In Creative Suite 2 Adobe introduced the Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ASE) file format. With it, you can create custom swatch colors in InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop, and import them into the rest without having to manually recreate them. Among several ramifications, that means for print output pros fewer instances of the common problem of the same spot color used under multiple names.
To copy swatches into another application, choose Save Swatches for Exchange from the flyout menu of any CS2 application’s Swatches palette. You’ll be presented with the Save As dialog, and you’ll create a .ASE file. Save the file–if it’s colors for a particular project, save it in the project folder.
Load the swatches in the next CS2 application by selecting Load Swatches from the Swatches palette. Set the Files of Type dropdown to “Swatch Exchange (*.ASE),” and navigate to the location of the file you just created. Click Load, and your palette will populate. Now, load them into the next application.