InDesign for QuarkXPress Users [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Color Palette

The second option for creating new colors is the Color palette, which works more like creating colors in Illustrator or Photoshop. When creating new colors with the Color palette they are not automatically saved in the Swatches palette for future use. If it's not open, choose the Color palette from the Window menu, or press F6 (see Figure 79-3), then choose a color mode (Lab, CMYK, or RGB) from the palette's flyout menu. Shortcut: You can toggle through these modes by Shift-clicking in the color bar at the bottom of the palette.

Finally, you can pick a color either by moving the sliders, typing a value, or clicking in the color bar. Remember that if an object is selected on your page, playing with the Color palette will apply the color to that object. If that's what you want to do, then at least be careful to identify whether you want to color the fill or the stroke before creating the color.

Saving Unnamed Colors

The Color palette is nice if you like working interactively. However, we don't like it for two reasons. First, it's too easy to get fooled into trusting the color you see on screen instead of picking colors from a printed swatch book. You cannot trust what you see on screen unless you have spent time setting up the color management system (see Chapter 87). Second, unnamed colors are a hassle for everyone, especially your output provider.

Fortunately, you can turn unnamed colors into named swatches by dragging the color proxy in the Color palette into the Swatches palette or by choosing Add to Swatches from the Color palette's flyout menu. Even better, if you've created a bunch of unnamed colors in your document you can add them all to the Swatches palette by choosing Add Unnamed Colors from the Swatches palette menu.