Objects on a layer can be custom formatted to your requirements. This is done through the use of Themes. A Theme consists of individual Styles that can then be applied to objects.
Another option is to auto format a layer based on an attribute value of that layer. For example, a land types layer where the land type is specified for each object can then have pre-configured palettes automatically applied based on this specific field value.
The same process can also be applied to numeric values - number range or unique values.
