnails

Last updated on Jun 2, 2026

Learn how to use colored labels to visually categorize and track the workflow status of pages in Adobe InDesign.

Color labels help you visually organize page thumbnails in the Pages panel. They indicate the page status, such as completed, in progress, or not yet started. The labels appear as colored bars below page thumbnails and are used only for organization within InDesign.

Applying a color label to a parent page automatically labels all its child pages. However, labels applied directly to document pages override the parent page color. This makes color labels useful for tracking progress in long or collaborative documents.

Select any InDesign document.

Select Window > Pages.

In the Pages panel, select one or more page thumbnails to which you want to apply the color label.

Select the panel menu   icon, then select Page Attributes > Color Label, and choose a color from the submenu. The color appears as a horizontal bar under each page thumbnail.

Note
  • To remove a color label, select the page and select Page Attributes > Color Label > None from the Pages panel menu.
  • To restore the parent page color label on document pages that have their own color labels assigned, select the document pages and select Page Attributes > Color Label > Use Parent Color from the Pages panel menu.