Watercolor swatch cards and color chart templates for every palette

Watercolor swatch charts and cards make it easy to test, mix and organize your whole paint collection. This 22 page set includes charts for 12, 24, 36 and 48 colors, pigment property cards, mixing grids in 6 x 6 and 12 x 12, triads, value ladders, palette maps and cut-out cards.

You receive US Letter and A4 PDF files as an instant download. Nothing is shipped.

How these watercolor swatch sheets help you know your paints

Paint an entire palette onto one chart and note the pigment code beneath every color. In a single glance you can spot paints that are secretly the same pigment. The property cards and test chart reveal which colors are transparent, which ones stain and which granulate, thanks to a printed black bar and a lift box.

Mixing grids, six triad triangles and 16 value ladders show you what your paints can do together, while palette maps for 12, 24 and 48 half pans keep a record of the layout in your lid. Cut-out swatch, mix and dot cards turn the colors you love most into a small deck you can flip through.

Who these color charts are for

• Watercolor painters who want to truly understand their paints, not simply collect them
• Beginners putting together a first palette and learning to mix colors
• Anyone whose paint collection keeps growing and who wants charts, a wishlist and an inventory together
• Painters who travel with a compact half pan palette and need a map of where each color sits

Design and printing

• A clean, minimal style: white pages with gentle blush pink accents and very low ink use
• Roomy margins all around, so your home printer will not trim anything
• Portrait pages in A4 (210 x 297 mm) and US Letter (8.5 x 11 in)
• Undated, so you can print new charts whenever your palette changes
• Soft gray and blush lines that stay in the background under paint, with no coloring pages
• Card pages include crop marks at precise sizes: 2 x 3.5 in for swatch and mix cards and 4 x 6 in for dot cards
• Keep it in a binder or on a clipboard, or have a print shop spiral bind it

Inside the watercolor swatch set: 22 pages

1. 1Cover page listing the contents
2. 2Getting started: five steps that take you from a clean palette to a well organized set, an example of a good swatch running from masstone to tint, a guide to the pages, a checklist for swatch sessions, notes and paper suggestions
3. 3Understanding pigment codes: what the letters stand for, symbols for transparency, lightfastness ratings, staining, granulation, masstone and undertone, plus a fade test by the window with 5 strips and notes
4. 4Chart for 12 colors with big numbered swatches, each followed by lines for the color name, pigment code and lightfast rating
5. 5Chart for 24 colors, with those same three lines beneath each swatch
6. 6Chart for 36 colors arranged 6 x 6
7. 7Chart for 48 colors arranged 6 x 8
8. 8Six pigment property cards, each holding the color name and pigment code, a box with a printed black bar to test transparency, a box you paint and then lift to test staining, a granulation box and checkboxes for clarity, staining, texture and lightfast rating
9. 9A chart that compares 9 paints row by row (color and pigment, swatch, over black, lift test, granulation, notes), plus boxes naming the most transparent paint, the strongest stainer and the best granulator
10. 10A 6 x 6 mixing grid with header circles for six colors of your choice, a shaded diagonal reserved for the pure colors, a key and a box for your favorite mix
11. 11A 12 x 12 mixing grid of 144 squares, with a key for colors 1 to 12
12. 12Six triad triangles, each with three corner circles, two mixing circles along every side, a neutral at the center and lines to note the yellow, red and blue
13. 13Value ladders in five steps for 16 colors, running from full strength down to the palest tint, with room for notes
14. 14Palette map for 12 half pans with an illustrated palette, a mixing area and a pan key for color name, pigment and notes
15. 15Palette map for 24 half pans with a key covering 24 colors
16. 16Palette map for 48 half pans with a key covering 48 colors
17. 17Ten cut-out swatch cards per page, each 2 x 3.5 in, with an area to paint, the color name, pigment code and checkboxes for clarity, staining, granulation and lightfast rating
18. 18Ten cut-out mix cards per page, each 2 x 3.5 in, with a pair of color circles, the resulting mix and lines for the mix name, colors and ratio
19. 19Two cut-out dot cards per page, each 4 x 6 in, holding 15 numbered dots and lines for names
20. 20Six palette recipe cards, each with three color circles, the finished mix, lines for the mix name, colors and ratio, and a note on what it is good for
21. 21A paint wishlist of 16 rows for color name, pigment code, the reason you want it, a similar paint you already have and a priority rating, plus spaces for gaps in my palette and samples to try first
22. 22Inventory of supplies: paints in 11 rows noting tube or pan and how much is left, brushes in 7 rows, paper in 7 rows, other supplies and items running low

Files in your download

• Watercolor Swatch Cards & Color Chart Templates, US Letter PDF (22 pages)
• Watercolor Swatch Cards & Color Chart Templates, A4 PDF (22 pages)
• Read Me First, a brief guide to printing (PDF)

How to download and print

• Check out with PayPal, a debit or credit card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Your download page opens as soon as the payment goes through.
• We email the same private download links to you, so you can download your files again later.
• Open the PDF in a free reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader and print at 100% or Actual size.
• Print only the pages you need, as often as you like, for your own personal use.

Good to know

• These sheets are a PDF meant to be printed and painted on. They are neither a hyperlinked digital file nor a coloring book.
• You are buying a digital file. Nothing physical arrives in the mail.
• Printed colors may look a little different from what you see on screen.
• The files are for your personal use. Sharing, reselling or redistributing them is not permitted.
• Digital files cannot be returned. If one will not open or print properly, email us and we will sort it out quickly.
• No paints, brushes or paper are included.
• The pigment codes follow general color index names, so the sheets suit any paint brand you own.

How this was made

Designed and written by PetiteDiary. AI tools helped draft parts of the text, and some background scenes in the preview images were created with AI. Every page was designed, reviewed and checked before release.

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