Issues working with colour swatches

[MichaelG]

Affinity Publisher for Windows V1.7.2.471.
Windows 10 Version 1903 Build 18362.295.

Having installed the latest Publisher build, I have started working on a "real" project. One of my first steps when starting a new project, after setting the document size etc, is to create the swatches I will need. These will generally consist of some PANTONE spot colours, some process colours, and maybe some tints. So far I have some across the following issues...

Adding Global Colours: When creating Global Colours...

1. Having opened the "Add Global Colour" dialog, selected a PANTONE colour and clicked "Add", it would be very useful if the "Global Colour" dialog remained open so several colours could be added without having open the dialog again. At the moment the dialog disappears when "Add" is clicked.
2. When adding PANTONE spot colours, it would be great of the name of the colour was taken directly from the PANTONE colour name by default. This will save much typing, and the colour naming in the Swatches panel will be clear and unambiguous.
3. It would also save time if, once the PANTONE library was open in the Add Global Colour dialog, that I could select more than one colour by holding down the control key. They could then be added  all together. Taking care of the previous point and automatically using the PANTONE name would facilitate this.
4. Having selected some PANTONE colours to start with, I may want to add some more during the project. It would therefore be great if, when I return to the "Add Global Colour" dialog, it kept the settings from last time instead of always reverting to the HSL Colour Wheel each time it is opened.
5. When choosing from any of the PANTONE swatches, with the exception of the CMYK libraries, surely the "Spot" attribute should be applied by default? For anything from the "PANTONE Solid Coated-V2" swatch library is by definition a Spot colour.

Working with Tints: I usually create a few tints, usually of black, and add these to my set of swatches. I'm still finding my way around Publisher, so my methodology may not be correct. However in ID, I would select the BLACK swatch, and then choose New Tint Swatch from the fly out menu. With Publisher I have tried the following approach:

1. Add Global Colour and choose "C:0 M:0 Y:0 K:90" using the CMYK sliders.
2. In the swatches panel, I then "Rename Global Colour..." and then change the name to "Black 90%" (I find this much easier to read in the Swatches panel than the colour recipe).
3. Right-click my new swatch and choose "Make Copy". Problem: The duplicate swatch has the same name as the original. Perhaps there should be a "(Copy n)" suffix?
4. I now have two swatches called "Black 90%". I click select the lower of the two, and then right-click and choose "Rename Global Colour...", and then type in my new name of "Black 80%". Problem: It is not my selected swatch that gets renamed, but the one above it. Surely a bug?
5. So I drag the renamed swatch below the copy, and the finally I can use "Edit Fill..." to change the tint to "Black 80%"

I'm guessing that these issues apply to Designer and Photo too. I think that streamlining these swatch management issues will accelerate something that people may do several times every day.

Thanks,
Mike.

 

[lacerto]

Working with color is more or less awkward in current state of Affinity apps. As for adding colors as swatches, my preferred method is to create a dummy objects (e.g. rectangles) and then assign them one by one color values (either from the libraries, or by using sliders and desired color mode) and when done, activate the document palette, and select the colored dummy objects one by one, and clicking the "Add fill to palette" plus button to get the actual color value or library color name added as a swatch, and then right click the swatch and convert it to a global swatch.

As for tints, ones added as swatches lose their parentship to the base color, so if you change the base color, the tints do not change accordingly, so if you need that feature you just need to assign the base color and specify tint values as ad hoc percentages.

Also, as swatch names cannot be updated (automatically nor by command) based on edited color definitions, you need to do that manually.

[Gabe]

Hi both,

Sorry for the delayed reply. 

I've logged the "TINT" behaviour as it is a bug. It looks like the copy you create is still link to its "parent". 

I've moved your post to feature requests as the first part of it are not actual bugs but suggestions. 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

[MEB]

The "Tint" behaviour issue (Make Copy) should now be fixed in all 1.8 betas on both macOS and Windows.