Color Swatches

[mayva]

I was wondering where I could get more color swatches?
I remember that a while ago I downloaded a whole bunch of swatches from some site and had them installed on PSE4. Unfortunately when I uninstalled 4 I forgot about them and now I don't know where to find them. Does anybody remember where they were?

Anna

P.S. Another quick question I have:
The photos that are used on Grant's Challenges what are the legal rights to using them in other projects. I don't mean for commercial use or anything just using them in layouts and posting them in forums.

[Wendy]

Hi Anna ...

Here are some:

http://www.visibone.com/swatches/

but you can make your own ...

Just open up any photo then do Image>Mode>Indexed Colour
Local Perceptual, Colours 256, Forced None, Transparencey checked, Matte None, Dither None.
Then click OK

Now do Image>Mode>Colour Table

... and then give them a name and save your new swatches :)

Wendy

[mayva]

Thanks Wendy!

I forgot about making my own as well.
Instructions have been copied and stored away.........:D

Anna

[GaryK]

Wendy

Thanks for that tip.

Being the non creative type I don't know when I will use it but good to know nontheless.:D

[Wendy]

Hi Gary ..

I have used it a couple of times ... I wanted hair and skin colours for colouring photographs so I selected heads from lots of images and then made a swatch of them :)

Wendy

[Ritage]

Wendy,

I tried this in both PSE2 and CS2 and it made new Color Tables, but when I save it the file is called CLUT instead of Swatch. The file extension is .act instead of .aco. CS2 will not load it. I dropped it manually into PSE2, but it does not show up in the Swatches Palette.

Also, where you say "give it a name", it will not let me do that. I can only name it when I save it to My Documents or My Pictures.

Does this give you any idea of what I'm doing wrong?

I would love to do this. I actually have a small file with images saved only for the purpose of sampling their colors, which I like particularly and cannot quite get from the swatches I have.

Rita

[Wendy]

Hi Rita ...

I think I know what you are doing wrong ... When you do Image>Mode>Colour Table you have to hit Save and not OK.

You then get the box to save the new swatch :)

Wendy

[Ritage]

Hi Wendy,

wow that was quick:)

That's what I have been doing. Just tried it once more now (the fifth time).

When I click "Save" in the Color Table Dialog it opens My Pictures instead of the "Name" Box that opens when I save an individual color by inserting it in the Swatches Palette. And the Clut icon with extension .act is already there.

As far as I know, there is no way to force a particular dialog to open. Am I wrong?

Rita

[Wendy]

Hi Rita ...

When I do save I then get a box comes up which shows Untitled.act ... if I click on the triangle next to that then I can give the file a new name and negotiate my way to saving it in the swatches folder as a new swatch set.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/18M7ua5jOWe8T8HEMdgm8h19tlAMAW_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=18M7ua5jOWe8T8HEMdgm8h19tlAMAW)

Wendy :)

[Ritage]

Wendy,

your screen shot reminded me that you're on a Mac. That must be it. One of those Mac things! I saw no such dialog box.
I'm going to do some research on this. Maybe there's something on the Adobe Windows Forum.

Thanks for taking the time to help. It would never have occurred to me that this can be done at all.

Rita

[Wendy]

Hi Rita ...

This should work on Windows too ... it really isn't just a Mac thing.

I have just tried it out on Windows using PSE5 and the save box looks different (as its a Window screen) but it saves the swatch in just the same way ... here is a screen shot of it.

You just need to give it a name and then save it into your swatches folder.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1xctf6ouASE2BEPHijevaKD1MJSEx_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1xctf6ouASE2BEPHijevaKD1MJSEx)

Wendy

[Ritage]

Hi Wendy,

you must be burning the midnight oil. You are so good!

That is the dialog I used to save.
I tried it two ways.
1. Save to My Documents and then copy-paste to the Presets-Swatch folder, plus for CS2 load from inside the application.
2. Navigate from My Docs, after naming, directly to the Swatch folder and save it there.

I have now tried the same with PSE5.

The files sit correctly in the folder tree, together with my other swatch folders, including ones I have downloaded from the internet, but they do not show up in the pallettes in any of the 3 programs.
That is also true for the one I loaded from inside CS2.

Never got any Error Message, saying its the wrong type of file, or anything like that. PSE2 has shown that in cases where I tried to load brushes it could not use.

Well, I'm giving it up for today, and I hope you are safely asleep by now.

Thank you so much.
Rita

[Wendy]

Hi Rita ...

I'm still here ... although it is getting late :)

Did you try using the little triangle at the top right hand corner of the swatches palette to load them. Mine load just fine in PSE3 and in CS2 (Mac) ... I haven't had a chance to check on Windows ..

Wendy

[Ritage]

Hi again, Wendy,

Yes I did. That was the first thing I tried and I also changed the extension in the download box from .aco to .act, which was necessary for the programs to see them. Alas -- no results.

Rita

[Wendy]

Hi Rita ...

It should work with them as .act files.

I'm confused on this one ... and hoping that someone with Windows will try it out and see if it works for them.

Wendy

[Robyn]

Rita......

I think I know what your problem is. When you click on load swatches, by default the type of file that shows up is .aco files. On the load window down the bottom you will see a 'Files of Type' option, click on the arrow here and select .act and the new swatch will be visible for you to load.

EDIT.....

This may help

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/173RWzYoE4QYvGjp0dqEOJmKWmjdv_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=173RWzYoE4QYvGjp0dqEOJmKWmjdv)

[Wendy]

Thanks Robyn ... :)

What you can do, once you have loaded them, is use the preset manager to resave the swatch ... that will resave it as an .aco

Wendy :)

[Robyn]

Wendy...........

just done that......no problems. Thanks for the info in this thread, I wasn't previously aware of how to make my own swatches and save them.......so A BIG THANK YOU.

[Wendy]

Robyn ...

You are most welcome ... :)

Wendy

[graficalicus]

if you've got time to kill, try the colormatch
(http://www.graficalicus.com/index.php?module=PostWrap&page=colormatch)

it creates color scemes for you based on your input color, and will save them as .ACT files. You can also save your scheme right there online with your name and bookmark it for later.

I use it for illustrations (where a limited color palette is wanted), website/webpage schemes, and I have even used it for paint scemes for our house (!) - - it's pretty addicting once you get started, though - beware!

[Ritage]

Wendy and Robyn,

Between the two of you, you finally got me there. I knew I should change the .act to .aco, but I was trying it in the wrong place. I must have been more dense than usual yesterday.

Thank you so much.

Rita

[Robyn]

if you've got time to kill, try the colormatch (http://www.graficalicus.com/index.php?module=PostWrap&page=colormatch)
(http://www.graficalicus.com/index.php?module=PostWrap&page=colormatch)

it creates color scemes for you based on your input color, and will save them as .ACT files. You can also save your scheme right there online with your name and bookmark it for later.

I use it for illustrations (where a limited color palette is wanted), website/webpage schemes, and I have even used it for paint scemes for our house (!) - - it's pretty addicting once you get started, though - beware!

Graffi..................WHAT FUN!! Thanks so much.