Change the Color Swatch Order
There’s a huge difference between the [Black] and Registration colors in the Swatches palette, and yet to many people they look the same and they’re next to each other in the palette, so they choose them interchangably. Don’t! Registration mean “all colors” (so 100% Registration shows up as 100% each of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black).
If you don’t want to be tempted, move Registration someplace else in the list (preferably down to the bottom where you might not see it). That’s right: You can drag color swatches up and down to order them differently.
And if you drag a swatch while no documents are open (called the “no pub state”), it affects the order of the Swatches panel for all subsequent documents you create! Similarly, you can add swatches while no documents are open, and those swatches will appear in all new documents automatically.
Updated Jan. 5, 2023
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I was hoping this post would address a question that recently arose in our office: Can you automatically sort all colors in the Swatches palette?
Moving a few colors by hand is fine but a large palette can easily become a tangled mess, especially as you start to add colors in your quest for “the one.”
Have I overlooked a plug-in or script that automatically sorts colors (by value and/or by name)?
We like the “preview” function in the Color Options dialog box?it’s very helpful when adjusting a color swatch used in your layout. But it sure would be nice to have the Color Options and New Color Swatch dialog boxes display the “adjusted color” and the “original color” like in the Color Picker. (Currently they only display the adjusted color.)
Why don’t we like the Color Picker again? I’ve forgotten… Maybe Adobe should just merge the positive features of the Color Picker into the Color Options and New Color Swatch dialogs?
Sorry. Just read page 140 in InDesign CS/CS2 Breakthroughs… Strange that an automatic sort feature isn’t in the Swatches pallete?Illustrator has it. Hope the next version of InDesign has this feature. In the meantime, is there a possible solution?
If you “Save Swatches for Exchange” can you efficiently sort or edit the ASE file? (I was hoping the ASE format was similar to INX or XML so I could manipulate it in a text editor? No luck.)
I did manage to sort my swatch list with the help of Illustrator but it seems a bit convoluted:InDesign: Highlight swatches to sort.
InDesign: Choose Swatches Palette menu > Export Swatches to Exchange > Save ASE file.
AI: Choose Swatches Palette menu > Open Color Library > Other Libraries… > find/open ASE file.AI: Sort library by name (from palette menu)AI: Delete all default swatches from swatches palette. (AI exports ALL not just highlighted swatches in palette.)AI: Drag sorted color list from libary into the swatches palette. (Swatches palette is the only place I could find “Save Swatches for Exchange” option.)AI: Save Swatches for Exchange, saving over old ASE file.InDesign: Choose Swatches Palette menu > Load Swatches > find new ASE file.
While I’m at it, I can order lists in Master Pages and Color Swatches but why can’t you reorder your list of Paragraph, Character and Object Styles? (These style lists are only ordered automatically!) I’ve been using style naming convention (like “01 Hed, 02 Dek, …) but this just seems so… “not InDesign.”
I agree that it would be really nice to be able to set the order of the colors in the Swatches palette automatically. That’s an interesting tip using Illustrator!
I thought perhaps I’d be able to do this using INX, but instead I discovered something unpleasant: The swatch order is not preserved in INX! That is, if you move swatches around, export the file as INX, and reimport, the colors appear back in their original order. Frustrating. Let’s hope that CS3 helps this situation, especially for people with dozens or hundreds of colors in their Swatches palette!
Check out the free plug-in from Rogue Sheep, Style Flocker for help organizing your Paragraph, Character and Object styles. It won’t let you reorder them but it will let you divvy them up into logical folder groups in a single palette. There’s a great review — quite extensive — of the plug-in in the latest issue of InDesign Magazine (issue #13).
Thanks!
Obie’s work around is cool but unfortunately omits gradient and tint swatches
[…] But too many people apply Registration to text or objects when they mean to use [Black] because the two are right next to each other and look identical. Big problems. So here’s a trick (repeated here): While no documents are open, drag the Registration color to the bottom of the palette. (Did you know you can reorder swatches by dragging them around?) Now it’ll be down at the bottom for all future documents you create, and you’ll be less likely to click on it accidentally. […]
I just wish you could delete registration. I?ve never used it in my life and I hate having unused colours in the palette.
Ah, the old registration colour debate.
It’s still useful to some people. Somewhere, out there, are people who use registration for legitimate purposes, having a colour that prints on all plates can be an advantage. Take it away and you’ll have a plethora of people moaning to put it back in.
If you could delete it, then what colour will they use to make your crop/reg marks?
I know some people who use registration for the slug area, for time/date/modification dates etc. So being able to delete this swatch, could cause problems for people that simply send a packaged folder to print. Imagine a prepress guy/lady seing the registration colour that they loathe, and they instantly delete it, then all the hardwork to put in registration where it’s needed will have gone to waste.
I do think, however, that if someone is using Registration for text or objects that falls within the printed space, a warning should come up, possibly with flashing lights, to say that you should use black for your text, if you’re unsure what this means see this webpage (and it links you to a website explaining the difference).
The ability to delete such a swatch would cause mass confusion and panic, there’d be riots on the streets and everything.
I understand that there are very sound reasons for retaining and not deleting Registration from the swatch but I have a question…
We use InDesign in my office for creating brochures and presentation documents based on pre-created templates (not sure who created them but there are a lot and not a choice to get rid of them and start from scratch).
We have a long list of character styles and paragraph styles for various types of headings, body text, CV text, bullets and so on. Some of them have registration as the character color. Every time I see this I change the style to black, but when people drag across pages from other versions of brochures and what not, Registrations seems to creep back in and find its way into the document, which of course you dont realise until you go to print it and it looks like rubbish.
Since we dont use Registration for its intended purpose (we are not that sophisticated!) is there a way to run a one-off ‘find and replace’ sort of command that finds all the usages of Registration in all our documents and replaces it with black? I know this is probably a huge stretch but thought it was worth asking.
Sally.
Sorting would be great, but how about a “show first instance used” function for long documents?
@Sally and @Thom: Because both of these were glaring holes in InDesign, I included them in the Blatner Tools Suite of plug-ins. It has a find/change color feature and you can right-click (or ctrl-click with a one-button mouse) on a color swatch and choose “find next instance” to jump right to it.
Please pass along a huge thanks to “Obie” for the tip on how to get swatches in order by name for CS4ID. Saved my life. Brilliant!!!!!
Suzette
Is there still no way of automatically ordering a large swatch palette by name with InDesign?
Suzette, are you referring to Obie’s Illustrator workround from 2006 or a more up to date way of getting an A to Z of colours in a swatch? If so please post method.
Note that there is a free script that reorders swatches alphabetically here: https://ajarproductions.com/blog/2013/12/13/sort-swatches-in-adobe-indesign/
Where do I make black my default type colour? Right now it is registration. As you can imagine this causes many problems. Including not printing.
Wendy: Try clicking on Black when no objects are selected on the page. That should reset it. But if your paragraph or character styles are set to Registration, then you’ll have to change those by editing them.