Live Color Bar Related to Indexed Designs

[Evans Design Works]

Hello, 

Is there a way to design a color bar in In Design to be at the bottom of the page layout that could update based on the indexed design you were using in the same layout? I currently create my color bars in another program and it is a bit of a workaround. This would be amazing to just create an In Design template that could create a color bar on the fly. I have attached a screenshot to show an idea of what I am inquiring about.

Thank you all in advance. 

[Steve Werner]

Can you be clearer what you mean by this: "update based on the indexed design you were using in the same layout"

What is an indexed design: Nothing I've ever heard of.

[Evans Design Works]

Apologies Steve. An indexed design is another form of color management used in photoshop. Similar to RGB or CMYK but limited to 256 colors. Usually used for smaller file sizes for web content or whatever. In my industry it is used to create files the machine can use and color order and percentages are crucial. I used Indesign to create a PDF layout to show client's and the factory the colors used, order the colors are used, the actual design, and all the pertinent information about the design. 

[Laubender]

Hm.

Perhaps you mean a range of colored rectangles, that is showing all the different colors of an image with indexed colors? What is that other program you are using for this?  Maybe your "work-around" is the best workflow you can do in this situation? Hm. Don't know, but maybe someone could script that with PhotoShop?

What I do not get is the specific order of colors you are showing.

What's the logic behind that particular order? What's the scheme for naming?

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Evans Design Works]

"Perhaps you mean a range of colored rectangles, that is showing all the different colors of an image with indexed colors?" Exactly. You are spot on with this description. 

Even if I could import a swatch palette (ACO) from Photoshop into set of "colored rectangles" that would work as well since I have to use those anyway for my designs. 

Thank you so so much for your help on this. 

[rob day]

Even if I could import a swatch palette (ACO) from Photoshop into set of "colored rectangles" that would work as well since I have to use those anyway for my designs. 

If the colors exist as InDesign swatches, a script could be written to build the color bar in the slug area.

[Evans Design Works]

Hello all, 

Thank you for the quick reply! In my industry the order of colors assigned is crucial. So if I were to input an indexed design in the cell above where the design is shown on my attachment I was curious if I could create a linked standard color bar below that would reflect the colors used in the indexed design in the order they are show in photoshop. Let me know if this makes any more sense.