Replacing, merging, and deleting swatches


    You can replace one swatch with a different color or gradient, merge two or more swatches to use the color of a selected swatch so that all objects painted with any of the swatch colors will be updated with the merged swatch color, or remove swatches altogether.

To replace a swatch in the Swatches palette:

    Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and drag the color or gradient from the Color palette, Gradient palette, an object, or the Fill box and Stroke box in the toolbox to the Swatches palette, highlighting the swatch you want to replace.

    Important: Replacing an existing color, gradient, or pattern in the Swatches palette 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 in the Swatches palette:

  1. Select two or more swatches. (See Using the Swatches palette.)
  2. Choose Merge Swatches from the Swatches palette menu. The first selected swatch name and color value replaces all other selected swatches.

To delete a swatch from the Swatches palette:

  1. Select one or more swatches. (See Using the Swatches palette.)
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Choose Delete Swatch from the palette menu.
    • Click the Delete Swatch button Delete icon at the bottom of the palette.
    • Drag the selected swatches to the Delete Swatch button.

    Note: 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 will be converted to the non-global process color equivalent.