5 Replies Latest reply: Nov 11, 2012 9:33 AM by emil emil RSS

    What is the logic behind the color selection

    Andy Bay Community Member
    Andy Bay Nov 11, 2012 7:49 AM

      Hi!

       

      Here's something I never understood about Illustrator: When I have a layer selected and I want to give it a fill color, my intuition guides me to the top bar's fill color box. But in the dialogue box that open there are never any colors for me, just "none" and "registration". I know I can hold down shift when I click to be able to choose colors, but coming from PS and AE I always forget to press it. Is my workflow flawed in some way or why is it so hard to select colors in Illustrator? In other words, why is the shift needed in the first place (I'm assuming there must be a good reason)?

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        • 1. Re: What is the logic behind the color selection
          [scott] CommunityMVP
          [scott] Nov 11, 2012 7:58 AM (in response to Andy Bay)

          It sounds as if you are opening raster images with Illustrator. In which case, there are no default swatches loaded.

           

          What happens when you sinply choose "File > New" from within Illustrator? Do you have swatches then?

          • 2. Re: What is the logic behind the color selection
            Andy Bay Community Member
            Andy Bay Nov 11, 2012 8:20 AM (in response to [scott])

            You are right that I'm not working from file-->new but instead I'm opening svg-files to Illustrator. Okay so basically the problem is missing swatches? What is the fastest way to fix that?

            • 3. Re: What is the logic behind the color selection
              Larry G. Schneider CommunityMVP
              Larry G. Schneider Nov 11, 2012 9:05 AM (in response to Andy Bay)

              From the Swatch panel flyout choose Add Used Colors.

              • 4. Re: What is the logic behind the color selection
                emil emil Community Member
                emil emil Nov 11, 2012 9:10 AM (in response to Andy Bay)

                Swatches are part of the document and created by the user but they can be saved as a library on the hard drive and be opened in Illustrator. Also Illustrator comes with a lot of swatch libraries. You can open a swatch library from the menu of the Swatches panel. The swatches that come by choosing File New are listed as Default Swatch libraries when you choose Open Swatch Libraries from the menu in the swatches panel.

                To move the swatches from a library panel to the document you can select them by Shift clicking the first and last swatch in a library and drag and drop the swatches into the Swatches panel.

                When you create a file using File > New you are actually creating an instance or custom variation of the instance of one of the existing files (profiles) listed in the New Document Profile menu in the New Document dialog box. These profile files have swatches already created in them.

                 

                If you just want to open a raster image in a document that has already swatches, you can create a new document and place or paste the image into the document. To place the image use File > Place or just drag and drop the image file from a folder to a document in Illustrator. You also have to learn about embedded and linked files in case you don't know it.

                • 5. Re: What is the logic behind the color selection
                  emil emil Community Member
                  emil emil Nov 11, 2012 9:33 AM (in response to Larry G. Schneider)

                  Larry G. Schneider wrote:

                   

                  From the Swatch panel flyout choose Add Used Colors.

                  @ Andy Bay, to make this work with a raster image, on a copy of the image selected, choose Object > Create Object Mosaic. Then choosing Add Used Colors from the menu of the Swatches panel when noting is selected or Add Selected Colors when you have selection of vector objects from the mosaic, Illustrator will create swatches with the colors of the raster image.