Easily sample and transfer colours between objects in InDesign

 Aug 25, 2015

Let's take a look at the Colour Theme Tool in Adobe InDesign CC 2014.

The fantastic “Color Theme” tool, released in the InDesign CC 2014 update, will give you a number of colour sampling and production time saving features. You click or drag across an area to sample with the Colour Theme tool. It then expands on your mouse pointer to display a palette of 5 sampled colours and additional option buttons.

Additional variations of the 5 colours are offered via auxiliary palettes. These 5 colour palettes are available through a flyout menu button positioned to the right of the sampled colours. Offerings include colourful, bright, deep, and muted. Monochromatic, triad, complementary, compound, and shades palettes are alternatively offered when the Shift key is depressed as you sample.

You can easily generate a colour group, in your swatches palette, by clicking the button located to the right of the flyout menu.

Finally there’s the ability to upload your new colour palette to a creative cloud area known as “Adobe Color”. Through Adobe Color, you can share your palette with others and access it in other Adobe programs you are using. “Adobe Color” replaces the previous palette sharing area known as “Kuler”.

The new “Color Theme” tool is a wonderful addition to InDesign CC, so don’t forget to update your program.

When needing to sample colour and transfer formatting, please don’t forget the tried and true Eyedropper tool. For a quick transfer of formatting, the Eyedropper tool continues to be a great way to sample existing formatting and apply it to text and vector objects.

More information about these two tools can be found at the following links:

Adobe Help Information

Until next time, I hope you enjoy the pleasure of bringing amazing layouts to life in Adobe InDesign CC.

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About the Author:

Katherine Davis  

With over 15 years of experience, Kate is one of New Horizons most knowledgeable and skilled Desktop Applications and Graphic Design trainers. She approaches each training event with an understanding of the student’s perspective and with their learning goals in mind. Her extensive knowledge and dynamic training style enables her to engage users of all varying skills levels and ensure that each student’s learning goals are achieved. Kate is especially well known around the New Horizons office for her creative flair and talent in using the Adobe suite. She takes a genuine satisfaction from helping students solve issues and always makes an extra effort to ensure that students have an enjoyable learning experience.

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