Working with Adobe Swatch Exchange Files

This article explains how to use .ASE files. It will teach the following:

-How to create a color swatch group within a Photoshop or Illustrator project
-How to save and export a color palette from .psd or .ai
-How to download .ASE files from Kuler and import into .psd or .ai

Color swatches become very useful and important to illustrators who are extremely organized and want to have palettes on hand when the moment calls for them. Palettes can also be shared amongst designers on sites such as kuler.adobe.com. This process can be a little confusing at first so in this blog I hope to address some of the issues I had when I first started importing and exporting .ase files.

Creating an Adobe Swatch Exchange File

1. Open Adobe Illustrator and create a new project

2. Create 5 shapes with 5 different colors on the canvas

3. Click the hamburger drop down menu in your swatches palette

4. Create a new color group and name it appropriately

5. Click on the group in your swatch palette

6. Select one of the shapes you just created and with the hamburger menu open select “new swatch”. This will place a new color swatch in your new color group.

7. Continue the last step for all 5 shapes

8. Once you have all 5 swatches sampled and placed within the color group, select the color group and in the drop down hamburger menu select “save swatch library as ASE”

Now you can upload your file to kuler.adobe.com and share it with the rest of the color community!

Importing an Adobe Swatch Exchange file can also be tricky. Kuler and many other sites use this file to share colors from one illustrator to another.

Importing an Adobe Swatch Exchange File

1. Download, rename and save the ASE file you want to import into an adobe program

2. Open either Photoshop or Illustrator.

3. To open the ASE file you can either drag it over the program icon on your desktop or dock (Mac) or within the program, go to your swatch’s hamburger menu and select “Open Swatch Library” and then “Other Library…”

4. Direct your finder to the folder containing the ASE that you just downloaded.

5. In your swatch palette you will see the ASE that you just opened and separated from your swatches as another tab.

Congratulations! You can now share and download Adobe Swatch Exchange files like a professional illustrator!

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