How to Create Color Palettes in Procreate

UPDATED MARCH 9, 2022

Learn how to easily create color palettes in Procreate. This step-by-step tutorial will teach you how to find and add color swatches so you can make your own customized color palette for any project.

My new favorite activity may just be scrolling through color palettes. I could sit for hours and scroll, scroll, scroll. So many color combinations to choose from. When I first started lettering in Procreate, I had a really hard time picking colors. I would choose colors one by one from the default color palettes or from the color wheel. It was a very slow process. But then I learned how to quickly create color palettes in procreate and a whole new world opened up. Today I’m going to show you exactly how I do it.

WHERE TO FIND FREE PROCREATE COLOR PALETTES

There are numerous websites where you can find free procreate color palettes. One site that I have found very easy to use is Design Seeds. This site has lots and lots…and lots of color palettes to choose from. Simply scroll to find a palette that you like, tap and hold the photo and save it to your photo library on your iPad.

Another place to find free procreate color palettes is Pinterest Just search “color schemes” and you will be presented with more options than you know what to do with.

HOW TO CREATE COLOR PALETTES IN PROCREATE

Now that you have the photo saved with the colors that you want, I’m going to show you two easy ways to make a color palette in Procreate from a photo.

METHOD 1 – SELECT EACH COLOR MANUALLY

In this method, you’ll open the photo and use the eyedropper tool to select each color for your palette. You can either open the photo directly into Procreate or add the photo to a canvas that you have opened.

To open the photo directly, simply tap “Photo” while in the gallery view, choose the photo from your library and your photo will appear as a new canvas/document.

To open the photo within a new canvas, first, create a new canvas by tapping the “+” in the upper right while in the gallery view and set your canvas dimensions.

Next, tap the wrench icon, and the “+” to add the photo. Your photo will appear in the center of the canvas.

Tap on the color icon in the upper right and add a new palette by tapping the “+” in the upper right and then “Create New Palette”. You can rename the palette by tapping on Untitled and typing a new name.

Next, tap on the Procreate eyedropper tool (the circle in the middle of the sliders) and move it over a color you want to add to the palette. Or, for a shortcut, just tap and hold the color on the photo that you would like until the eyedropper tool appears. 

The color circle in the upper right will change to the selected color.

Go back into the new color palette that you created and tap in the new palette. A color swatch will appear. Repeat this process with each color that you want to add to the procreate color palette.

METHOD 2 – ADD ALL COLORS FROM PHOTO AT ONCE

Method 2 is much quicker than Method 1 and you end up with a lot more colors in your palette. I recently discovered this method and am excited to share it with you.

To use this method, you’ll first need to set up a new canvas. Next, tap on the color palette icon and tap the “+” sign to bring up your options.

Tap “new from photos”. This will bring up your photo library. Scroll to the photo that you saved and tap it.

A new color palette will automatically be created containing all the colors in the photo.

*Note the video below has not been updated to include Method 2. Also note that when this post was first created, Design Seeds had a different user interface.

WATCH THE SHORT VIDEO ON HOW TO CREATE COLOR PALETTES

I hope this tutorial was helpful for you. If you like it, please consider sharing it!

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