Adobe InDesign CS4
13
InDesign includes thousands of color options as well as the ability to mix and create your
own colors. After opening a new document, the
Colors Palette
window should appear
on the right-hand side of the screen. If it is not there, click
Window > Color
.
The
Color Palette
and
Effects Palette
(
Fig. 14
) are included in the same window. Make
sure that the "color tab” is selected at the top of the window. InDesign includes 10
default color options within the
Swatches Palette
. These colors are selected from the
two common color models: RGB and CMYK. (Use RGB colors if your output will be on a
computer or TV screen. Use CMYK colors for print documents.)
To add a color to your
Swatches Palette
, click the arrow at the top right of the
Color
Palette
and click
New Color Swatch
. A dialog box will appear allowing you to customize
colors that you can add to your
Swatches Palette
(
Fig. 15
).
You can change from CMYK to RGB by clicking the box next to "Color Mode". Using the
"mixer" at the bottom of the menu, adjust the units of each color accordingly. When the
color looks the way you want it to, give the color a name. Try to avoid names such as
“dark blue” or “tan” because these names are not extremely descriptive. It is best to
name your color according to the units used to mix the color. For example,
r24_g18_b136. This indicates that there are 24 units of red, 18 units of green, and 136
units of blue used to create such a color. Now, if necessary, this color can be
quantitatively remixed in other applications.
Click
Add
to make the color available on your palette. You can remove colors from the
Swatches Palette
by clicking and dragging.
Fig. 14 Color and Effects Palette
Fig. 15 Swatches Palette