MY CARTHow to Use the Swatches Panel in Photoshop: Video Lesson
This video lesson, titled “Learn How to Select a Color Using the Swatches Panel in Adobe Photoshop: A Training Tutorial,” shows you how to use the Swatches panel in Photoshop. This video lesson is from our complete Photoshop tutorial, titled “Mastering Photoshop Made Easy.”
Overview of the Swatches Panel in Photoshop:
You can select a color by using the Swatches panel in Photoshop. Using the Swatches panel is like using a traditional color palette when painting. A swatch is a color cube you can click to select the color. You can load a set of colors to use in an image file into the Swatches panel.
To toggle the Swatches panel on or off in Photoshop, select “Window| Swatches” from the Menu Bar. The Swatches panel in Photoshop shows a “Search Swatches” field at its top, a listing of recent color selections below it, and then a listing of the swatch groups, which appear as collapsible and expandable folders, below that. To expand or collapse a swatch group folder to show or hide its swatches, click the arrow to the left of the swatch group’s folder icon.
To view the name of a color swatch in the Swatches panel, hover your mouse pointer over any color swatch in the Swatches panel to show its name in a screen tip. Note, however, that these color names do not appear for the colors in the recently selected colors strip.
How to Select a Color Using the Swatches Panel in Photoshop:
To set the foreground color using the Swatches panel in Photoshop, click any color swatch in the Swatches panel. To set the background color using the Swatches panel in Photoshop, hold down the “Alt” key on your keyboard (“Option” for Macs) and then click a color swatch in the Swatches panel.
How to Delete Colors in the Swatches Panel:
You can also customize the Swatches panel to add or remove colors. To immediately delete a color swatch from the Swatches panel in Photoshop, click and drag the color swatch to delete from the Swatches panel and then drop it onto the “Delete swatch” button at the bottom of the Swatches panel, which looks like a trash can icon.
Alternatively, to delete a swatch from the Swatches panel in Photoshop and show a deletion confirmation prompt, either click to select a color swatch in the Swatches panel and then click the “Delete swatch” button or right-click a swatch to delete and then select the “Delete Swatch…” command. After performing either action, then either click “OK” to confirm the deletion in the deletion confirmation prompt that appears or click “Cancel” to cancel deleting it.
How to Add a Color to the Swatches Panel:
To add a color to the Swatches panel in Photoshop, use one of the other color selection tools, like the Eyedropper tool or “Color Picker” dialog box, to set the color to add as a new swatch as the foreground color choice. Then click the “Create new swatch” button at the bottom of the Swatches panel to open a new “Color Swatch Name” dialog box, which then shows the current foreground color swatch.
Type a name for the color swatch into the “Name” field in this dialog box, check or uncheck the “Add to my current library” checkbox to add or not add the swatch to your Creative Cloud library, and then click the “OK” button.
How to Create a New Swatch Group:
To create a new swatch group in the Swatches panel in Photoshop, click the “Create new group” button, which looks like a folder icon, at the bottom of the Swatches panel to open the “Group Name” dialog box. Then type a name for the swatch group into the “Name” field and click the “OK” button in the dialog box.
You can then add swatches to your new swatch group. You can also click and drag existing swatches you have created in the Swatches panel and drop them onto the swatch group to move them into the swatch group. Like swatches, to immediately delete a swatch group in the Swatches panel in Photoshop, click and drag the swatch group folder onto the “Delete swatch” button and then release it there.
How to Append the Default Swatch Groups to the Swatches Panel:
To append the default swatch groups and their swatches into the Swatches panel in Photoshop, click the Swatches panel’s options menu icon, which looks like three small stacked horizontal lines, in the upper-right corner of the panel to show a drop-down menu. Then select the “Append Default Swatches…” command to open a confirmation prompt dialog box. To append the default swatches, which are all the default swatches in the “RGB” swatch group through the “Pale” swatch group, to the bottom of the Swatches panel, click the “OK” button in the confirmation dialog box. Otherwise, click the “Cancel” button to cancel appending them.
How to Find a Swatch by Name:
To search for swatches by name in the Swatches panel, click into the “Search Swatches” field and then type the color name or part of its name. As you type, matching swatches in their swatch groups then appear in the Swatches panel. You can then click to select them, as needed.
To clear the search, delete the search term from the “Search Swatches” field. To select a color from the strip of recently selected colors in the Swatches panel, click a color or hold down the “Alt” key (“Option” for Macs) and then click a color, to set either the foreground or background color, respectively.
