Art Directors Toolkit Help Utilities & Tools > Swatch Utility  
 

Swatch Utility

The Swatch utility is designed to help you find spot colors and view their breakdowns from various libraries.

Select colors by simply clicking on them in the main list or simply typing the name of a color while the main list is selected. Information about the selected color is shown in the Results section to the right. Color information includes RGB, HSB, Lab, CMYK and Hex tags (for HTML/web design). You can also calculate color information based on various tints by using the Tint Slider.

NOTE: Not all colors have a breakdown defined for each colors pace. As a result, some color values will be calculated from the color's Lab (preferred) or RGB defined values using your OS's default color manager (such as ColorSync). You can also set the Swatch utility to display calculated results by setting the "Preferred Results" menu to "Calculated" using the options button near the "Results" area. Results based on a calculated result are marked with a gray bullet.

Searching For Colors

Aside from just viewing color information, the Swatch utility also helps you find spot colors based on hue, saturation and brightness. Check the "Find colors similar to:" button and click the color well to set your selected color. You can adjust the tolerance of each separate component by selecting the component in the pop up button and adjusting the slider next to it. Moving the slider to the left narrows the scope of what colors will be displayed. When the slider is set to the right (maximum), that criteria will be ignored.

A results column will also appear that will give you an indication as to how close the color you found is to the target color you selected.

 
  Blend Utility Symbol Utility