Create Perfect Fabric Colours By Using Our Colour Atlas for Fabrics

Choosing the nuances on our innovative print tool guarantees perfect fabric colours in your project. Let's explain... The maake Colour Atlas consists of one meter of fabric printed with more than 2,400 color blocks with hex codes.

You don't need to imagine the perfect fabric colors for your coloured fabric printing project. When designing, don't rely on what your screen shows; match the perfect nuances on fabric by using our Colour Atlas. Not sure how? We'll show you how.

What's a Colour Atlas?

We created our Color Atlas using over 2,400 color blocks that we print on one meter of fabric. We print each of the color blocks with its hex code for ease of use. This allows designers to view colour chart and see the fabric colours live, pick the colours they want and then pop the color code into their design software. This way, when your design prints on the same fabric, you will know it will give you a perfect match. This is guaranteed view colour on fabric.

Get your colour atlas

How to use maake's color collection tool for fabric

Our innovative Color Atlas gives lets you choose the exact fabric colours you wish to use when printing patterns on fabric, whether you want to print on linen, cotton or a synthetic fabrics. It is an essential tool for selecting colors and for color matching on fabric. 

Once you have selected and matched your fabric colors from the Color Atlas collection, we highly recommend that you order a fabric sample print before you start printing. You will find these in our color sample book which includes a comprehensive base fabric collection of different base fabrics (80 in total) we offer to print on. 

These include an excellent collection of natural fabrics like cotton, linen and silk, as well as a range of synthetic fabric. You can then order a sample of your design to get an exact example of what the design and color will look like when we print it on your choice of fabric base. You won’t believe how stunning your linen fabric will look when we've printed on it!

Match the codes with RGB colours

We make RGB colors from the 3 primary colors: blue, green and red – hence the name RGB. Red, green and blue are the colours you see on your computer screen when you create a design or a collection of patterns to print on fabrics. We can also combine red, green and blue (RGB) colors to create other colors to use on fabrics.

We profile most of our fabric to print as closely as possible to your design. But there will always be variations between different fabric bases – whether you choose linen, rayon, or another fabric of your choice.

Once you have the Color Atlas, you can use the codes on them to match the RGB (red, green, blue) colors in your software. Make sure that you set up your design before you drop the colors in. Drop them to:

- Image Mode: RGB / 8 Bits per channel
- Image Profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1

You can use the color dropper tool on Photoshop to select the color you want and drop it into the file.

You should be able to enter the 6 Digit ‘Hex Code’ -eg. 6688FF into the Photoshop color picker/dropper section beginning with #.

Using hex codes for fabric colors

Hex color codes are one type of HTML color code that you’ll often hear referred to as hexadecimal color or hex. The reason to use hexadecimal numbers is that it’s a human-friendly representation of values in binary code. 

Hex color codes start with a hashtag (#). We then add six letters and/or numbers to follow this hashtag. The first two letters/numbers refer to red, the next two refer to green, and the last two refer to blue. Those relate to the red, green and blue (RGB) colors.

Create a swatch box on PS or Illustrator

View the Swatches panel in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop by navigating to Window > Swatches by selecting Window > Colour > Swatches.
This palette is the central hub for default process color swatches, along with saved swatches from your design or library.

How to create color swatches in Illustrator

1. Choose a color using the color picker or panel.
2. Drag to color from the tools panel or color panel to the swatches panel.
3. In the swatches panel, click the new swatch button or select new swatch from the panel menu.

Create color swatches for fabrics in Photoshop

1. To create a new set to hold your own color swatches, click the Create New Group icon at the bottom of the Swatches panel.
   2. Give the new set a name, like "My Swatches", and then click OK.
   3. Your new set appears below the other sets in the list.

We hope this little guide helped you! 
Now you're all set up for your fabric printing project! To choose how you’re going to print on fabric, read our go-to printing guide for fabric here.

For more colour inspiration, we’ve compiled the ultimate color guide for your digital color printing. Read it before you print!

Print fabrics for chairs, sofas, footstools and clothing with maake

Now that you’ve sorted your color matching and color fabrics collection, it’s time to print your fabric. Choose from our extensive collection of natural fabrics (cotton, silk, linen etc) and synthetics. Remember to check which fabrics are best for particular products like ladies dresses, cushions, curtains, throws, chairs,Parker Knoll discover furniture etc.

Choose your base fabric – we have everything from velvet to cotton to choose from!

Choose from our library of 15,300 designs

Create your own design

Remember: you can also purchase readymade fabric lifestyle products for your home like cushions, throws and other home accessories from our sister website, maakeHome. Check out the fabulous product selection here.