Color, Strokes, and Fills > Using the Swatches panel

 

Using the Swatches panel

The Swatches panel lets you store colors, edit and rename them, convert process colors to spot colors and vice versa, change the color mode (RGB and CMYK), and import and export custom color libraries.

To show or hide the Swatches panel, do one of the following:

Click the Swatches button in the Main toolbar.

Choose Window > Panels > Swatches.

Swatches panel
 

The Swatches panel displays the color list for the active document. It also has three selectors: the Fill (left), Stroke (center), and Both for the combined Fill and Stroke (right). The active selector is pressed. The selectors show the colors for a selected object. The colors also appear in the color boxes in the Tools panel.

Active Fill selector, no stroke; differing fill and stroke
 

The default colors in a new document are None, White, Black, and Registration. These colors cannot be deleted or renamed. Black is a spot black that prints on the process black plate. The registration color, used for crop marks or trim marks, prints solid on all color separations.

The Swatches panel displays process color names in italics, spot color names in plain type, with a triple-dot icon next to RGB colors, no symbol for CMYK colors, and a black hexagon for Hexachrome colors. RGB colors include those created in HLS view, the Apple Color Picker, and the Windows Color dialog box.

CMYK colors (top two): process in italics and spot color in plain type; RGB colors with icon: process (italics) and spot (plain) colors