Palettes

Store your favorite colors as Swatches. Create and import harmonious Palettes so the color scheme you need is always ready. Save, share, and organize palettes for later use in your Palette Library.

Swatches

Representing individual saved colors, swatches are the colored squares in a palette. Tap any swatch to set it as your current color. You can find the current default palette at the bottom of every Color Panel tab.

Compact and Card Palettes

You can view Palettes in two different ways, Compact and Cards. Switch between these views by tapping either Compact or Cards at the top of the Swatches’ panel.

Compact

Compact is the default Palette view and features small swatch squares. This view allows you to view a larger amount of palettes and swatches on screen at once. In Compact view 10 swatches make up a palette row. Each swatch square is an exact visual representation of the swatch’s color.

The palette name is found on the left hand side above each Palette. Any palette you are actively using will feature a check mark in a blue circle next to the palette name. To make another palette Active, tap any swatch in that palette.

Cards

Cards is a more expanded palette view that features larger swatch squares. In Cards view, three swatches make up a palette row. Each square is an exact visual representation of the swatch’s color.

Each swatch in Cards also features an approximated name of the color such as Blue Green. You can change these names to be more unique and descriptive, such as Sea Green. Do this by tapping on the swatch name and renaming it.

NOTE: If you are running an iPadOS below iPadOS 14, swatch names will appear as the color’s exact hex value.

The palette name is found on the left hand side above each Palette. Any palette you are actively using will feature a check mark in a blue circle next to the palette name. To make another palette Active, tap any swatch in that palette.

NOTE: In Cards view you may need to scroll up or down to locate all your available palettes.

Create a Swatch

Tap an empty space in the default palette at the bottom of the Color Panel to save your current color as a new swatch.

You can replace existing swatches if there are no empty spaces in a palette. Press and hold a swatch, then tap Set.

You can also create your own palette from scratch to give yourself more space for swatches. See below for instructions on how to create a palette and set it as the default.

Finishing Up

Once happy with your chosen color, tap anywhere outside the Color Panel to close it.

Use a Swatch

To use a color from your palette, tap it to make it your currently selected color.

SwatchDrop

Drag a color from a Color Palette’s Swatch onto any area of your artwork. Release it to flood-fill that area with the swatch color.

Find out more on how SwatchDrop works in the Colors > Interface section.

Reorder Swatches

Rearranging your swatches can help you visualize how different colors will work together.

To move a swatch, tap and drag it to a new position. Lift your finger to drop it.

Set a Swatch as a Current Color

Set any swatch to be your current color.

To set a swatch to be your current color, press and hold that swatch, then tap Set current color.

Delete a Swatch

Clear space by getting rid of unused colors.

To delete a color from your palette, press and hold that swatch, then tap Delete. It will vanish, leaving an empty space.

Palette Library

A palette is a collection of swatches. The Procreate Palette Library lets you create, save, share, and import color schemes. The Palette Library does this in the form of palettes you can access from any artwork.

Create a Palette

To create your own Palette, open the Color Panel and tap the Palettes tab.

You will see a + icon in the top right corner. Tap it to create a new palette. Initially, this palette will be empty.

By default, your new palette will be called Untitled. Tap that word to rename it using the keypad.

Your new palette will be set as the default palette, which means it will now appear on every tab of the Color Panel.

Set a Palette as Default

The default palette appears on every tab of the Color Panel.

To select a new default palette in the Palettes tab, tap the three dots to the right of the palette name to reveal the Set as Default button and tap.

Share a Palette

There are two different ways for you to share your palettes.

In Procreate you can share with Drag-and-Drop, or share from within the Palettes tab. To find out more about sharing palettes, see the Import & Share Palettes section at the bottom of this page.

Duplicate a Palette

Duplicating a palette can be useful when experimenting with color.

To duplicate a palette in the Palettes tab, tap the three dots to the right of the palette name to reveal the Duplicate button and tap. The duplicate palette will appear at the bottom of the Palettes tab.

Reorder Palettes

Prioritize your favorite palettes.

