Global spot color

[segts 113]

Hi there! Quick question. I started making global Pantone colors for my doc. I marked only two of four colors as spot colors. When I select "edit global color" to switch them to spot colors, the option isn't in the little dialogue box that pops up. Is there somewhere else in the program that I can edit that option?

Thanks in advance for any help with this!

Stephen:)

[Gabe 1,389]

Hi @segts ,

You can only create new spot colours, but not convert from A global to a spot.  

 

1.On the Swatches panel, select a Document palette from the palette pop-up menu. If no Document palette exists you can create one from the panel's Panel Preferences menu.

2.From Panel Preferences, select Add Global Colour.

3.Adjust the settings in the dialog.

4.Select the Spot option.

5.Click Add.

Thanks,

Gabe. 

[segts 113]

Thanks for the speedy response, Gabe. So I created two global Pantone colors. It's kinda weird that you can't go in and edit the color making it spot of you need to change it. That seems like a pretty basic function. Also, by default, the Pantone swatches are arranged by type of color instead of Pantone #. It takes forever to hunt and pick for the color. Personally, I prefer the color name listed. Even a search function for Pantone would help.

Another issue is that if delete a global color, a warning dialogue box appears telling you that some of the colors in you file may be effected. It would be nice to have a message with a replace color option appear. Something like what Adobe InDesign has. Since you don't have a "select same color" option in your software, this would be helpful until you get that.

I love what you guys do! Keep up the great work!

Stephen:)

[R C-R 4,444]

1 hour ago, segts said:

Even a search function for Pantone would help.

There is a search field at the bottom of the Swatches panel.

[segts 113]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

There is a search field at the bottom of the Swatches panel.

Hi there. Unless I'm overlooking it, I don't see it? I'm assuming user error on this one:)

[toltec 1,240]

48 minutes ago, segts said:

Hi there. Unless I'm overlooking it, I don't see it? I'm assuming user error on this one:)

I think R-CR means this.

If you do a search and click on the swatch that appears

It adds it here

[cleay 16]

Seems crazy not to have the search box everywhere a pantone selector panel is – it's next to useless without it.

[badcat 4]

On 6/18/2018 at 12:19 PM, segts said:

It's kinda weird that you can't go in and edit the color making it spot of you need to change it.

Agreed. This still seems to be the case. And... there's also still no way to search Swatches when making Global colours.   

Would be much easier if we could just right click on the colour and choose "Spot" like we do with "Overprint".

Worse.. when any edits are made to existing Spot Global colours, the colour loses the Spot attribute. 

EDIT:  FWIW, editing a Spot Global colour in Publisher KEEPS the color as spot.  (Go figure.)  Please fix this in Designer.

 

[segts 113]

On 6/21/2019 at 6:20 PM, badcat said:

Agreed. This still seems to be the case. And... there's also still no way to search Swatches when making Global colours.   

Would be much easier if we could just right click on the colour and choose "Spot" like we do with "Overprint".

Worse.. when any edits are made to existing Spot Global colours, the colour loses the Spot attribute. 

EDIT:  FWIW, editing a Spot Global colour in Publisher KEEPS the color as spot.  (Go figure.)  Please fix this in Designer.

 

@badcat Thanks for confirming that this is essential for designers. The program is so great and has so many fantastic tools, but the color management really needs some love. Let's hope this happens. I know that it's less sexy for developers, but it is imperative for professional artists! 

[prophet 91]

Giving these issues and suggestions a bump as the color management is driving me a bit nuts.

Needs immediate fix…
- Ability to make an existing global color a spot
- Add alert when deleting a spot swatch that has been applied to any object AND include option to replace with another swatch
- Ability to name a swatch with color mix values AND name updates if values are changed

Would make sense to fix…
- Hover tool tip over any swatch anywhere gives all pertinent information: name, color mix, global status, spot status,
- With a color selected, click the "Add Global Color" flyout menu on the swatches palette and have the selected color populate the dialog rather than defaulting to some 4-color black.
- As suggested, have a search field everywhere a color swatch library is presented.
- Ability to remove individual or all recent swatches. Don't want to accidentally click on a old/revised swatch
- Combine "Rename Global Color" , "Rename Spot Color" and "Edit Fill". Why do these need to be in 3 separate places?

And perhaps a more philosophical point, or just difference in workflows…
- There are 2 small buttons to the right of the choose palette pull down menu. One the add swatch to palette, one to add global swatch to palette. Why would I need to add a color to a pallet and have it NOT be Global? The only reason I ever create a swatch is to be able to use and edit it globally. Maybe I'm just not thinking of a case where this would be useful.

[prophet 91]

On 6/30/2020 at 11:36 AM, prophet said:

And perhaps a more philosophical point, or just difference in workflows…

- There are 2 small buttons to the right of the choose palette pull down menu. One the add swatch to palette, one to add global swatch to palette. Why would I need to add a color to a pallet and have it NOT be Global? The only reason I ever create a swatch is to be able to use and edit it globally. Maybe I'm just not thinking of a case where this would be useful.

Maybe it's bad form to bump my own comment. I'm not asking Affinity to justify their UI choice, but I am genuinely curious if anyone else has need for a swatch to be added to a palette and yet not be a "global" swatch. To me, the whole concept of swatches is global. I edit a swatch and every object that uses that swatch is updated accordingly.

[thomaso 960]

@prophet, color UI and color handling in Affinity caused many discussions already. I am not sure but in case it will matter from Serif's point of view you might post your thoughts as a  request in the Feedback & Requests Forum, either in a new or in an existing thread.

I assume it makes a difference if an app is used mainly for illustrations (AD) or whether another app (APub) is meant to offer efficiency tools for print media production, in particular with the need to respect and maintain specific color values, e.g. as client's corporate colors. – Here's just one example of a Pre 1.8 beta Publisher discussion which may show that user concerns came up a while ago.

Though there is a large number of comments about Affinity color handling I can't remember to have seen a comment about the general color/swatch UI concept by a Serif moderator or developer, this makes it hard to judge whether those requests will ever become used or useful.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&q=swatches panel&type=forums_topic&nodes=65,6,56&search_and_or=and&sortby=relevancy

[Old Bruce 1,582]

18 hours ago, prophet said:

but I am genuinely curious if anyone else has need for a swatch to be added to a palette and yet not be a "global" swatch.

I do it just because I want a couple of tones in that particular document palette.

[thomaso 960]

@Old Bruce, sounds you simply don't care/don't need the global property for this. – But you do not have a need for the swatch to be explicitly not-global, right?

[Old Bruce 1,582]

2 minutes ago, thomaso said:

@Old Bruce, sounds you simply don't care/don't need the global property for this. – But you do not have a need for the swatch to be explicitly not-global, right?

It is simply that some times I want one or more colours and don't need them to be Global. If they are in the Swatches panel I can choose them there and then not have to change to the Colours panel when I want to use a different (non global) colour.

I need Global colours.

I don't need non Global colours in the swatches panel.

I would prefer to have both available.

[prophet 91]

21 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I would prefer to have both available.

But what benefit do explicitly non-global swatches have?

[Old Bruce 1,582]

33 minutes ago, prophet said:

But what benefit do explicitly non-global swatches have?

Purely convenience, for the way I work.

Global swatches have many benefits, non global swatches are convenient and that is about it for them. If you take away my non global swatches I can continue to work but it is slightly less pleasant. If you take away global swatches it is disastrous.