How to Import a Color Palette into Inkscape

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Updated September 01, 2019

How to Import a Color Palette into Inkscape

The free online application, Color Scheme Designer is a great way to quickly and easily produce harmonious color schemes. The application allows you to export your color schemes in several different formats, including the GPL format that is used by GIMP color palettes. However, GPL palettes can also be imported into Inkscape and used in your vector line documents.

This is a simple process and the following pages will show you how to import your own color schemes into Inkscape.

Export a GPL Color Palette

Before you go any further, you'll need to produce a color scheme in Paletton.

Open your browser, and go to Paletton.
Use the tools to put together your color palette.
In the lower right corner of the main workspace, select Tables/Export.
Paletton will show you the breakdown of your color palette. To the far right, you'll find a list of export formats. Select Color Swatches.
The screen will shift and show you more options. Choose as GPL (Gimp).
Make sure that your window is active, and press Ctrl+A on your keyboard to highlight everything.
With the whole thing highlighted, press Ctrl+C on your keyboard to copy it.
Open a text editor, like Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on Mac, or Gedit/whatever you want on Linux.
Paste the your palette into the file with Ctrl+V.
Now, you can save your file with the .gpl extension. If you're using TextEdit on a Mac, press Cmd+Shift+T to convert the file to plain text before saving.

In Notepad, you should go File > Save and name your file, ensuring that you end the name of the file with the '.gpl' extension. In the Save as type drop-down, set it to All Files and finally check the Encoding is set to ANSI. If using TextEdit, save your text file with Encoding set to Western (Windows Latin 1).

On Linux, you can probably just specify the extension.

Import the Palette into Inkscape

Importing your palette is carried out using Explorer on Windows, Finder on Mac OS X, or your file browser, like Nautilus, on Linux. It all comes down to putting your new .gpl file in the right place for Inkscape to use.

Windows

Open Windows Explorer.
From the root of your C: drive, open Program Files.
Locate a folder called Inkscape, and open it.
Now, find the Palettes folder, and open that too.
Copy your .gpl file, wherever you saved it, and paste it into the Palettes folder.

Mac OS

Open the Applications folder.
Right click the Inkscape application.
From the resulting menu, choose Show Package Contents.
A new Finder window will open up. From there, select Contents.
Next, locate and open the Resources folder.
Finally, open the Palettes directory.
Copy your .gpl file, and paste it into Palettes.

Linux

Open your file browser. For GNOME, it's Nautilus.
Under your Home directory, press Ctrl+h to reveal hidden files.
Open the .config directory.
Navigate to inkscape > palettes.
Copy your .gpl file into the palettes directory. When you return to your Home folder, press Ctrl+h again to hide the files again.

If you'd prefer the command line, you can use:

cp path/to/palette.gpl ~/.config/inkscape/palettes/

Using Your Color Palette in Inkscape

You can now use your new color palette in Inkscape.

If Inkscape was already open when you added your GPL file to the palettes folder, you may need to close all open Inkscape windows and open Inkscape again.

Open Inkscape.
Turn your attention to the bottom of the window. That rainbow of colors is the palette preview. Locate the arrow icon to the far right of it.
Select the arrow icon to display the available color palettes.
Find your color palette on the list, and choose it.
The palette preview will change to show your new color palette. You're ready to start using your new color palette on Inkscape.