Swatch Editor

Swatch Editor: Complete Guide

Design fabric swatches with layer-aware tools, responsive previews, and precise color calibration.

Updated

Nov 14, 2025

Read time

18 min

Journey

Intermediate focus

Swatch Editor: Complete Guide

Welcome to the Swatch Editor guide. This walkthrough mirrors the blog layout while diving deeper into the tooling you rely on every day.

Workspace tour

The Swatch Editor loads into a balanced layout: toolbar on the left, layered inspector on the right, and an infinite canvas in the middle. Each region reacts to your zoom level and project density, so performance stays smooth even with hundreds of shapes.

Swatch Editor workspace

Every panel is dockable—drag handles appear when you hover the edges.

Numbered overlays correspond to the callouts listed below.

Primary navigation

Pan the canvas
Space + Drag
Precision zoom
Cmd/Ctrl + Scroll
Reset viewport
Shift + 0
Toggle rulers
R

Rulers remember the last measurement preset per project.

Command palette & history

Every tool action registers as a command so you can undo or redo with context. The history drawer (⌘ + Y) shows grouped events such as “Paste 8 shapes” rather than spamming single clicks.

Autosave cadence

Autosave writes deltas every 15 seconds or when you manually trigger a named version. Offline edits move into an encrypted queue stored in IndexedDB until your connection stabilizes.

  1. Press Cmd/Ctrl + K to open the command palette.
  2. Type the tool you want (“Reverse gradients”) or a doc phrase (“ what is the slice tool ”) to see inline help articles.
  3. Use the ? suffix to filter to documentation-only results.

Color workflows

The gradient authoring panel uses the same token set as the live Tailwind theme, which means what you see in the editor is what renders in production.

  • Sample colors from uploaded fabric scans (auto-calibrated with your monitor ICC profile).
  • Lock tones to palette slots so brand presets stay immutable.
  • Export swatches straight into block editor libraries.
Color token inspector

Named gradients reuse your palette’s semantic scale.

Testing your swatch

Use the responsive preview rail on the right to validate how the swatch repeats in pillows, duvets, or tile sets. Each preview runs through the same tiling math as the production exporter.

  • Press Shift + P to open preview mode.
  • Choose a preset (Pillow, Fat Quarter, Yard) or define a custom ratio.
  • Export PNG, SVG, or PDF artifacts directly from this panel.

Troubleshooting checklist

  • Swatch looks blurry? Verify the base document density is at least 220 PPI.
  • Colors seem muted? Disable “Safe print gamut” in the inspector to preview RGB.
  • Canvas feels laggy? Turn off live shadows in the Performance menu.

Next steps

When you are ready to turn a swatch into a repeatable quilt block, continue to the Block Editor guide. It preserves your layers, color tokens, and annotations.

Downloads