Adobe InDesign CS5 - Manual (Page 480)

474 USING INDESIGN
Color
Last updated 11/16/2011
Delete all unused swatches
1 Choose Select All Unused in the Swatches panel menu. Only swatches that are not currently used in the active file
will be selected.
2 Click the Delete icon.
Merge swatches
When you import swatches or copy items from other documents, you may end up with duplicate swatches that may
be applied to different objects. Use the Merge Swatches command to combine duplicate swatches.
1 In the Swatches panel, select two or more duplicate swatches.
The first swatch you select is the one the survives (gets merged into).
2 Choose Merge Swatches in the Swatches panel menu.
Save swatches for use in other documents
To use your color swatches in other files or to share them with other designers, you can save swatches in an Adobe
Swatch Exchange (.ase) file. InDesign, as well as Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, can import swatches from a
Colorbook file.
1 In the Swatches panel, select the swatches you want to save.
2 Choose Save Swatches in the Swatches panel menu.
3 Specify a name and location for the file, and click Save.
Share swatches between applications
You can share the solid swatches you create in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign by saving a swatch library for
exchange. The colors appear exactly the same across applications as long as your color settings are synchronized.
1 In the Swatches panel, create the process and spot color swatches you want to share, and remove any swatches you
don’t want to share.
Note: You cannot share the following types of swatches between applications: patterns, gradients, mixed inks and tints,
and the Registration swatch from Illustrator or InDesign; and book color references, HSB, XYZ, duotone, monitorRGB,
opacity, total ink, and webRGB swatches from Photoshop. These types of swatches are automatically excluded when you
save swatches.
2 Select Save Swatches from the Swatches panel menu, and save the swatch libraries in an easily accessible location.
3 Load the swatch library into the Swatches panel for Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign.
Import swatches
You can import colors and gradients from other documents, adding either all or some of the swatches to the Swatches
panel. You can load swatches from InDesign files (.indd), InDesign templates (.indt), Illustrator files (.ai or .eps), and
Adobe Swatch Exchange files (.ase) created by InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop. Adobe Swatch Exchange files
contain swatches saved in the Adobe Swatch Exchange format.
InDesign also includes color libraries from other color systems, such as the PANTONE Process Color System®.
Note: Spot colors used by imported EPS, PDF, TIFF, and Adobe Photoshop (PSD) files are also added to the Swatches
panel.