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Can you import Illustrator Pantone Swatches into Indesign?

Explorer ,
Mar 30, 2021 Mar 30, 2021

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I created some Pantone swatches in Illustrator and am now making a document in Indesign with the same colors. How can I import the illustrator color swatches into indesign? Whenever I just copy and paste shapes filled with color it converts them to CMYK. I need to create a sharable swatch of palettes to distrube amongst a few people.

 

Thanks!

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Feature request , How to , Import and export , Print

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Mar 30, 2021 Mar 30, 2021

In Illustrator, save the swatches as ase format:

Capture d’écran 2021-03-30 à 19.12.59.jpg

In InDesign, load the swatches

Capture d’écran 2021-03-30 à 19.13.59.jpg

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Community Expert ,
Mar 30, 2021 Mar 30, 2021

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In Illustrator, save the swatches as ase format:

Capture d’écran 2021-03-30 à 19.12.59.jpg

In InDesign, load the swatches

Capture d’écran 2021-03-30 à 19.13.59.jpg

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Guru ,
Mar 30, 2021 Mar 30, 2021

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if you want those swatches available in all of your adobe apps, consider using a CC library .

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Community Expert ,
Mar 31, 2021 Mar 31, 2021

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Hi Jonathan,

I don't think that exchanging PANTONE spot color swatches between Illustrator and InDesign or InDesign and Illustrator with CC Libraries is a good idea. You will lose some valid properties. The lab values. At least some of my tests are showing this.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

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Guru ,
Mar 31, 2021 Mar 31, 2021

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I have not had issues.

 

I though that was the point of cc libraries, if there are issues that seems like a software issue. 

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Community Expert ,
Mar 31, 2021 Mar 31, 2021

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Hi olive_and_finch,

I'm curious why you had to create some PANTONE swatches in Illustrator.

Illustrator is able to load InDesign's PANTONE Swatch Libraries *.acb files.

InDesign's *acb files can be found in Presets > Swatch Libraries of the InDesign Application folder.

 

From my German Windows 10 system:

SwatchLibraries-ACB-Files.PNG

 

PANTONE+ Solid Coated.acb loaded in Illustrator:

SwatchLibraries-ACB-Files-LoadedWithIllustrator-2.PNG

 

And added to the Swatches panel in Illustrator:

SwatchLibraries-ACB-Files-LoadedWithIllustrator-4.PNG

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

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Community Expert ,
Mar 31, 2021 Mar 31, 2021

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BTW, the ASE files only support flat colors. (I'm using "flat" as not to confuse it with "solid".)

 

You can get AI gradients into ID by filling some shapes (like rectangles) with the gradients in AI. Copy and paste into ID. The gradents will show up in the Swatches panel (sans their nice AI names). Gradients with transparency don't transfer, and of course, patterns are not supported. 

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

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