How to Use Swatches in Affinity Designer

What Are Color Swatches?

Color swatches are predefined color samples stored within a design software program like Affinity Designer. They act like a handy color library that helps you maintain consistency and efficiency in your designs.

Differences Between Palettes in the Swatches Panel

Affinity Designer’s Swatches panel offers three options for adding color palettes: Add Application Palette, Add Document Palette, and Add System Palette. Each serves a distinct purpose in managing your color collections:

Add Application Palette

This option lets you import a color palette that will be accessible across all your Affinity Designer documents. It becomes part of the global library of swatches within the program. Any new documents you create will have access to this palette, as well as any future palettes you add using “Add Application Palette.”

Ideal for frequently used color schemes or brand palettes that you want to be available in every Affinity Designer project.

Add Document Palette

This option allows you to import a color palette that will be specific to the current document you’re working on. This won’t be available in other Affinity Designer documents you open.

Useful for creating custom color schemes for individual projects without affecting your overall application palette.

Add System Palette

This option lets you import color palettes from your operating system’s default color pickers or potentially other installed applications. Affinity Designer supports palettes saved in the .afpalette format.

Handy for incorporating system color palettes you use frequently across different programs. This can help maintain some level of color consistency between your design work and other applications.

How to Use Affinity Designer’s Swatches Panel

how to use the Swatches panel in Affinity Designer

One of the most powerful tools in Affinity Designer is the ability to create global colors. If you have a shape you want to color, you can set up swatches that you can use later:

Open the Swatches panel.

Create a new Document Palette.

Select one of the shapes with the color you want to save.

Click the global color button.

Select Menu > Same > Fill and Stroke.

Apply the new global swatch.

If you deselect everything, double-click the global color swatch and edit it, and everything with that color will change.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I import color palettes from other programs into the Swatches panel in Affinity Designer?

Yes! Affinity Designer allows you to import color palettes saved in the .afpalette format. Locate your desired palette file and drag it into the Swatches panel, or use the Panel Preferences menu within the Swatches panel and choose Import Palette. You can choose to import it as an Application Palette (available across all documents) or a Document Palette (specific to the current document).

Can I organize my swatches within the Swatches panel?

Unfortunately, Affinity Designer currently doesn’t offer native folder or group creation within the Swatches panel. However, you can achieve some level of organization by naming your swatches descriptively and using color similarity to visually group them.