Using Adobe Illustrator Swatches is one of the most important skills to learn if you’re a designer. What are Adobe Illustrator Swatches though? In this article, I will show you everything there is to know about using Swatches in Adobe Illustrator. By the end of this article, you’ll have a better understanding of how to use swatches in your designs.
Swatch is a color specifically picked from a collection of colors. It is changed in artwork to give out a different effect. Adobe Illustrator, on the other hand, provides the users with the option of creating color groups referred to as swatches. Illustrator allows us to create any artwork using color groups, which in turn helps us reduce or expand the range of colors used in our artwork. In this article, we are going to see how to create and manage Adobe Illustrator Swatches. – https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/using-creating-swatches.html
What is a swatch?
A swatch is a color sample. You can use swatches to change the color of objects in your Illustrator document. If you want to change the color of an object, you can select it, then choose a swatch from the Swatches panel.
Swatch libraries store colors in different formats:
• CMYK – These are colors that are not only RGB but also have a K value for black. This allows them to be used in print as well as on-screen.
• RGB – These are colors that can be used on-screen and in print documents.
The Swatches Palette
The Adobe Illustrator Swatches palette is where you can store and organize your swatches.
After you create a swatch, it’s automatically added to the Swatches palette. If you want to save the swatch for later use, you can drag it from the Swatches palette onto an object on your canvas, or choose File > Save Swatch.
You can also add custom colors to your Swatches palette by choosing New Color from the Swatches panel menu and then clicking on the color box to define a new shade of red, blue, or any other color. The new color will appear in your Swatches list with its name highlighted so that you can change its name if necessary by double-clicking on it and typing out something more descriptive than “Red” (or whatever).
Using Swatches to Colorize Objects
Swatches are a way to colorize objects in Adobe Illustrator. They allow you to assign colors to different elements of your artwork and use them throughout your design.
To create a swatch, first, select the object you’d like to colorize. Next, click the Swatches panel on the right side of your screen, then click New Swatch at the bottom of the panel (or press Control-Y). A new swatch will be added to your list of swatches. This is where you’ll name it and choose its color—and this is also where you can edit any existing swatches by double-clicking on them and changing their colors or names.
Once you’ve created your swatch, click OK when prompted and it will now appear in your Swatches panel. You can use this new swatch by dragging it onto any other object in your design that has not yet been colored—it will apply that color automatically!
Editing Illustrator Swatches
Adobe Illustrator Swatches are a great way to save time when you’re designing. Let’s say you want to create a logo using green, red, and blue. Instead of having to keep track of all three colors and their hex codes in your design document, you can just select the swatch “green,” “red,” or “blue” and it will use that color automatically.
But what if you want to edit the swatch? How do you go about that?
In this article, we’ll show you how to edit Adobe Illustrator Swatches so that they can be used in any design project.
Adobe Illustrator swatches are used to change the color of objects in your document. They can be applied to anything—from text to shapes, and even images.
To edit a swatch:
- Click on the Swatches panel (Window > Swatches) or press Ctrl + Shift + S.
- Double-click a swatch you want to edit in the panel, or click on it once and then click on the Edit button at the top right of the panel.
- You can change existing colors by clicking on the color box and selecting a new color from the color picker (or by clicking on any existing swatch in your document). You can also change an existing swatch’s name by typing over it with your keyboard or using the up/down arrows next to it to select a new name from a list of preset names that Adobe has provided for you!
Creating your Custom Illustrator Swatches
In this article, we will be discussing how to create your own custom Illustrator swatches.
You can create custom swatches by using the Swatch Libraries panel. To open this panel, click Window > Color Libraries > Swatches.
In the Swatch Libraries panel, you will see two separate libraries: “Standard” and “Creative Cloud”. The Creative Cloud library is where you can access all of Adobe’s custom swatches, whereas the standard library is where you can add your own custom swatches.
To add a new swatch, click on the plus sign (+) inside the lower right corner of the Swatch Libraries panel. This will open up a dialog box that allows you to choose whether or not you want to create a spot color or a process color swatch. If you are creating a spot color swatch, then make sure it has been assigned an ink by going through File > Print Production Proof Setup > Assign Ink Color… otherwise it will appear as gray in Illustrator (this does not mean it won’t print). Process colors are those that use multiple inks for each color on the screen. At this point in time, there is no way to assign multiple inks within Illustrator itself but this may change later down. – https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/the-ultimate-guide-to-adobe-illustrator-swatches–cms-33246
Printing Illustrator Swatches
You can print Adobe Illustrator swatches by using the Print dialog box. You can choose to print all of your swatches, only those that are selected, or a combination of both. This is useful if you want to print some swatches but not all of them.
To do this, follow these steps:
1) Open the file in which you want to print the swatches.
2) Choose File > Print. The Print dialog box appears with the Printer section displayed by default.
3) Click on the Swatches tab at the top of the dialog box (if necessary). This shows a list of your current swatch colors and their values.
4) Select any options that apply to your situation (e.g., whether you want to include only selected swatches). Click OK when done with any changes made in step 3 above; then click OK again when finished with all options set up as desired within step 4 above.
Saving your Swatch Libraries to Share with Others
Adobe Illustrator Swatches are great for saving your favorite colors, but did you know that you can also save them to share with others?
Saving your Swatch Libraries to Share with Others
If you’re working on a design project with a team of other designers, it’s important that everyone uses the same color palette. To make sure that happens, save your Swatch Libraries so that everyone has access to them.
To do this:
- Select Window > Swatch Libraries > Save Library for Exchange.
- Enter a name for your library in the dialog box and click OK.
- Save the file wherever you’d like to keep it accessible from within Illustrator (such as on your desktop).
