Colors and the Color Library

Color in GarmentFlow lives on the Variant doctype. A Variant is a specific colorway, wash, or design — for example a solid like Pantone® 19-1664 TPX, a wash like "Indigo Stone Wash," or a design like "SS26 Tropical Floral." Every Tech Pack lists the Variants it's available in, and every finished garment carries its Variant as part of its identity.

Getting color right matters. The wrong shade in production is one of the most expensive mistakes a factory makes; the wrong color name in GarmentFlow is one of the most common ones.

Variant

A Variant has a handful of fields that matter:

• Type — Solid, Wash, or Design. Drives which other fields are shown.
• Color — a color picker that stores the color as a computer color code (a "hex" value, e.g. #1B2A4E). You don't need to know the code; just pick the color visually.
• Color code — the standard color reference (such as a Pantone® code), when applicable.
• Image — an attached swatch, color card, or artwork.

Solid colors carry a color value and (usually) a standard color code. Washes link to a Denim Shade. Designs carry a name and an artwork image. The next three sections cover each path.

Solid colors and the color library

GarmentFlow comes preloaded with 2,310+ industry-standard colors for you to pick from — each one a Variant record with its code, color value, and color card image already filled in. No setup beyond the one-time load.

The preloaded set is drawn from a public, open color dataset: github.com/margaret2/pantone-colors.

Color Picker. The library has its own picker for finding the right color when you don't already know the code:

• Search bar. Type a color number (e.g. 19-4010) to jump straight to it.
• Color picker. Pick a color visually and the picker returns the 20 closest matches, ranked by similarity. Use this when the brand has given you a shade rather than a code.

Color ↔ code auto-sync. Once you've picked or entered something, the rest fills in:

• Sync from color. Pick a color visually → the picker finds the closest match and fills in the code and name.
• Sync from code. Enter a code like 19-1664 TPX → the picker fills in the color value and the color card image.
• Select from existing. Search the library by code or name and pick — everything pre-fills.

Note: the color picker on the Variant form itself just stores a color; only the library's Color Picker performs the closest-match lookup.

Denim Shades

Alongside the color library, GarmentFlow ships a Denim Shade library for denim work, organized by family:

• Blue denim — from dark raw indigo through to super-light wash.
• Aged Blue denim — vintage and worn tones.
• Black denim — raw black through to washed and faded black.

When specifying a denim wash, pick the shade that best matches the desired finish from this library rather than approximating with a solid color code. The shade carries denim-specific wash notes that a color code doesn't.

Designs and Prints

For artwork-based variants — placement prints, all-over prints, embroidery layouts, sublimation graphics — use the Design variant type. Designs don't carry a color or code; they carry a name and an attached artwork image.

To add a design to a Tech Pack:

1. On the Tech Pack, click Add Row under the Variants table and open the Variant Link. Some existing variants will populate.
2. Scroll to the bottom and click Create a New Variant.
3. In the popup, choose the type — Design, Solid, or Wash.
4. Pick Design, type a clear name (e.g. SS26 Tropical Floral, Acme Logo Chest Print), and attach the artwork image.
5. Save. The new design is now available as a variant on this and any future Tech Pack.

Variant is a master, so designs are meant to be reused. A brand logo print, a recurring all-over pattern, or a seasonal artwork can be created once and applied to any number of Tech Packs. Before creating a new Design variant, search the existing list to see if it already exists.

Humanising the Variant Name

When you pick a color or Denim Shade and add it to a Tech Pack's Variants child table, the variant comes in with its full technical name — e.g. 19-4010 TCX. You can (and usually should) rename it to something a production operator or customer recognises: Navy Blue, Bottle Green, Vintage Indigo.

This humanised name is what appears on production orders, batches, labels, packing lists, and shipping documents. The color or Denim Shade link stays intact behind the scenes for color reports and consistency, but day-to-day people see the friendly name.

When to Create a New Variant

Off-library "Acme Red" variants are allowed and sometimes the right call — but they require discipline. Without it, duplicates pile up ("Acme Red," "Acme Red 2," "Acme Red Final") and erode the consistency that makes color reports useful.

The good news: when you pick from the color library or the Denim Shade library, GarmentFlow recognises the reference and reuses the existing Variant record instead of creating a duplicate. Pick the same color twice across two Tech Packs and you'll get the same Variant on both — not two copies.

Guidance:

• Solid colors — pick from the color library whenever the brand has given you a code. Deduplication is automatic.
• Denim washes — pick from the Denim Shade library. Same automatic dedupe.
• Off-brand or custom solids — create a new Variant if you genuinely have no standard color reference, but name it clearly and resist creating near-duplicates.
• Designs and Prints — search the existing Variants first. If the artwork is already in GarmentFlow from a previous Tech Pack, reuse it; only create a new one if it's genuinely new artwork.

What to do next

Move on to Size charts and points of measurement to set up the size scales your Tech Packs will use.