Which file for which app
Procreate’s own handbook says it imports .ase and .aco files and exports palettes as .swatches. Apart from GIMP 3.2, which can import .swatches files, other apps don’t read the format, and they don’t all read each other’s palette files either, so the converter writes all of them.
| App | Download | Import from |
|---|---|---|
| Photoshop | .ase or .aco |
Swatches panel menu > Import Swatches |
| Illustrator, InDesign | .ase |
The Swatches panel menu |
| Affinity | .ase |
Swatches panel menu > Import Palette |
| Clip Studio Paint | .aco |
Color Set palette menu > Import color set |
| Krita | .kpl, or .ase, .aco, .gpl |
Palette docker > Import resources |
| GIMP | .gpl, or .ase, .aco |
Palettes dialog > Import Palette |
| Inkscape | .gpl |
The user palettes folder |
| Websites, code, notes | Hex codes or CSS | Paste them |
The PNG card is a picture of the palette with each hex code under its color, for a mood board or to send to a client.
Import the palette into your app
Photoshop
- Download the .ase file.
- In Photoshop, choose Window > Swatches.
- Open the Swatches panel menu and select Import Swatches, then pick the file. Adobe gives these steps in its guide to sharing swatches between applications.
Photoshop also reads the .aco download, its own swatch format, the same way.
Clip Studio Paint
- Download the .aco file.
- Open the Color Set palette, open its menu and choose Import color set, then pick the file.
The Clip Studio Paint manual lists .cls and Photoshop .aco as the formats it imports, and says you can also drag the file onto the Color Set palette on Windows, macOS and iPad.
Krita
- Download the .kpl file, Krita’s own palette format.
- In the Palette docker, open the palette list with the button at the bottom left and choose Import resources, then pick the file.
The Krita manual lists .kpl, .gpl, .aco and .ase among the formats the Palette docker imports, so the other downloads work too. The .kpl keeps Procreate’s empty slots where they were.
GIMP
- Download the .gpl file.
- Open Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Palettes, right-click in the list and choose Import Palette, then pick the file.
The GIMP manual also lists .aco and .ase as palette formats it imports.
Affinity
- Download the .ase file.
- Open the Swatches panel, open its menu and choose Import Palette, then pick the file.
Affinity’s help says its Swatches panel can import Adobe Swatch Exchange palettes. We have not tried it in an Affinity app.
Inkscape
Inkscape uses GIMP’s .gpl format. Its manual says to save the .gpl file in the folder shown under User palettes in Edit > Preferences > System, creating a palettes folder there if it doesn’t exist, then restart Inkscape.
What’s inside a .swatches file
A .swatches file is a ZIP archive with a single file in it, Swatches.json. Opening real palettes shows two shapes:
- Older palettes wrap the palette in a list:
[{"name": "...", "swatches": [...]}]. - Palettes saved by Procreate 5 and later are one object,
{"name": "...", "swatches": [...], "colorProfiles": [...]}, and thecolorProfilesentry carries the color profile itself (sRGB in the files we opened).
Each swatch stores hue, saturation, brightness and alpha, all from 0 to 1, plus colorSpace. Newer files add a components list, which holds hue, saturation and brightness for some swatches and red, green and blue for others, so the converter reads the hue, saturation and brightness values, which every swatch has. An empty slot is null; Procreate shows 10 slots to a row in Compact view, and the converter keeps the gaps on screen and in the Krita file. Swatches have no names.
Swatch converters compared
Checked on each tool’s own page on 14 October 2026.
| Tool | Where it runs | Writes | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| This converter | In your browser, no upload | .ase, .aco, .gpl, .kpl, hex, CSS, PNG | Free, no account |
| Palette Studio | Web app, desktop app and command line | .ase, .swatches, .gpl, plus PNG, PDF, CSS, Tailwind and more; no .aco | Free; Google sign-in for optional sync and sharing |
| procreate-swatches | A JavaScript library you call from your own code | .swatches; reads colors you can convert yourself | Free, MIT licence |
| Copying hex codes by hand | Procreate’s color panel | Whatever you type | Your time |
Palette Studio is the most complete palette editor of these, and it also makes .swatches files from other formats. If you need the .aco for Clip Studio Paint, a Krita .kpl, or just want the colors out of a .swatches file without an account, use this page. To turn Adobe palettes into Procreate ones, import the .ase or .aco straight into Procreate.
How this page was tested
On 14 October 2026 we converted four openly licensed .swatches files from the procreate-swatches project (MIT): three 30-color palettes in the older format and one Procreate 5 palette with two colors among empty slots and an sRGB profile. In Chrome on Linux we downloaded every format for each palette and checked them against the original files with separate readers: the Python swatch package for the .ase files, a reader written from Adobe’s specification for the .aco files, and plain ZIP and XML parsing for the .kpl files. Every color matched the hue, saturation and brightness stored in Procreate’s file, and the red, green and blue values the Procreate 5 palette also stores for one of its colors. GIMP 3.2.4 loaded the .gpl files with the same colors and names. We have not yet imported the files into Photoshop, Illustrator, Clip Studio Paint, Krita or Affinity themselves, and we have not had a palette saved in Display P3 to test.