How to Use Global Colors in Affinity Designer

This Affinity Designer tutorial is a continuation of a free beginner’s guide to Affinity Designer. You can watch the whole video explaining all the basics of Affinity Designer in this video from the Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel.

In this installment, we’ll focus on how to use global colors in Affinity Designer. If you’d rather learn by watching a video, here it is:

Watch the Lesson: How to Use Global Colors in Affinity Designer

Why Should You Learn to Use Global Colors in Affinity Designer?

If you’re interested in consistency and efficiency as you’re designing, Global Colors are the way to go.

They’re a feature in Affinity Designer that takes defined color swatches and applies them to different elements in a design in one go. Whenever you change the swatch in a global color, it will update everything with that swatch instantly.

Alright, then! Let’s move to the actual Affinity Designer tutorial.

How to Use Global Colors in Affinity Designer

As you may remember from previous tutorials on Affinity Designer tips and tricks, we’ve been working on a polar bear design. In this installment, we’ll be working on the colors of the iceberg with the help of global colors. Here’s how to go about it:

Step 1

To start, you will need to add a document palette and name it. In this example, we’ll name the new Affinity Designer color palette “Iceberg.”

Step 2

Look to the right to find the Swatches panel. There, you’ll see two buttons next to the palette name: Add Current Fill to Palette, and Add Current Color to Palette as a Global Color. We’re interested in the second one to put together the desired Affinity Designer color palette.

Step 3

Select the shape from the design with the color you want to add as a global color (in this case, the rectangle that will become the iceberg). Notice if the fill with the color you want is active in the Swatches panel.

Step 4

Then, go to the Add Current Color to Palette as a Global Color button and click it to add it. A square will appear with the swatch you want and a white triangle in the bottom-left corner. That’s the global color.

Step 5

Apply the global color swatch to the design by selecting each shape and clicking the global color. This will color them and link all those shapes with that same global color.

Step 6

To change the swatch in a global color, double-click on the global color you want to modify. A menu will come up where you can choose the hue you need. As you play with those controls, the elements with that global color will update, too.

Frequently Asked Questions About Global Colors in Affinity Designer

Now that we have most of this Affinity Designer tutorial out of the way, let’s dig into a couple of questions you may have about Global Colors in Affinity Designer. Continue reading to figure out the best Affinity Designer tips and tricks!

Do I Need to Create a Document Palette?

Yes! To access global colors, you need to add a document palette.

How Can I Tell a Regular Swatch From a Global Color?

As stated above, global colors come up as a square that has a white triangle in the bottom-left corner. This will help you tell the difference between global colors and regular color palettes in Affinity Designer.

Can I Create a Color Palette in Affinity Designer From an Image or Document?

You can! If you like the color palette in Affinity Designer from an image or document, you don’t have to go through the tedious task of adding each hue individually. The Swatches panel comes with a menu button to the right. Click it to see the options that will let you create a color palette in Affinity Designer instantly from an image or document.

How Do I Know If I’ve Applied the Global Color?

If you’re unsure if you’ve applied a global color to a design element, simply click on it. If there’s an outline around the global color, then it’s been applied correctly.

Check Out Our Final Result!

In this Affinity Designer tutorial, you learned how to use Global Colors. We applied a couple of them to give the top of the iceberg more dimension. Now, you know a great trick to make designing much easier while maintaining consistency!

Continue reading these tutorials to learn all the Affinity Designer basics and see how the bear design will turn out!

Learn More About Affinity Designer

Eager to learn more? Here are other Envato Tuts+ tutorials to help you master the Affinity Designer basics and then move on to more advanced skills:

Post date July 29, 2024

This content originally appeared on Envato Tuts+ Tutorials and was authored by Drew MacDonald

This Affinity Designer tutorial is a continuation of a free beginner's guide to Affinity Designer. You can watch the whole video explaining all the basics of Affinity Designer in this video from the Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel.

In this installment, we'll focus on how to use global colors in Affinity Designer. If you'd rather learn by watching a video, here it is:

Watch the Lesson: How to Use Global Colors in Affinity Designer

Why Should You Learn to Use Global Colors in Affinity Designer?

If you're interested in consistency and efficiency as you're designing, Global Colors are the way to go.

They're a feature in Affinity Designer that takes defined color swatches and applies them to different elements in a design in one go. Whenever you change the swatch in a global color, it will update everything with that swatch instantly.

Alright, then! Let's move to the actual Affinity Designer tutorial.

How to Use Global Colors in Affinity Designer

As you may remember from previous tutorials on Affinity Designer tips and tricks, we've been working on a polar bear design. In this installment, we'll be working on the colors of the iceberg with the help of global colors. Here's how to go about it: