Palette Swap

What is it for?

• Change the color scheme without changing the shading
• Batch-produce color variants for characters or weapons
• Recolor existing images to match a theme color

Overview

Recolors an image using the rule "color N in the source palette → color N in the replacement palette." This is the primary node for batch-producing color variants. Because shading structure remains completely intact, a prepared palette is enough to create enemy variants or material changes such as iron → gold.

Usage tips

• The standard setup: collect the source palette with palette_extract(Exact) → build a new scheme in the same order with palette_create → replace it here. Everything depends on matching the order of both palettes.
• For batch production, prepare several replacement palettes and send them through batch_render, or mechanically generate hue variants from the source palette with palette_adjust_hsv.
• For already-quantized pixel art, Exact is the only necessary choice: strict and safe. Use Nearest only for assets whose anti-aliasing or transparency shifts colors slightly.

Common pitfalls

• Some colors do not change: in Exact, colors do not match exactly; a difference of one value still fails. Align the image to the source palette first with palette_quantize, or use Nearest.
• Mappings shift and break the scheme: both palettes map from their first entry in order. If lengths differ, only the shorter length is used. Match order and length.
• Only one color needs changing: color_select_replace is simpler when a palette is unnecessary.

Finding colors

• Exact
  • Replaces only colors that exactly match the source palette.
  • Best for strict pixel-art recoloring.
• Nearest
  • Finds and replaces with the nearest source-palette color.
  • Useful when slightly shifted colors should map to nearby entries.

Notes

• Source and replacement palettes map in order from their first entries.
• If one is longer, only entries up to the shorter length are used.
• In Exact, unmatched colors remain unchanged.

Examples

1. Replace a red character scheme with a blue one.
2. Build a source palette with Palette Extract and convert to another theme palette.
3. Replace only a weapon's metal colors with another metal set.
4. Recolor a translucent asset while preserving opacity with preserve_alpha = true.

Related nodes

• palette_extract — collect the source palette, the go-to upstream step
• palette_adjust_hsv / palette_adjust_oklch — generate replacement palettes mechanically
• color_select_replace — replace only one or two colors
• common_palette_ref + indexed color — index-based color management across a project