---
title: "Fabric swatch (swatch): meaning in product photography | Herofab"
description: "A small sample of a fabric, or a small image of it, that shows its colour, pattern and texture before a garment is chosen or made."
url: https://herofab.app/glossary/fabric-swatch
language: en
updated: 2026-10-06
---

# Fabric swatch

A small sample of a fabric, or a small image of it, that shows its colour, pattern and texture before a garment is chosen or made.

Also called **swatch** · **fabric sample**

![The same jacket made in the camouflage fabric, its fleece collar unchanged](https://herofab.app/img/ex/navybomber-camo-1100.webp)

Made with Herofab · Fabric studio

In a workshop a swatch is a cutting from the bolt, pinned to a card with its name and composition. Online, a swatch is a small square image beside a product, one for each colour or cloth on offer, that a shopper selects to change the variant. Both serve one purpose: to show the material apart from the garment.

A swatch image has to be true to the cloth: photographed flat, in even daylight, straight on and close enough to show the weave, with at least one full repeat of any pattern. A physical swatch remains the reference where the exact shade matters, because screens differ from one another and from the fabric.

Updated 5 October 2026

[Fabric studio](https://herofab.app/tools/fabric-studio) · [Colour variants](https://herofab.app/tools/color-variants) · [Colour variant images](https://herofab.app/glossary/colour-variant-images) · [All terms](https://herofab.app/glossary/)