Taking you back to the 80’s - remember Cindy Lauper’s version of that song? Well, I’m always on the lookout for color combos that would make interesting kits - and there are a zillion color schemers out there - but did you know some sites will let you download an .aco (swatch) file? I’m starting to use my swatch palette a lot more - it’s way faster than sampling from a color swatch image.

Here’s a great site I stumbled upon tonight - http://www.colourlovers.com/

And they have a PS button - just click on it and you can download the .aco file!

But what do you do once you have that file? Unzip it and place in a folder labeled SWATCHES with your scrap stuff. REMEMBER where you put it!

In PS, open your swatch window (Window>Swatches) and you will see something like this:

Click on the little triangular arrow at the top on the right - (in CS2 it points to the right, in CS3 it points down as in the example above) and you will get a menu. Choose Load Swatches… from the menu, and navigate to the folder you saved your swatch in. Choose the swatch, and click ok.

in PSE6 - go to Window>Color Swatches and you will get this window:

Click on the little arrow next to “More” in the top right corner, and click on Load Swatch… navigate to the file you saved, and click ok.

To USE a swatch, all you have to do is move your mouse over a color. No matter what tool you have selected, your cursor will change to an eyedropper. Click, and your foreground color will change to the color you clicked on! QUICK and EASY!! You can even rename your swatches to match your kits, share the swatch files with collaborators, and save them for future use.

Have fun - hope to see some of your ‘true colors’ over at www.colourlovers.com sometime!