The Swatches Palette in InDesign CS

CMYK, RGB, and Gradient Swatches

Identify CMYK, RGB, Spot Colours, and Gradients by their icons

Images by E. Bruno

1. You have several CMYK process colours up to and including the "Process CMYK colour" swatch. You can tell that these are CMYK colours because the last icon on the right of each colour is divided into 4 little triangles each containing one of the CMYK colours.

2. You then have an example of a spot CMYK colour. You can tell that, apart from the name I have given it ("Spot CMYK colour"), from the first icon on the right of the colour swatch. The icon is a square with a little circle in the middle. This colour, instead of being printed on all 4 plates, is printed on one plate. The CMYK inks are mixed to the percentage specified in that colour and you then get the colour you wanted printed on one plate.

3. The two swatches labeled "Process RGB" and "Spot RGB colour" have icons that identify them as RGB colours. The icon is divided into three colours instead of the 4 colours in the CMYK swatches.

4. The last swatch is a Gradient Swatch, i.e, I recorded a gradient in the Swatch palette (how to do this is described in the Gradients Palette tutorial). There is no multi-colored icon but you can see the gradient filled box in front of the colour name.

• Record Frequently Used Colors
• None and Paper Swatches
• Black and Registration Swatches
• CMYK, RGB, and Gradient Swatches
• The Buttons
• Creating New Swatches in the Swatches Palette
• Editing Swatches in the Swatches Palette
• Relationship Between Colour and Swatches Palettes