Each palette has a title at the top left. To rearrange the order of your palettes, press and hold a title. Drag the palette to a new position in the list, then release.

Delete Palettes

Keep your Palettes tab clean and organized.

To delete a palette in the Palettes tab, tap the three dots to the right of the palette name to reveal the Delete button.

Tap Delete, and confirm that you want to delete the palette. Once deleted, a palette cannot be restored.

Palette Capture

Capture swatches from a file, photo or live from your iPad’s camera to create your own customized palettes.

Palette Capture from Camera

Use your iPad to capture the colors of anything you point your camera at.

Open the Color Panel and tap the Palettes tab to reveal your Palettes.

Tap on the + symbol in the top right hand corner of Palettes and select New from Camera. You will see whatever your camera is pointed at plus a palette of swatches located in the middle of your screen. To the right of the palette you will see three buttons - Cancel, Shutter and Visual / Indexed.

The Visual / Indexed button switches between two different modes. These modes affect how Procreate builds a palette of swatches from the visual information captured by the camera.

Visual mode

Visual mode builds a palette of swatches from what the camera captures directly in front of the palette area only. Depending on the color contrast of the subject matter you are capturing, this can lead to a subtle range of colors in your palette.

Indexed mode

Indexed mode builds a palette of swatches from visual information captured across the entire screen area. Indexed mode captures a broader range of contrasting colors to create a palette.

Switch between the two modes to see the difference in swatch colors Visual and Indexed produce. When happy with the variety of swatch colors in your palette, Tap the shutter button. This will capture and save the swatches to Palettes. Initially your custom made palette title will be ‘Color palette’. You can rename this by tapping the palette's title.

Palette Capture from File

Create a customized palette by capturing colors from images in the Files app.

Open the Color Panel and tap the Palettes tab to reveal your Palettes. Tap on the + symbol in the top right hand corner of Palettes and select New from File.

Upon tapping you will navigate to the Files app where you will be able to see any files you have saved. Tap any .JPG or .PNG file for Procreate to create a customized palette from the colors captured within that image. Initially your custom made palette's title will be ‘Palette from image’. You can rename this by tapping the palette's title.

Palette Capture from Photos

Create a customized palette by capturing colors from images in Photos app.

Open the Color Panel and tap the Palettes tab to reveal your Palettes. Tap on the + symbol in the top right hand corner of Palettes and select New from Photos.

Upon tapping you will navigate to the Photos app. Tap a photo and Procreate will create a customized palette from the colors captured within that photo. Initially your custom made palette's title will be ‘Palette from image’. You can rename this by tapping the palette's title.

Import & Share Palettes

Use Adobe® color palettes or palettes designed by other artists. Share your own with multiple import and export methods.

Import Palettes

You can import palettes created by other artists to use in your work.

Drag and Drop a .swatches file from any compatible location into the Palettes tab to import it.

Import Adobe® color palettes

Import Adobe® palettes, and custom palettes created in Adobe products by other artists to use in your work.

Procreate imports Adobe® Swatch Exchange (.ASE) and Adobe® Color files (.ACO). This allows you to use swatches created in both of these formats.

Open the Color Panel and tap the Palettes tab to reveal your Palettes. Tap on the + symbol in the top right hand corner of Palettes and select New from File.

Upon tapping you will navigate to the Files app where you will be able to see any files you have saved. Tap an .ASE or .ACO file and Procreate will import the palette from that file. The palette's title will be the name it was originally exported as. Or, if unnamed, it will be appear as ‘Untitled’ which you can rename by tapping the palette's title.

Share with Drag and Drop

Alternately, you can share using Drag and Drop.

Touch and hold a palette to pick it up, then drag it to any compatible location to export it as a .swatches file. You can bulk export palettes by picking one up, then tapping others to add them to the stack. Then drag your stack to your new desired location.

Share Palettes

Share your color schemes with the world.

In the Palettes tab, tap the three dots to the right of the palette name to reveal the Share button. Tap this to open the iOS sharing interface. Here you can share your palette to a variety of apps and cloud services.