Converting Palette to Swatch: Is it possible?

[Lizzy22543133q6nf]

Hey y'all, new to Photoshop here. Is it possible at all to convert palettes like the ones used in Procreate into a format that Photoshop can read? There are so many really nice palettes out there available for Procreate that I'd like to use in Photoshop, but I haven't found a way (if there even is one) to make them play nicely together. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Trevor.Dennis]

We used to have an excellent Extension that would help you create and modify colour palettes from an image, but it was discontinued  I don't really know why, and it is a great pity.  There are number of Extensions that appear to perform a similar function.  In fact Coolors looks _very_ like the old Color Themes and the discontinued Kuler.

https://exchange.adobe.com/creativecloud.details.12124.coolors.html

If you go to the Extension page and make sure Photoshop is selected, and search for Color you'll find a few that might be interesting.  I'd be interested to hear what you think of any you decide to try, so please come back and give us a mini review.

https://exchange.adobe.com/creativecloud.photoshop.html

[Trevor.Dennis]

Just a wee heads up.  Extensions can be tricky to install. I had a look at Kallewheel (because it was free) and it has five five star ratings, and two one star ratings, with the low score being from people unable to install.  Check the Where to find it tab and follow the instructions, and you should be fine.

[EDIT]  KalleWheel installed straight away on my Windows system.  I wouldn't say it is as easy to use as thee old Color Themes, but there is an in depth description of how to use it on Git Hub.

https://github.com/kbladin/KalleWheel

[Lizzy22543133q6nf]

Thanks so much, I may have to give this a try!

[jane-e]

@Lizzy22543133q6nf 

In addition to what Trevor said, Procreate's Help page says it can import Adobe swatches. You might ask on that forum if it can also export them.

https://procreate.art/handbook/procreate/colors/colors-palettes/

Jane

[Stephen Marsh]

Never used the software before, what file format does it save swatches or palettes in?

The Procreate help page mentions how to do it, just not the format!

https://procreate.art/handbook/procreate/colors/colors-palettes/#import-share-palettes-q3npq9o6cr2

Share Palettes

Share your color schemes with the world.

In the Palettes tab, tap the three dots to the right of the palette name to reveal the Share button. Tap this to open the iOS sharing interface. Here you can share your palette to a variety of apps and cloud services.

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EDIT:

It appears to be a .json text file using a .swatches extension, so in theroy it could be easily converted by those with the knowledge.

[Stephen Marsh · Accepted solution]

Like here:

https://github.com/joanroig/swatches-to-ase

[Lizzy22543133q6nf]

This is where I really wish I hadn't dropped my computer science major after a year! I'll have to look into whether people have figured out a way to convert the files; surely somebody has tried before. Thanks!

[Lizzy22543133q6nf]

I didn't see the program you out up until after I had responded; I'm going to try it out and report back to see how easy it is. I really appreciate the help!

[Stephen Marsh]

I have reshuffled the answer, however, the instructions are pretty minimal and assume too much for my liking! You may need to contact the developer for more info.

[Lizzy22543133q6nf]

It's a shame Adobe doesn't have the utility built in already; it seems like it would be a very popular thing to have, especially with the sheer amount of procreate palettes available. I'm going to try and work this out tomorrow with the help of an engineer friend and the internet, and we what works.

[Stephen Marsh]

It is JavaScript based. I am guessing that you may need one to install node.js and possibly other things too???

I know enough to know that I don't know enough!

It also appears to possibly require other code, or perhaps it already uses these and they are not required:

https://github.com/szydlovski/procreate-swatches

https://www.npmjs.com/package/color-convert

https://github.com/DominikGuzei/node-ase-utils

As with many GitHub offerings, it is geared more toward developers than regular end users:

How to use

• Run npm i
• Add your swatches file in the "palette-import" folder
• Change the fileName variable in the index.js file to point your swatches file.
• Run npm start
• The converted file should be in the palette-export folder.

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It might even be possible to create a Photoshop script to do the same... I'm sure that others on these forums can work this out (read json values, convert hsv > rgb > 255 scale to 0 to 1 scale etc).

[Lizzy22543133q6nf]

I've just spent a good amount of time trying to get this code to work and the only thing I've managed to do is give myself a headache; I think unless an easier solution is created or the developer updates the instructions, then I'm going to make do with what I've got.