Flash 8 Cookbook

1.26. Saving and Reusing Custom Colors

Problem

You want to save or reuse a custom color.

Solution

Add the color to the Color Swatches panel.

Discussion

If you plan to reuse a color that you’ve mixed, you should save it as a swatch. As a swatch, it will be available in the color pop ups in the Tools panel and Property inspector, as well as the Color Swatches panel.

To add a color to the Color Swatches panel, follow these steps:

1. Mix the color and set it as the active stroke or fill color in the Colors panel.

2. Open the Color Swatches panel (Window → Color Swatches).

3. If necessary, resize the window so that a gray area is visible beneath the existing swatches.

4. Click in that gray area. The cursor becomes a paint bucket, to indicate that you are adding a new color swatch.

Another way to add a color swatch is to choose Add Swatch from the Color Mixer panel’s Options menu.

To remove a color swatch, hold down the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Macintosh) key and click the swatch. The cursor becomes a pair of scissors to indicate that you are removing a color swatch.

Warning

Undo does not work when adding and removing colors from the Color Swatches panel.

You can restore the Color Swatches panel to the factory default—Web 216 plus a handful of premixed gradients—by choosing Load Default Colors from the Color Swatch panel’s Options menu.

You can remove all colors from the Color Swatches panel, except black and white. Removing colors is useful when you are designing a custom color palette for a project. Choose Clear ...