Colours and swatches

Managing colours in InDesign is relatively straightforward and enables you to modify colour schemes throughout your document with ease. Once you’re comfortable handling colour in InDesign, you can apply the same principles across all Adobe applications using CC Libraries, ensuring consistency and efficiency in your design workflow.

Open the Swatches panel

To open the Swatches panel:

Navigate to the Window menu → Colour → Swatches.
Dock this panel on the right-hand side of the user interface.

Delete default colours

Depending on the type of file you created, InDesign may have some default colours already in the Swatches panel.

Select all unwanted colours and delete them.
You cannot delete default colours in [brackets].

Identify a colour you wish to add to save

Select an object with the desired colour you wish to save.

Single click on the object.
In the Toolbar, ensure you have the fill or stroke selected, depending on what colour you want to save.

Add a colour to the Swatches panel

Navigate back to the Swatches panel.
Click the + button.
The desired colour will be added to the Swatches panel.

Rename a colour swatch

Double click the colour.
Un-tick Name with Colour Value.
Type a logical name for your swatch.
Click OK.

Apply a colour swatch

Now that you have a colour swatch saved in your Swatches panel, you can apply this colour to anything you’re working on. For example:

Draw a new line in your document.
With the line selected (ensuring the stroke is selected in the toolbar) click on your new colour swatch.
The colour swatch will be applied to the line.

Modify a Swatch Colour

You can always modify your Swatch Colours at any time:

Navigate to the Swatches panel.
Double-click on the desired swatch.
Change the colour values as desired.
This change will be reflected in all instances of this colour throughout your document.

Apply colour swatches to paragraph styles

Navigate to the Paragraph Styles by going to the Window menu → Styles → Paragraph Styles.
Double click on the desired paragraph style.
In the left-hand column, navigate to Character Colour.
Select the desired Swatch Colour from the list.
This colour will now be applied to all instances of that Paragraph Style.

Apply Swatch Colours directly to CAD lines

In most cases you should reference files into InDesign. However, for some simple vector drawings, you can copy and paste them directly into InDesign. These will no longer be ‘live’ links and will not update when the original CAD file is re-saved. However, CAD lines directly pasted into InDesign can be easily recoloured:

Select the CAD lines you wish to colour.
Ensure the Stroke is selected in the Toolbar.
Select the desired Swatch Colour.
The CAD lines will be recoloured using the Swatch Colour.

Adding colour swatches to CC Libraries

Adding an item to your Creative Cloud Library means it will be accessible across all Adobe software that you are signed into.

Navigate to the Window menu → CC Libraries.
Create a new library and name it.
Select an object or swatch with the desired colour applied to it.
Click + in CC Libraries and add the Stroke / Fill colour that has your desired colour.
The Swatch will be added to your Library.