Add colors to palette

[Songbird12]

Hi, I am a pattern designer and need to add fabric swatches like color blocks to color my squares/patterns. Is there a way to do this? Thank you!

[jmwellborn]

2 hours ago, Songbird12 said:

Hi, I am a pattern designer and need to add fabric swatches like color blocks to color my squares/patterns. Is there a way to do this? Thank you!

Welcome to the Forums!  If your fabric swatches are each a solid color then you can add them to a palette, by first taking a picture of each, transfering it to your computer, then clicking on the Swatches Panel hamburger menu, and choosing Create Palette From Image.  This will permit you to place your image, choose the number of colors, and then click Create.  If you want that swatch/palette to be available for every document you create, choose Application in the next panel that shows the colors (5 are the minimum).  

If your fabric swatches contain prints/stripes/etc. you will be far better off to create your swatches as Styles.  In this case, take your picture, then place it in a Photo/Designer/Publisher new document, Export it as a PNG file>Selection Only, then delete the image from your document.  Now drag a rectangle shape onto your canvas (no need to color it) then select your Gradient tool and on the Context Toolbar in the Type box, choose Bitmap.  Locate your saved PNG file, select that; your swatch image will fill the rectangle.  With that layer highlighted, go to the Styles Panel (if you don't have that on your desktop, go up to WINDOW on your Menu bar and be sure that Styles has a checkmark beside it).  Click on the Styles Panel little hamburger icon, and choose Add New Category.  Give it a name, then with that blank category now showing in your Styles panel, and the layer still highlighted, choose Add Style From Selection.  You will now find a little colored icon in that category.

 I have attached a video to show how this is done.  Please wait to see the new style icon appear.  The video appears to stop, but the little coloured "beachball" was actually going and it took a bit of time for the new style to appear.   Probably because I didn't bother to create a new category and just let the style go into the v.1.6 default category.

Your fabric swatch can now be used on any shape, or text. Just select the text or shape with the Move Tool and click on the little Styles icon in your category and it will automatically fill your selection.

I hope this helps!

 

 

 

 

[Songbird12]

Thank you! I want to add a folder of 20 different color swatches for a collection of fabric. Is that possible instead of just one swatch? That's a lot to go through for 20 fabrics! In AI I am able to upload folders, I think. But I like Affinity SO much better than AI!

[jmwellborn]

On 11/20/2022 at 10:03 AM, Songbird12 said:

Thank you! I want to add a folder of 20 different color swatches for a collection of fabric. Is that possible instead of just one swatch? That's a lot to go through for 20 fabrics! In AI I am able to upload folders, I think. But I like Affinity SO much better than AI!

Not from a Folder.  But from a group of individual images in a folder.  And if your color swatches are solid color.  First make a document that includes all 20 swatches, being sure that there is no white space between the different colors.  You need to do this so that Designer (or Photo or Publisher) doesn't interpret the white spaces as more colors.  Group all of the layers.  Export this as a PNG, so there is a transparent background.

Then repeat the steps I showed you in the attached video.  Be sure to move the slider to the exact number of swatches (i.e. 20).

Please note that the RGB values of each of the 20 swatches may be very slightly different than those in the placed image.  This will take a little work, but it is easy to do.  Open your image from which you made the palette, then for each color, drag out a Shape, fill it with that color, then use your color picker on the Swatches panel to test the color of the Shape and the color from the image.  Example below.  You can then right click on the color in the Swatches Panel, choose Edit Fill, and correct the colors (I have corrected them in the image below).  This is a bit fiddly, but it works.

               

 

 

 

[Songbird12]

They are not solids. There are solid fabrics but not what I will be using. Attached are some examples. These are in a folder on my desktop.

[PaulEC]

Is this what you want? If so, it's easy to do in APublisher, by making lots picture frames and dragging and dropping the swatches into them. Then just export the a selection of all the "boxes". (Not much help if you don't have Publisher, I'm afraid!)

[jmwellborn]

@PaulEC  How did you turn that into individual swatches with the various fabric patterns visible?  In Publisher it was easy to place all of the images in the picture frames, but turning the entire thing into a palette of figures vs. solid colors is beyond my pay grade! 😕

[Songbird12]

I do have Publisher. I just want to be able to use each swatch to color other boxes, triangles, etc. (like a palette. I guess I'll give it a try to see if I can use it to color my quilts! Thanks to both of you for your assistance.

[PaulEC]

2 hours ago, jmwellborn said:

@PaulEC  How did you turn that into individual swatches with the various fabric patterns visible?  In Publisher it was easy to place all of the images in the picture frames, but turning the entire thing into a palette of figures vs. solid colors is beyond my pay grade! 😕

Sorry, I think I’ve got this wrong. I was thinking that what was needed was an easy way to display the swatches so that clients can see/choose the available patterns for fabrics. My wife does surface pattern design and uses these sorts of grids for that purpose. However, it sounds as though what is actually needed is an easy way to select and use multiple swatches within another design. If that is the case, as you said the best way is to use styles and I don’t think there’s a quick/automated way to convert a folder of swatches to a “palette” of styles. Apologies for wasting peoples time, but I really got the wrong end of the stick!

[jmwellborn]

@PaulEC  We are “great minds on the same path.”  @Songbird12 will have to create these swatches as Styles, if the purpose, as stated, is “to color other boxes, triangles, etc.”  with the patterned images posted here.  And no, there is no way to create multiple swatches (or Styles) at one go by clicking on a folder containing a bunch of images.  I tried it.  Not possible.

Hopefully, once Songbird12 makes a few Styles, the procedure won’t seem so onerous.  

[jmwellborn]

@Songbird12  I have made you a Styles folder from the images that you posted, using the procedure I described in my first post and the video.  If you like it, you can import the category into Designer, or Publisher, or Photo, or all three.  Just download the attached Songbird12 fabrics.afstyles file, then go to your Styles Panel, click on the hamburger menu, and click on Import Styles.  Navigate to your Downloads folder, check OPEN, and the new category will appear in the Styles Panel.  Give it a few minutes, in case you get the coloured beach ball, because your files are quite large.  If you are using the V2 apps, you can link the category so that it will appear in all three apps.

It took a little while to import the JPGs and export them to PNGs, but it really wasn't that onerous!  Hope this will help.

Songbird12 fabrics.afstyles

 

[Songbird12]

Thank you so much!!