Adobe Photoshop Tutorial: Custom Color Swatches and Sets
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Written By Steve Patterson
In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we're going to learn how to collect and organize colors into custom color swatch sets which we can then call up and use whenever we need them, perfect for times when we're working with multiple clients and each of them has their own specific colors they want used on their project, or when we simply want to collect and organize different colors for our own work. One of the things I enjoy doing is taking photos of outdoor nature scenes, then sampling some of the colors from the images and saving them as different color sets. After all, it's hard to top Mother Nature when it comes to finding colors that work well together.
In this tutorial, we're going to be doing exactly what I just described, sampling various colors from a photo, storing them as color swatches in Photoshop's Swatches palette, and then saving them as a custom swatch set. We'll also see how to reset the swatches back to Photoshop's default colors when we're done and then how to load our newly created swatch set whenever we need it!
Here's the photo I'll be using to sample colors from. I want to create an "Autumn Leaves" color swatch set, so this photo should work nicely:
At the end of the tutorial, we'll see an example of how you can then use the colors from your custom swatch set to create something entirely different. Let's get started.
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Step 1: Delete The Existing Color Swatches From Photoshop' Swatches Palette
To create our custom swatch set, let's first delete all of the color swatches that are currently in the Swatches palette. Don't worry, they won't be gone for good, as we'll see a bit later on. Switch over to your Swatches palette, which by default is grouped in with the Color and Styles palettes. Unless you've previously loaded other swatch sets, you'll find Photoshop's default color swatches filling up the palette:
Unfortunately, Adobe forgot to include a "Clear All Swatches" option, so in order to delete all the color swatches currently in the Swatches palette, we'll need to delete each one manually. To do that, hold down your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key and hover your mouse over the color swatch in the top left corner (the "RGB Red" swatch). You'll see your mouse cursor change into a scissors icon:
Then, while still holding down "Alt/Option", click on the color swatch to delete it, then continue clicking to delete all of the remaining swatches. You'll need to click a total of 122 times to clear all of them, but depending on how fast you are at mouse clicking, it shouldn't take too long. Your Swatches palette will be completely empty when you're done:
Step 2: Select The Eyedropper Tool
Open the image in Photoshop that you want to sample your colors from if it isn't open already, then grab your Eyedropper Tool from the Tools palette, or press I on your keyboard to select it with the shortcut:
Step 3: Sample Your First Color From The Image
With the Eyedropper Tool selected, move your mouse cursor over an area of color you want to sample, then click to sample it. I'm going to sample a bright yellow from one of the leaves in the top of my image as my first color:
You can see exactly which color you've sampled by looking at the Foreground color swatch in the Tools palette:
Note: You may find it easier to sample your colors by holding down your mouse button as you drag your mouse cursor around inside the image (with the Eyedropper Tool selected). The color the Eyedropper is currently over appears in the Foreground color swatch in the Tools palette and continuously updates as you drag your mouse, giving you a live preview of the color before you sample it, which I find much easier than the "click and see what you get" method. Release your mouse button when you're over the color you want to sample.
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