Manage swatches

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Duplicate swatches
Group swatches
Replace, merge, or delete swatches
Swatch options

You can manage the swatches in your Swatches panel by duplicating, grouping, replacing, merging, or deleting them. You can also specify swatch options such as swatch name, color type, color mode, or preview,

Duplicate swatches

Select one or more swatches that you want to duplicate.
Do one of the following:
- Select Duplicate Swatch from the Swatches panel menu.
- Drag the swatches to the New Swatch button in the Swatches panel.

Group swatches

When you want to keep specific colors together in the Swatches panel, create a color group. For example, you can create a color group for colors you select in the Color Guide panel. When you save a color group in the Edit Colors dialog box, it is automatically saved as a color group in the Swatches panel. You can also manually group any set of solid color swatches.

Select one or more swatches in the Swatches panel.
Click the New Color Group button, or choose New Color Group from the panel menu.

Replace, merge, or delete swatches

To replace a swatch, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and drag the color or gradient from the Color panel, Gradient panel, an object, or the Tools panel to the Swatches panel, highlighting the swatch you want to replace.
Replacing an existing color, gradient, or pattern in the Swatches panel 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, select two or more swatches, and select Merge Swatches from the Swatches panel menu. The first selected swatch name and color value replaces all other selected swatches.
To delete a swatch, select one or more swatches. Select Delete Swatch from the panel menu, click the Delete Swatch button, or drag the selected swatches to the Delete Swatch button.
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 are converted to the non-global process color equivalent.

Swatch options

To set swatch options, double-click an existing swatch or select New Swatch from the Swatches panel menu.

Swatch Name: Specifies the name of the swatch in the Swatches panel.
Color Type: Specifies if the swatch is a process color or spot color.
Global: Creates a global process-color swatch.
Color Mode: Specifies the color mode of the swatch.
After you select the color mode you want, you can use the color sliders to adjust the color. If you select a color that is not web-safe, an alert cube appears. Click the cube to shift to the closest web-safe color (which is displayed to the right of the cube). If you select an out-of-gamut color, an alert triangle appears. Click the triangle to shift to the closest CMYK equivalent (which is displayed to the right of the triangle).
Preview: Displays color adjustments on any objects to which the swatch is applied.