Swatches (process & spot)

A swatch is a color with a name. Naming the colors you use once — and reusing that swatch everywhere — is how you keep a job consistent, and it's how you hand a print service an unambiguous specification for every ink on the sheet.

What a swatch is#

Swatches are named colors saved to the document and shown in the Swatches panel, inside the Properties panel on the right. When a design has none yet, the panel reads No swatches yet.

There are two types, and the difference matters at the press:

Process swatches keep your brand colors identical across dozens of objects. Spot swatches are the print-service contract — every spot name becomes a separation, so the name has to be exactly what the printer expects.

Creating a swatch#

Click New swatch in the Swatches panel to open the dialog. It has two core fields:

• Name — for a process swatch this is optional and free-form. For a spot swatch it's the contract, so it's validated (see below).
• Type — Process or Spot.

For a Process swatch, set the color with the Preview ink (CMYK) channels and save. Process names don't have to be unique — duplicates are allowed silently, so you can keep two swatches at the same value with different labels if that helps you stay organized.

For a Spot swatch, the Name is the exact string your print service uses for that plate (for example die cut). Spot names must be unique, use only printable ASCII, contain no #, and stay within 100 characters; All and None are reserved separation names. A Purpose dropdown pre-fills the name, preview ink, and overprint for common finishes — Die cut, Cut line, Kiss cut, White ink, Varnish, Foil, Spot UV, or Custom — and the name stays fully editable afterward.

The spot side goes much deeper — purposes, overprint, tint, measured Lab color, and the CMYK-only export rule — in Spot colors & print separations. This page is the swatch mechanics; that page is the print behavior.

Applying swatches#

Once a swatch exists, apply it to the selected object as Apply to fill or Apply to stroke. That keeps the object linked to the swatch by name rather than by raw value, so editing the swatch later updates everything that uses it.

You can also click the swatch's chip directly to drop its color onto the current color field.

Reading the swatch list#

Each row in the panel packs the information a print-minded designer needs at a glance:

• Color chip — spot rows carry the Illustrator-style white corner triangle with a dot, so you can tell a separation from a process ink without reading the badge.
• Name — shown in a monospace font, in the exact case you typed. Case matters: two spot names that differ only by case become two separate plates.
• Badge — a Spot or Process label.
• OP — an overprint badge appears when a spot is set to overprint, so the artwork beneath it prints intact rather than being knocked out.
• Usage — hovering a spot row shows how many objects currently use it.

Editing, duplicating, deleting#

Hover a row to reveal its actions:

• Edit swatch (pencil) reopens the dialog to change the name, value, or spot settings.
• Duplicate copies the swatch. Because spot names must stay unique, a duplicated spot gets copy appended to its name (and copy 2, and so on) so the new plate never collides with the original.
• Delete (trash) removes it.

Deleting a spot that objects still use is the one case that needs care. Rather than silently orphaning those objects, Popcorn Editor prompts with Delete & convert to process — the swatch goes away and every object that used it keeps its current color as a regular process ink. Nothing on the canvas changes visually; you've simply dropped the separation.

Where swatches live#

Swatches are per-document by default — they travel with the design they belong to. To reuse a palette across designs, save it to your Library swatches, which persists beyond a single document. This is separate from a workspace Brand kit, which is the better home for the official colors a whole team should reach for.

Next#

Go deeper on the print side in Spot colors & print separations, or revisit the fundamentals in Fill, stroke & background color.