Working with Colors and the Palette Panel

Each row shows a color swatch (click to set it as your active drawing color), the symbol used for that color in the printed PDF (click to change it), an edit icon (change the color itself, change the symbol, move the color's position in the list, or merge it into another color), and an eye icon to hide or show that color on the canvas — useful for stitching one thread at a time without the rest of the design distracting you.

Three ways to work with color while editing:

• Click a swatch in the palette to make it the active drawing color.
• Right-click a cell on the canvas to instantly pick that cell's color and highlight its swatch in the palette — no need to hunt for it in the list.
• Click a swatch to flash all cells of that color on the canvas at once, handy for seeing at a glance where a color is used before you decide to merge or remove it.

Palette → Add Color… adds any DMC color to your palette manually, even if it isn't used yet. To reduce a palette that came out with too many similar shades, open a color's edit menu and choose Merge into…, then pick the target color — every stitch of the merged color repaints to match. Palette → Remove Unused clears out any color with zero stitches left in the design.