Grabbing color from the Swatches palette in Photoshop

Another way to define a foreground or background color is by clicking a color in the Swatches palette. Choose Window➪Swatches to bring up the palette.

You can have any tool active when you use the Swatches palette to define a color because as soon as you move the tool over the Swatches palette, it changes to an eyedropper icon that samples the color. (You’re still using whatever tool is active; the cursor simply changes to indicate that you temporarily have the capabilities of the Eyedropper tool.)

Besides being a way to select your foreground and background colors, the Swatches palette acts like a traditional artist’s paint palette in digital form by letting you store as many colors as you want in the palette for later use.

To change the background color, either select the background swatch icon in the Color palette or simply Ctrl+click (Ô+click on the Mac) a swatch. Here are some of the things you can do with the Swatches palette:

-->Customize the Swatches palette’s display. You can choose how to display the Swatches palette by choosing Small Thumbnail (swatch thumbnails) or Small List (swatch thumbnails along with a name) from the Swatches palette pop-up menu (click the right-pointing triangle in the upper right to open the menu).

-->Use preset colors. To load a particular preset swatch library, choose it from the list on the Swatches palette pop-up menu. Click Append to add the library to the existing swatches or OK to replace the existing swatches. You will find libraries specific for Web graphics and for implementing spot colors such as those created by Pantone, Toyo, and Focoltone. You can also select Load Swatches from the Swatches palette pop-up menu. In the Load dialog box, navigate to the Color Swatches folder by following this path: Adobe Photoshop➪Presets➪Color Swatches; and select your desired library. You can also work with swatches by using the Preset Manager.

-->Customize your own Swatches palette. To add a color to the Swatches palette, do one of the following:
-Click the New Swatch icon (the dog-eared page icon) at the bottom of the Swatches palette.
-Choose New Swatch from the Swatches palette pop-up menu. Name your swatch and click OK.
-Click an empty spot in the Swatches palette (your cursor changes to a Paint Bucket icon). Name your swatch and click OK. Or Alt+click (Option+click on the Mac) on an empty spot to add the color and bypass the Name dialog box.

-->Delete swatches that you don’t want anymore. To delete a swatch, drag it to the trash can icon at the bottom of the Swatches palette. Or Alt+click (Option+click on the Mac) over a swatch. Your cursor changes to a pair of scissors.

-->Create your own library of swatches. To save a set of swatches as a library, choose Save Swatches from the Swatches palette pop-up menu. Navigate to the folder you want to save the library in.

I recommend saving libraries in a subfolder of the Presets folder. Follow this path: Adobe Photoshop➪Presets➪Swatches; then create your own folder, name the file, and click Save.

-->Restore your default swatch libraries. To return to the default library of swatches, choose Reset Swatches from the Swatches palette pop-up menu. You can choose to either replace or append to the current library.