Saving a homemade swatch

[pslane1]

I would like easy to understand instructions on saving my preset swatches that I am making.  When I open a new image, the swatch is not in my swatch groups.  How do I get it saved to use over and over?

[lambiloon]

Hi, when you open any image in illustrator no color swatches show because that is an image for your made swatches to use them all time...always make a new document then move your image in it there you see all it is not any bug it is since from start of Ai....regards

[Monika Gause]

Illustrator swatches are document based, not application based.

WHen you make a swatch it is only in the document you created it in.

If you want it in all documents, set up a new document profile that contains the swatch (and other swatches, brushes etc) you need and then use the document profile for new documents.

[Ton Frederiks]

You could also try to create a document with your swatches, save it as an Illustrator template file and choose the template when creating a new document.

[pslane1]

Thank you all.  Yes I see several ways to use the pattern swatch without the swatch library and I guess it will have to do.  But are you saying there is no way to put my swatch/pattern in the AI Swatch Library to use later?  Sure seems like there would be.  What about Other Library?  What is that for?

[Monika Gause]

There is no application wide default library. There are swatches in new document profiles, which are there when you create a new file based on the profile.

And then there are libraries that you can load on demand. You can save your own library via the swatches panel. And then load it when you need it.

[Doug A Roberts · Accepted solution]

'Other Library' opens a file browser to open a swatch library (which could be any AI file at all containing swatches) from any location.

If you want to save your own libraries for later use, save them to 'User Defined'. 'User Defined' is this location (on Windows 10):

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 24 Settings\en_GB\x64\Swatches

(where 'Username' is your username and 'en_GB' changes depending on your installation language)

Swatch libraries saved there will also be carried between versions if you select 'Import previous settings' in the CC app when updating Illustrator.

[pslane1]

I found the library @ C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 24 Settings\en_GB\x64\Swatches  so I will just keep the swatches there.  Thank you.