Swatch Tables

Ryan Blake

Updated August 28, 2024 12:37

Flexi uses Swatch Tables to organize various colors. This system gives you direct control over the colors you require for your work. Flexi starts with a default set of frequently used colors, but you can expand and change the swatch table to suit your needs.

The default swatch table is found at the bottom:

Every swatch table has a few key features indicators:

Move Swatch	These are used if the swatch table is too big to show all the colors. These won't do anything if the whole swatch table is visible. You can click and hold these to move quicker through the swatch table. Single Arrows: Move over one swatch. This shifts the whole swatch table over one increment. Double Arrows: Shifts the entire visible swatch over.
Transparent	Renders a selected object transparent.
Process Colors	A color square with no other defining features is a Process Color. A process color means that it will be processed upon printing and start as RGB, CMYK, LAB, or HSV. You can read more about those and process colors here: Available Color Modes.
Spot Colors	A color square with a dot in it is a Spot Color. You can read more about what Spot Colors are here: Available Color Modes
Duotone Colors	Duotone Colors are made by overlaying two spot colors. One is determined as a base color and a second is set as the Top color.
Pattern	Pattern Fills always come after colors on a swatch table. The square gives you a brief preview of a pattern. You can read about Pattern Fills here: Pattern Fill
Gradient	Gradient Fills always come after color and pattern fills on a swatch table. The square gives you a brief preview of the gradient. You can read more about gradients here: Gradient Fill and Advanced Gradients
CutContour Colors	CutContour colors are used for designating contour cuts. They only show up on the default swatch table. Technically they are grey spot colors, but Flexi is designed to use these colors in a different way. The system is designed to not print them (most users don't want to print the contour cut lines), so using these as a color in your design will cause it not print.

Like any other tool bar in Flexi, you can move your Swatch Tables to somewhere else more convenient for you by clicking and dragging on the edge of the toolbar itself.

You can also drop it on the artboard to undock it and leave it free floating. This is an easier way to access all of the colors on a given swatch table. While undocked, you can right click it and change it to Palette View for a broad view of all the colors of the table

If you want to know exactly what color a given swatch is, you can hover over it for its name. If it does not have a given name, it will instead show its process color value. If the swatch is a vendor specific spot color, it will show the vendor as well. A Duotone color will show both spot color names.