Did my own swatches

[lizzy3195]

Maybe there's an even easier way, but after reading this thread (http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15624&highlight=swatches) and being so confused, I made my own swatches this way:

I used the color picker and then clicked on a blank spot on the palette to create a new color swatch. After picking all the colors I wanted and adding them to the palette, I went to the Preset Manager, which immediately brought up my default swatch palette. Then I used shift-click to select all the new colors and then hit "save set". I gave it a name and hit ok, done. After I closed PSE and restarted it, the new swatch shows up on the pull down menu on the palette.

Yea me! I figured something out on my own for a change!! :D

[Wendy]

Hi Lizzie ...

You can make swatches that way ... but its a lot easier if you do it this way:

Just open up any photo then do Image>Mode>Indexed Colour ... for the settings use:

Palette: Local Perceptual, Colours 256, Forced None, Transparency checked, Matte None, Dither None.
Then click OK

Now do Image>Mode>Colour Table and save the swatch ...

Which bit did you get stuck on ??

Wendy :)

[Vesta]

Wendy, I can't wait to do this thank you. I have seen pictures that I just love the colors that are in it.

Lizzy, thanks for sharing your successful attempt.

Vesta

[PattyD]

Hi Lizzie ...

You can make swatches that way ... but its a lot easier if you do it this way:

Just open up any photo then do Image>Mode>Indexed Colour ... for the settings use:

Palette: Local Perceptual, Colours 256, Forced None, Transparency checked, Matte None, Dither None.
Then click OK

Now do Image>Mode>Colour Table and save the swatch ...

Which bit did you get stuck on ??

Wendy :)

Wendy I'm having trouble when it comes time to load this color table. It ends up being part of my default colors instead of it's own seperate group of colors. I got it to load once the right way but I can't get it to do it again.

Thank you for any help you can give me!
Patty
Patty

[Wendy]

Hi Patti ..

Did you save it with its own name (at the Image>Mode>Colour Table) stage.

If so then you simple load them using the small triangle (more) and then get added onto the end of your existing set rather ... if you want them on their own in the palettr then choose replace instead of load :)

Wendy

[Chuck S.]

Wendy, a question: in the method you describe, it looks a little bit like you wind up in a mode where there are only 256 colors from which to choose, instead of the 'millions of colors' available in RGB color mode. Is that correct? Or does the 256 colors only apply to GIF? Thanks!

Chuck

[Wendy]

Hi Chuck ...

Yes it does mean that your colour swatch has a more limited colour set but that actually helps as it reduces the swatch to a more manageable level.

In fact I normally reduce the number of colours lower than 256 :)

Wendy

[Chuck S.]

Wendy, thanks. I can certainly see the advantages for a set of swatches that cover a broad spectrum (no pun intended)!. I might look for more precision than 256 if building a set of swatches for, say, skin color; however, that's just theoretical on my part. "Close enough" is probably the more operable concept!

Happy Easter to you!

Chuck

[Chuck S.]

More on creating swatches at Sue Chastain's website:

Swatches (http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselementslessons/ss/customswatch.htm)

[PattyD]

Ok now I've got it! Thank you Wendy and Chuck for your help.
The step by step tutorial really helped. I was not choosing Replace Swatches and I thought that I could load an .act file but now I need to see I have to save the indexed color set as a swatch set which is an .aco file.
Finally I got it to work...it must have been all the chocolate eggs today!
Thank you!
Patty

[Wendy]

Hi Patty ...

Glad that you are now able to do it ...

It a neat little trick and can be useful sometimes :)

Wendy