Working with swatches, Swatches panel overview – Adobe InDesign CS3 User Manual
Page 426
INDESIGN CS3
User Guide
419
3
Click any object that has the fill and stroke attributes you want to sample. A loaded eyedropper appears
, and
the selected objects are automatically updated with the fill and stroke attributes of the object you clicked.
4
To change other objects to the same attributes, click the objects with the loaded eyedropper. If an object is stroked
and not filled, be sure to click the object’s outline.
Pick up new attributes when the Eyedropper tool is loaded
1
Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) while the Eyedropper tool
is loaded. The Eyedropper tool reverses
direction, and appears empty
, to indicate that it’s ready to pick up new attributes.
2
Without releasing the Alt or Option key, click an object containing the attributes that you want to copy, and then
release the Alt or Option key so that you can drop the new attributes on another object.
Change Eyedropper tool settings
1
In the Toolbox, double-click the Eyedropper tool
.
2
Choose Fill And Stroke Settings from the menu at the top of the Eyedropper Options dialog box.
3
Select the fill and stroke attributes you want to copy with the Eyedropper tool, and then click OK.
To pick up only the fill or stroke color of an object and no other attributes, Shift-click the object with the Eyedropper
tool. When you apply the color to another object, only the fill or stroke color is applied, depending on whether the
stroke or fill is on top in the toolbar.
Working with swatches
Swatches panel overview
The Swatches panel (Window > Swatches) lets you create and name colors, gradients, or tints, and quickly apply
them to your document. Swatches are similar to paragraph and character styles; any change you make to a swatch
affects all objects to which the swatch is applied. Swatches make it easier to modify color schemes without having to
locate and adjust each individual object.
When the fill or stroke of selected text or an object contains a color or gradient applied from the Swatches panel, the
applied swatch is highlighted in the Swatches panel. Swatches you create are associated only with the current
document. Each document can have a different set of swatches stored in its Swatches panel.
When working with a prepress service provider, swatches let you clearly identify spot colors.
Six CMYK-defined colors appear in the default Swatches panel: cyan, magenta, yellow, red, green, and blue.
Note: When you print a book whose chapters contain conflicting swatches, you can instruct InDesign to synchronize
settings with the master document. (See “Synchronize book documents” on page 275.)
See also