Change a swatch color to global color

[DesignT]

Hello,

I suppose this feature is available, but don´t see how to get it.

How can we set an existing swatch color to be global color and use as spot color?

I already know how to add a global color, but what about changing an existing color?

Thanks

 

[firstdefence]

You can right click on the colour in your swatch and select Make Global, this does not make it a spot colour, it just makes it a global colour that can be used to change colours in artwork en masse.

I think there should be a way to "Make Global: Spot" and "Make Global: Overprint" from a context menu specific to global colours.

Added a request feature: 

To add a global spot colour...

 

For completeness

 

 

 

[DesignT]

Hi firstdefence,

 

I try it,  but I did not get those options on my right click over an existing color.

I have several colors that I want to make them global and spot, how can I do it ?

MacOS X 10.13.6

Affinity Designer 1.6.1

Affinity Photo 1.6.7

Thanks

[firstdefence]

Export that palette and save it to the desktop or somewhere you can find it and then import it as a Document Palette, this will give the option to have global colours and consequently spot and overprint colours

That should work.

I know this sounds a bit odd but it was the only way I could get the "make global" to appear

[DesignT]

Hi,

Again, I do not want to add a global color I want to change an existing color to global color.

Adding global color is available in swatch menu.

This is a basic feature how to change an existing color in a global color and spot color.

Shouldn´t be so difficult...

I stuck here, I need to export as PDF to send to my client and I want to use spot colors.

Any help please ?

Thanks

[firstdefence]

I agree it shouldn't be so clumsy. Why you can't just right click on any colour swatch and make global, spot or overprint is beyond me  

 

[firstdefence]

So to clarify, you can do one of three things... 

• Create a Document palette and add colours to it.
• Import an .afpalette as a Document palette.
• Export an existing palette that is not a Document palette and import it back in as a Document palette. 

Either way it has to be a document palette.

Once you have the document palette in place you can go about changing the colours within that palette to global colours.

[Wosven]

They are global to the document only, and spot colour adds a new plate depending of the colour mode. Perhaps that's why you need first a document's palette.

Each of those colours will show on the different plates, and spot color will create/add a new plate that'll store where it's used.

 

If for example all Pantone colours where spots colours, creating a document would means a plate for each one… huge documents.
In some others apps you can't use some filters on non-RVB files. I don't remember this with Affinity apps, perhaps it due to the way colours are managed from the start?

 

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, DesignT said:

Again, I do not want to add a global color I want to change an existing color to global color.

Like @Wosven said & for the reason given, global colors can only be 'global' for the current document. So if you open the Swatches menu shown in your screenshot & select the "Add Global color..." item & you have not yet created a document palette, one will automatically be created for you with the default name "Document" & the Swatches panel will switch to it. When the Swatches panel is set to display a document color palette, the second artist's paint palette icon appears next to the palette name so you can add more global colors to it.

Document palettes are saved with the document because they are global only for that document.

[DesignT]

Hi ,

I already have a system palette that was created for this client in another document, even that I can not get the option to change existing color (inside the palette) to global.

This is terrible, if global color does not stay in a swatch color palette, then every time we use a palette with clients colors we need to change them all to global. That´s not possible to be that way.

So as I understand, I cannot use a general swatch panel for the client and define global/spot colors on it, I need to recreate a new document color palette for each clients' document.

This is so basic that I can not believe that this is working this way...

I am using system palettes for my clients colors.

Is there any was to set an existing palette (system) to be the document palette?  For example a palette is used as a document palette by more than one document.

Wouldn't be simpler to add global and spot color in the palette and be ready to use in any documents ?

Thanks

[firstdefence]

27 minutes ago, DesignT said:

Hi ,

I already have a system palette that was created for this client in another document, even that I can not get the option to change existing color (inside the palette) to global.

This is terrible, if global color does not stay in a swatch color palette, then every time we use a palette with clients colors we need to change them all to global. That´s not possible to be that way.

So as I understand, I cannot use a general swatch panel for the client and define global/spot colors on it, I need to recreate a new document color palette for each clients' document.

This is so basic that I can not believe that this is working this way...

I am using system palettes for my clients colors.

Is there any was to set an existing palette (system) to be the document palette?  For example a palette is used as a document palette by more than one document.

Wouldn't be simpler to add global and spot color in the palette and be ready to use in any documents ?

Thanks

As far as I am aware it has to be a document palette to enable global colours. I have tried several ways for you using Application Palettes and System Palettes but the only ones that work so that you can right click on a swatch colour and see the Make global option is a Document Palette. I agree this seems very convoluted for what should be a fairly simple task.

At the moment all I can suggest is exporting that system palette from within Affinity Designer to get a .afpalette file and then importing it as a Document Palette.

https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/Clr/globalClr.html

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, DesignT said:

I already have a system palette that was created for this client in another document, even that I can not get the option to change existing color (inside the palette) to global.

System palettes are unique to the Mac OS. They are stored & managed by the OS independently of any application & usable by any app that can use the Mac OS color picker. There are several system color palettes built into the OS, like the so-called "Web Safe" & the "Crayons" ones, but you can add custom ones, either from apps like Affinity that support that directly or through the Color Picker window.

The system palettes built into the OS cannot be deleted nor can you add colors to them, neither from an Affinity or any other app nor from the Color Picker window. But because custom system color palettes can (among other things) be deleted from the Color Picker window, they are not a good choice for things like this, even if they could somehow be made global to all Affinity documents, which they can't.

Application palettes are managed by the Affinity app itself & not available to other apps. This makes them a good choice when you want to use colors from the same palette in different Affinity documents, but they are not applied as global colors, because unfortunately in Affinity only document palettes support global colors.

So, while you do not need to export a system or application palette & import it back into the document to set a global document color, you do need to create a document palette for that. As mentioned above, you can let the app do this automatically for you via the "Add Global color..." item, but there is no way to make all the colors global at once, or to make them global to more than one document at a time.

That is I think part of why @firstdefence started the feature request topic for some better way to handle this.

[DesignT]

Hello @R C-R

Quote

Application palettes are managed by the Affinity app itself & not available to other apps. This makes them a good choice when you want to use from the same palette in different Affinity documents, but they are not applied as global , because unfortunately in Affinity only document palettes support global .

So from your answers, a document palette is just used in a specific document.

Imagine this workflow, I think this a very used workflow.

Each client has many documents, and a colour swatch palette with the company spot colours.

The existing documents are for example logotype, stationery, flyer, outdoors and so on.

The colours are already set in the objects.

In this workflow I need to have an exported palette with all company colours and import that palette to each document.

Now my problems are:

 

1- I am assuming that just importing the palette and make colours global does not work because, I think the object is still using old colours so I need to reset all objects to use the new global colour.

2- Even if a reset the object colour to use the new global colour I can not make the existing palette colours as spot.

3- What will be the easiest way to keep the company colours if possible with spot colours and use them in all documents ?

 

It seems that the only available option to get a spot colour is to create a new colour, with the SMYK picker, as global and spot and reset all objects colour to use this colour.

Changing an existing colour to spot will be an easy work if that feature existed, so do it in all client documents seems to be a lot of work.

So if the work already exists, and the colours are set, what will be the suggested solution to change the colours to global+spot in all the documents?

 

Hi @firstdefence thanks for the guide link but I already see the video guide.

Thanks you all

[DesignT]

Hello,

Unfortunately, spot colours only work on a document palette.

I think they will be much more versatile if we can use them in application palette or even system palette.

 

 

 

[gdenby]

Why not just make a blank document for each client, w. the clients required and preferred colors and swatches? Then, for each assignment, open the blank document, and resize it as needed for the current project.