PSP 2018 Palettes

[JudyM]

I have been saving palettes in PSP 2018 and despite having my file preferences set to a My PSP Files>palettes folder in my documents, they are not saving to that spot. Similarly,the swatches associated with the palettes are not saving to the swatches folder there. They are accessible in the swatches palettes within the program but I can't work out where they are stored.
Also previously created swatches/palettes created in previous versions are not displaying. [ I have checked my file locations.]
Can anyone help?

[JudyM]

I have since found my swatches although swatches from previous versions of PSP are not showing up.
I cannot find custom color palette files - are these simply the folders within the swatch folder?

[hartpaul]

Thank you for asking this question. I have not used swatches or palettes much before ao this gave me incentive to investigate.

I set up a palette in PSP2018 and called it XXXX2018. I added two colors to it and then did a computer search for XXXX2018.
It came up with two swatches in :

C:\Users\paul\Documents\Corel PaintShop Pro\2018\Swatches

which contained a folder:
XXXX2018.
This contained two swatches :
Swatch_XXXX2018 Swatch 1.PspScript
Swatch_XXXX2018 Swatch 2.PspScript

I then set up a palette/ swatches in PSP X7 called XXXX7 and found the folder at
C:\Users\paul\Documents\Corel PaintShop Pro\17.0\Swatches

I could not find anything stored in the Palettes folder in either program.

I then went to File Locations in PSP 2018 (File > Preferences > File Locations )
and added the X7 Swatches location from above and those swatches / palette was now available in 2018.

So although the Palettes folder is still there it appears not to be used unless it is a temporary folder. Which makes sense really why have a list of Palettes names in the Palettes folder and then have to read the swatches folder to collect the respective swqatches. So all appears done in the Swatches folder.

As for changing the save location of swatches/palettes to :
C:\Users\paul\Documents\My PSP Files
It could not be changed.
In X7 I only had access to the main folder Swatches :
C:\Users\paul\Documents\Corel PaintShop Pro\17.0\Swatches (to add new palette folders containing swatches)
or to other Palette folders in that main folder
C:\Users\paul\Documents\Corel PaintShop Pro\17.0\Swatches\XXXX7 ( to add new swatches to the XXXX7 palette)

I checked back in Jasc PSP8 and there the swatches were all saved in the Swatches folder and you could not name a Palette to hold those swatches.

[JudyM]

Thanks Paul
I did manage to make my default swatches "save to" to a folder of my choice.
I think I've nutted it out a bit after finding this old forum post: http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=55620
It seems that the file extension .PspPalette no longer exists
I wonder why X7 and above have a palettes folder?
BTW I have put my old swatches [ .PspScript extension] into labelled folders within my swatches folder - they now show up in 2018

[LeviFiction]

Palettes are different than swatch palettes. This is one of those instances where the overuse of the term palette has led to confusion.

Palette - the tool blocks used in PSP that can be docked to the edges of the program
Palette - Indexed image colors (up to 256) that identify the available colors in an image
Palette - Newly added (X6 or X7) folder organization of swatches that appear on the Materials palette

So the current ability to save an individual palette of swatches for the Materials palette was introduced I want to say either in X6 or X7. This new ability was just an organization trick on Corel's part, Before this all swatches were saved to one folder. The swatches folder. And there was no separation of the swatches beyond basic organization such as name or type. So if I made some custom swatches for an image I was working on they would end up jumbled among all of the others. It was requested that we have the ability to make separate swatch pages, so we could have the separation of swatches. They gave us that, and called these folders palettes.

The palette folder,however, was for saving image color palettes. So, for example, if you take an image and convert it to a 256 indexed color image that image is given a palette of 256 colors calculated from the colors in the image. Then go to Image -> Palette -> Save Palette you'll be asked for a name and a format type ".psppalette" or ".pal" and this will be saved to the Palettes folder. This single file will contain all of the colors, but they will not be readable by the swatches on the materials palette. These can only be loaded into PSP as part of the current 256 indexed color image.

Though I do have a script that can convert a PSPPalette and Microsoft PAL file into a folder swatch palette. They are both very easy formats to convert.

So, if you have old PSPPalette files you want to be made available as swatches they need to be converted, and all swatches you make have always gone into the swatches folder and swatch palettes are just sub-folders in the swatches folder.

[JudyM]

Levi
Many thanks for your explanation!
Certainly that helps