There are a couple of ways to create a custom color palette in Aseprite:
- Asesprite can auto-generate a palette based on an existing sprite.
- Customize an existing built-in color palette and save it as a new palette.
Let’s look at both methods.
1. Create palette based on a current sprite
The fastest way to create a custom color palette in Aseprite is if you already have a sprite that you’re working on, and then decide to create the foundation of your color palette based on your current sprite’s colors:
- Go to Options, and choose > Create Palette from Current Sprite:
![Create Palette from Current Sprite Create Palette from Current Sprite](/static/6bf4644fafa3355033812cb4204b3082/a82ee/create-palette-from-current-sprite-aseprite.png)
- Now you can configure your new color palette, such as how many colors you want to use. If you’re not sure, just keep the default settings and click OK:
![Save color palette window in Aseprite Save color palette window in Aseprite](/static/d8ef530070934b064204a9ca697bbf7d/4d3f1/palette-from-sprite-options-window.png)
You should now see your newly generated color palette show up as your current palette in Aseprite. Here’s how it looked when I followed the steps above to generate a palette based on a Halo character sprite:
![Color palette generated based on existing sprite in Aseprite Color palette generated based on existing sprite in Aseprite](/static/bf34a1d201f675a2b2558e9d0c2f813f/4d3f1/color-palette-generated-based-on-current-sprite-aseprite.png)
Click on the Options dropdown list in the top left corner of Aseprite, and click “Save Palette”:
![Replace color in Aseprite window Replace color in Aseprite window](/static/2313bca6f55631bd103b1a4b258b3a47/61857/how-to-save-a-custom-color-palette-in-aseprite.png)
2. Customize existing Aseprite palette
You can also load one of the built-in Aseprite palettes. Then you can delete the colors you don’t want, add new ones, and save that as your custom palette.
For example, if you like Aseprite’s built-in ARNE16 palette and want to use that as a starting point for your own palette:
- Load the ARNE16 palette from the Presets list.
- To remove a color, click on it and press Cmd + X (Ctrl on Windows) to cut it out from the palette list.
- To add a new color, click on the Foreground color at the bottom left corner to launch the color options window.
- Choose a new color.
- As soon as you choose a new color, a little red exclamation mark pops up. Click on it to add your new color to your existing palette.
Here’s a quick video demonstration:
Save your custom palette
To save your custom palette in Aseprite, go Options > Save Palette.
But where should you save your custom color palettes?
You can save your palettes where you want, however, where you do it makes a difference to your Aseprite workflow moving forward.
I wrote this short tutorial about where to save and load your custom Aseprite palettes. It’ll be worth the 2 minutes of reading.