Pick, save and apply colour
The main and second colours, the colour picker, swatches, the eyedropper, gradients, the paint bucket and Fill.
Beginner4 min readUpdated 25 September 2026Editor · Colour
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This article shows where colour lives in the Editor and how to pick it, save it and put it on your design. Most tools use the main colour; a few also use the second colour. Knowing which does what saves a lot of clicking.
Main and second colour
At the bottom of the tool rail are two overlapping squares. The front one is the Main colour; the one behind is the Second colour.
| Uses the main colour | Uses the second colour |
|---|---|
| Brush, Paint bucket, new text, new shapes, Fill path, Stroke path | The end of a Gradient, and the outline of shapes drawn with the Pen |
- X
- Swap main and second colour
- D
- Reset to black and white
Click either square to open the colour picker. When you close it, the colour is added to the design's swatches.
The colour picker
- Drag in the large square to set how rich and how light the colour is, and along the strip below to choose the hue.
- Type an exact Hex value and press Enter, or set R, G, B (0 to 255) or H (0 to 360), S and L (0 to 100).
- The eyedropper button beside the hue strip picks a colour from anywhere on your screen, even outside the browser. It needs a browser with a screen eyedropper; if yours has none, you are pointed to the Eyedropper tool.
- This design shows the design's swatches. Recent shows the last 12 colours you used in the picker.
Colour fields in Properties, such as a shape's Fill or a text Colour, use a compact field: a swatch that opens your system's colour chooser, a hex box, and Add or Remove where having no colour is allowed.
Swatches
Open the Colour and swatches panel from Window. At the top, choose whether you are setting Main or Second, then pick. Below the picker:
- Save swatch adds the current colour to the design's swatches. Right-click a swatch to remove it. A design keeps up to 21.
- Used in this design lists the colours already on your text and shapes, so you can match them.
- Brand kit shows your brand colours. See Brand kit.
With nothing selected, the Properties panel also shows the design's swatches under Colours. Click one to make it the main colour.
The Eyedropper tool
Press I and click the canvas to make that colour the main colour; it is also added to the swatches. Alt-click to set the second colour instead. The Eyedropper samples what you see, all visible layers together, and ignores fully transparent pixels.
Gradients
- Set the main colour to where the gradient starts and the second colour to where it ends.
- Press G for the Gradient tool.
- Drag across the canvas in the direction you want the blend to run. A longer drag gives a softer blend.
The gradient is painted onto the selected image layer, or a new layer if none is selected, and stays inside any active selection. Set its Opacity in the options bar. For an editable gradient, use a Gradient overlay layer style (from and to colours, angle and scale), or a Gradient map adjustment for two-colour and duotone looks.
Paint bucket and Fill
- Paint bucket (Shift+G): click an area to fill it with the main colour. Tolerance (0 to 255) sets how similar the neighbouring colours must be, Contiguous limits it to connected pixels, and Opacity sets strength. With a selection active, a click fills the whole selection.
- Edit, Fill… (Shift+F5): fills the selection, or the whole layer if nothing is selected. Use offers Main colour, Second colour, Custom colour, White or Black, with an Opacity slider.
- Edit, Stroke selection… draws a line along the selection edge with a Width and a Position (Inside, Centre, Outside).
The background colour
With nothing selected, Properties shows Background under Design. Pick a colour, or click Remove for a transparent background. PNG and WebP exports keep transparency.
On a phone
The main and second colour squares are not shown on a phone. Instead, the Select, Text and Shape sheets have Colour, Fill and Stroke chips that open your phone's colour chooser for the selected layer.
Common problems
- The gradient went on the wrong layer. It paints on the selected image layer. Select an empty layer first, or add one with Ctrl+Shift+N.
- The Paint bucket filled the whole layer. Tolerance is too high, or Contiguous is off.
- The screen eyedropper button does nothing. Your browser has no screen eyedropper. Use the Eyedropper tool on the canvas.