# PhotoshopElements

# Use the Color Swatches palette

The Color Swatches palette (Window > Color Swatches) is a good place to store the colors that you use often in your images. You can select a foreground or background color by clicking a color swatch in the Color Swatches palette. You can add or delete colors to create a custom swatch library, save a library of swatches, and reload them for use in another image. You can change the way thumbnails are displayed in the Color Swatches palette by choosing an option from the More menu.

Although you can add many colors to the Color Swatches palette, you should manage its size and organization to improve performance. Creating libraries can help you group related or special swatches and manage palette size.

The Photoshop Elements/Presets/Color Swatches folder contains the various swatch libraries. When you create custom libraries, saving them to the Color Swatches folder makes them automatically appear in the palette libraries pop‑up menu.

### Choose a color using the Color Swatches palette

1. If the Color Swatches palette is not already open, choose Window > Color Swatches.
2. (Optional) Choose a swatch library name from the Swatches menu in the upper-left corner of the palette.
3. Do one of the following:

   - To choose a foreground color, click a color in the palette.

   - To choose a background color, Command-click a color in the palette.

### Add a color to the Color Swatches palette

If there is a color you’d like to use often, you can save the color as a swatch in the Color Swatches palette. Saved swatches are added to the library of colors in the palette. To permanently save your custom swatches, you must save the entire library.

1. Set the foreground color in the toolbox to the color you want to add.
2. Do one of the following in the Color Swatches palette:

   - Click the New Swatch button at the bottom of the palette. The color swatch is added and automatically named Swatch 1.

   - Choose New Swatch from the More menu.

   - Position the pointer over an empty space in the bottom row of the Color Swatches palette (the pointer turns into the Paint Bucket tool), and click to add the color.

   Selecting a color with the eyedropper and adding it as a new swatch
3. Enter a name for the new color and click OK.
4. If prompted to save the swatch library, enter a new name in the Save dialog box and click Save.

### Save and use custom swatch libraries

Do any of the following in the Color Swatches palette:

- To save a library of swatches, choose Save Swatches from the More menu. To make the set appear in the palette’s swatch libraries pop‑up menu, save the file to the Photoshop Elements\Presets\Color Swatches folder.

  Note: To see the new swatch set in the menu, you must restart Photoshop Elements.

- To select and load a swatch library, choose Load Swatches from the More menu in the palette.

- To replace the current swatch library with a different library, choose Replace Swatches from the More menu in the palette and select a library.

### Reset a swatch library to its default color swatches

1. Choose a swatch library from the pop‑up menu in the Color Swatches palette.
2. From the More menu in the Color Swatches palette, choose Preset Manager.
3. In the Preset Manager dialog box, choose Swatches from the Preset Type menu.
4. Choose Reset Swatches from the More menu, and click Done.

### Delete a color from the Color Swatches palette

1. Do one of the following:

   - Drag the color swatch to the Trash button in the palette, and click OK to confirm the deletion.

   - Press Option to change the pointer to a scissors icon, and click a color in the Color Swatches palette.

2. If prompted to save the library, enter a name in the Save dialog box and click Save.

Note: To permanently remove swatches you delete, you must resave the library that contained them.

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- Use the Preset Manager

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