by Zack Lovatt·Workflow
Images © Zack Lovatt. Used for product review; image policy.
Earns a place in the aescripts library as a compact colour-swatch panel that keeps working from CS6 all the way up to After Effects 2026.
Swatcheroo is a colour swatch panel for After Effects, created by Zack Lovatt. The developer bills it as a 'swatch pal,' short for palette, and it gives you a place to keep and reuse colours while you work in After Effects. The panel maintains a history of colours as swatches, and you can control how many history rows it displays.
Applying a colour takes a SHIFT and CLICK on a swatch, while a CMD or CTRL and CLICK removes one. History swatches can be locked, with helptip information to guide unlocking them, and you can choose to delete a removed colour outright rather than simply disabling it. These options and shortcuts were largely shaped in the 1.1.0 release, which also refreshed the default colours.
Version 1.1.4, released March 9, 2026, updated the license framework and fixed online activation connection issues. Swatcheroo runs across a broad span of After Effects versions, from CS6 through the CC releases and every yearly build up to After Effects 2026.
Swatcheroo is best for after Effects users who want a reusable colour palette and swatch history while working.
Swatcheroo is completely free to download and use.
Swatcheroo supports a wide range of After Effects versions, from CS6 through CC, CC 2014, CC 2015, 2015.3, CC 2017, CC 2018, CC 2019, and each release from 2020 up to After Effects 2026. That long compatibility list means it fits both older installs and current versions. The most recent update, version 1.1.4, arrived on March 9, 2026, and updated the license framework while fixing online activation connection issues. For the current requirements, check the developer's page.
Swatcheroo is listed here as free. Because licensing terms can change, and the plugin uses online activation through a license framework that was updated in version 1.1.4, it's worth confirming the current details on the developer's page before you rely on it. That same 1.1.4 update also fixed online activation connection issues, so if you run into activation trouble, make sure you are running the latest version.
Swatcheroo applies a colour when you SHIFT and CLICK a swatch, and removes a colour when you CMD or CTRL and CLICK it. These shortcuts were set in version 1.1.0, which added the SHIFT and CLICK apply action and changed the remove-colour shortcut to CMD/CTRL and CLICK. The panel keeps a history of colours, and history swatches can be locked, with helptip information available to guide unlocking them.
Swatcheroo lets you set the number of history rows shown in the panel, an option added in version 1.1.0. That version also introduced the choice to delete a removed colour rather than simply disable it. Later fixes addressed odd behaviours with locked history swatches and a bug when setting additional rows, so configuring the layout should behave reliably on the current version, 1.1.4. History swatches can also be locked to keep them from changing.
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