In this article we can explore how to create a color palette and deploy it.Color PaletteA Color Palette is a combination of colors used in a SharePoint site. Each Master page contains multiple elements with color names. A color palette contains color values for these pre-defined names.A Color Palette has the extension .spcolor.the following is the content of a sample .spcolor file. Location of Color Palette FileThe color palette file resides in the root site collection themes folder. You can access the location from Site Actions > Site Settings > Themes page.The following is the Themes page.Creating New PaletteYou can open the themes gallery > 15 hive folder > download an existing .spcolor file. Later modify the color values depending on your needs.Deploying New PaletteYou can open the themes gallery > 15 hive folder > choose new document. In the appearing dialog choose the new spcolor file and upload it.Once uploaded, you can see the new palette in the look and feel page.Editing filesWe can open the .spcolor file in Notepad and edit the color hex values. Alternatively, there is a very good tool named Color Palette Tool that provides a graphical user interface in editing colors.Color Palette ToolColor Palette Tool provides a graphical user interface for editing colors in a color palette file.InstallationThe tool can be downloaded from:Download SharePoint Color Palette ToolAfter installation you can open it from the Start menu.Color Slots and BucketsThere are 89 color slots for a SharePoint Color palette. In the default view colors are grouped as Buckets. Bucket is a grouping base on the same color.Clicking on the color button we can get the color dialog.Changing ViewThere are 3 views available:
Color Preview SlotsTowards the right bottom Color Preview Slots are available. The colors selected here will be displayed in the SharePoint color palette drop down list.LayoutWe can choose a layout from the preview pane.RecolorWe can quickly create a new theme using the recolor option. Click on the color picker icon.Choose the color from color picker and click the Recolor button. You will get a new theme based on the color selected.SavingOnce the new color palette is created we can save the changes into a .spcolor file using File > Save menu. the following is the contents of the .spcolor file.Please note that the themes folder also contains font files.References
SummaryIn this article we explored color palettes, deployment and tools.
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