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Work with Colors and Color Swatches in Adobe InDesign CS6

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Video: Work with Colors and Color Swatches in Adobe InDesign CS6

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You're watching VisiHow. In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to use "Colors" and "Swatches" in Adobe InDesign CS6 in Windows 7.

Use colours and colour swatches on Adobe InDesign CS6.mp4-canvas369 364993.jpg

Steps

1
To begin, you should open Adobe InDesign either from your desktop or by coming down to the bottom-left corner and clicking the Windows icon
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Clicking this will bring up a list of your recently used programs.

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2
Click "Adobe InDesign" if you see it on the list
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InDesign has a pink-and-purple icon with the letters "ID" on it.

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3
Otherwise, use the search bar at the bottom of the screen and type "Adobe InDesign"
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4
Then, click "Adobe InDesign CS6" to open it
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You'll be taken to the workspace. A dialogue box will appear every time you open InDesign.

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5
Click "File" in the bar on the top-left of the window
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6
Click "Open..." or move the cursor to "New" and click "Document"
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You will be able to open or create a document. You can also do this with the shortcut "Ctrl" + "N". If you prefer, you can open an existing document from the menu as well. Please refer to the following VisiHow videos if you want to learn more about this: "How to Get Started with a Document in Adobe InDesign CS6" and "How to Open Existing Documents in Adobe InDesign CS6".

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7
Let's click "OK"
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8
Click the upper-right workspace drop-down menu
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Make sure that the "Essentials" setting is checked. There are other tutorials showing you different workspace settings.

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9
Click "Color" on the panel on the right-hand side
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Not all of the workspaces have the option available. A new dialogue box will pop up and show you the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) levels. For printing documents and using the gradients of grey, do not mix cyan, magenta, and yellow, and use the color black instead, as it will decrease the usage of cartridges. CMYK is the essential color layout for printing.
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10
You can change colors at the top under the menu
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11
You can change the color from the spectrum by simply clicking the color
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12
You can also click and drag the "C", "M", "Y", and "K" sliders to change colors more gradually
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13
On the right-hand side of the spectrum, you will see the standard black and white colors that you can click
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14
Then, you can click the "Stroke" tab in the "Colors" panel
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15
Click "Color" again and click the second square
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This is the stroke color. The default setting is black-and-white.
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16
You can click the spectrum to select the shades of grey for the stroke color
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17
You can double-click the stroke color square
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The "Color Picker" menu will appear.
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18
Manipulate the CMYK scrollers as you prefer
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You can also type numbers to the right of each color.
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19
Click "Swatches"
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It is underneath the "Color" section of the panel. Swatches are color samples that are especially useful when you work within a particular color scheme. You may use "Eyedropper Tool" to pick colors for swatches. There are other VisiHow tutorials on how to use "Eyedropper Tool". Swatches are samples that are easier to use when you use certain colors often, for example, when creating logotypes. You can also save swatches. This will save you time by not having to find each color again from the spectrum.
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This concludes our tutorial showing you how to use "Colors" and "Swatches" in Adobe InDesign CS6 in Windows 7. If you have any questions or comments regarding this video or the program used, then just add them to the comment section below. Thank you for choosing VisiHow!