What are swatches?
Swatches are small, but very useful visual indicators that display the colors, patterns and materials in which a product is available to customers.
Instead of displaying the options as plain text, swatches provide a more intuitive and engaging way for customers to interact with the available choices. You can either use color hex codes, the variant images or upload your own custom swatch images to display on your product variants.
An example of color swatches:
How to set up swatches
Steps
- Open the Theme Editor, and click on Theme Settings > Swatches.
- Within the Swatch option name setting, enter the variant option title (e.g. Color)
- Within the Swatch color list setting, enter the color followed by :
then followed by the hex code (which should start with a #).
(Example Red:#ff0000, Green:#008000, Blue:#0000ff). - Each color should be on a separate line:
Striped swatches
Follow the same method as above. The only difference is you can string two or three codes together. Do not include the : in the middle, only include the # to separate between hex codes. Refer to the image example below.
Display swatches on collection/search filters
Steps
- Open the Theme Editor, and click on Theme settings > Swatches.
- Within the Collection filters settings, check Enable swatches in collection filter.
Variant images as swatches
Steps
- Open the Theme Editor, and click on Theme Settings > Swatches.
- Within the Swatch method setting, set the dropdown to Variant image
- Within the Variant picker settings, set the Swatch variant picker style.
Note
Custom images as swatches
If you prefer using your own images instead of hex codes or variant images, you can upload custom images that will be shown as swatches.
Steps
- Create a PNG or JPG image file for each color. Aim to match the size of the Icon size setting to prevent any stretching or image blurring. Maintaining consistent size and aspect ratio across all image files is recommended to prevent cropping.
- Name each file to match the handle of the variant color title, replacing spaces with a dash (-) and keeping the file name lowercase. For example, if the variant is named "Fire Engine Red" name the file "fire-engine-red.png". Remove any special characters, use only the Latin/Roman alphabet and standard characters (a-z) only. For instance, "waldgrün.png" should be renamed to "waldgrun.png."
- Open the Shopify admin and click on Content > Files.
- Select Upload files to upload your images.
- Open the Theme Editor, and click on Theme Settings > Swatches.
- Within the Color option name setting, enter the variant option title. This is the title you give that your variants fall under.
- Within the Swatch color list setting, enter the name of the followed by : followed by the file name. Each color should be on a separate line.
FAQs
Will swatches still work when the store language is changed?
Yes. Under swatch settings, you will want to add the translations of your variant title in other languages.
Steps
- Open the Theme Editor, and click on Theme Settings > Swatches.
- In the Color option name settings, add translations, separating each word with a comma and no spaces in between.
- Check your translation app. Please note, Shopify's built-in translation app lacks an auto-translation feature, it is crucial to consistently confirm and auto-translate whenever modifications are made otherwise the swatches won't display.
Why are my custom images not showing as swatches?
If the custom image is not displayed, it may mean a step was missed in the instructions above. Or you may have a 3rd party app installed that affects the product page. Disable any such apps to confirm and if you identify the offending app, you can contact the app's support team for assistance.
Can I have swatches on more than one option on the product page?
Yes, you need to add that Color option title in the Color option name field separated by a comma.
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