In Illustrator, there
are many ways to use color. It all really comes down to what exactly you're
using color for. For example, if you are creating artwork for digital and web, you
will want to use RGB colors. And if you're crating artwork for print, you may
wish to use CMYK colors. In some cases, you may find yourself using a Pantone
book to reference colors or a printer you wish to use will only require
Pantones. We’re going to be covering swatches and Pantones and discussing how
you can customize and handle your colors for your specific task. Later, we will
also be touching on gradients and transparency.
Click on each tab and
drag it up so we can clearly see them. So here we have of the swatches panel,
the color panel, our Pantone panel, we have the gradient panel and the
transparency panel.
Swatches panel
This is a handy panel where
you can access some predefined colors. The swatches panel will come with a
bunch of predefined swatches. So here we mostly have some colors, but we also
have some color effects too, such as gradients and patent overlays. If you move
your mouse cursor over your swatches, you will see the name pop up. Now, if you
double click on the swatch, up will pop the options, and this window will tell
you more details about the color. In this instance, we have the color mode of
the document sent to RGB so this swatch is showing the color mode of RGB, and
here we can see the values. At this point, it's important to mention that
currently the document color mode is currently sent to RGB. You can change the
color mode by coming up to the top menu and selecting file, scrolling down to
document color mode and selecting CMYK or RGB from here. If you're doing work
for web and digital, you will want to set to RGB, and if you're doing work for
print, you will want to set this to CMYK. If you change to CMYK, you will
notice when you double-click on some of the swatches, it will display the CMYK
values instead of RGB. So, double-clicking in the swatches panel will show you
the values.
However, with the swatch
selected, you will also see the color in your tool’s menu. For example, if you’re
going to select a color from the swatch panel, and here you can see it in our tool’s
menu. Now, if you come to the square and the tools menu and double-click this,
a color picker option menu will appear. This will allow you to see the web
color of that swatch, and here you could continue to select a new color from
the color spectrum here. Adding colors to the swatches panel is very easy. For
example, let's just click a color here on the second art board. Upon click, you
will notice the color appear in the tool’s menu. If you want to save this color
for later, we can simply put our mouse cursor over the color square, click and
drag into the swatches panel, and release. And there is our new color swatch on
the end there. In the swatches panel, you could also create and store swatches
you make yourself as color libraries. This makes it easy if you're working on a
particular project and wish to save your colors. You can also export the
libraries too and share them with others. If you look closely, you can see some
folders here with some swatches that have prepared earlier. The swatches panel
is a pretty handy panel and you will be finding yourself using this a lot as
you create your artwork.
Color panel
As you can see here, we
have a complete color spectrum. And if we move our mouse cursor over this, we
will see the cursor change to an eyedropper tool, and this will allow us to
choose a color. Once we have the color in mind, we can simply select it, and the
color will appeal in the tool’s menu. And if we like that color, we can simply
drag it into our swatches panel.
Pantone panel
This contains a library
of solid coded Pantones. This is not open by default. If you want this panel,
you're going to have to open this separately.
Color guide panel
This is a handy panel if
you seek to discover alternative shades and tints of a particular color. For example,
if you select a color in the swatches panel, notice how this color guide panel
changes. The top bar features the color and shows some alternative shades and
tints, and below other colors around the same tone. This can be pretty handy if
you're looking to research various tones and shades of a particular color.
Gradient panel
If you click on a
gradient object in the document, we can see this come to life. We are going to
learn how we can use this gradient panel later.
Transparency panel
It's in this panel that
we can control the transparency of an object on our documents area.
At first glance, they
look identical. These colors on the left look exactly the same as the colors on
the right. But in actual fact, they are not the same. If we were to create a
piece of artwork for print and the printer required Pantone only colors, then
all the colors over here on the left would be unacceptable.
With the selection tool,
first click on the top left digital color, this red one here, and look closely
at the swatches panel. You can see, we have this red swatch selected. Now,
select the red Pantone example to the right and notice how another swatch is
highlighted in the swatch panel. Okay, so click back on the first example, come
to the swatch panel and double-click on it. We can see from the swatch pop-up
option, that this is an RGB color and we can see the values. Click okay. Next,
click back on to the Pantone color, and in the swatches, panel double-click on
that. Now, this time we have different values in the swatch options pop-up and
we can see that this is a Pantone spot color. Once again, click okay. So,
looking in the swatches panel, we can see two color libraries. Now, at first
glance, they appear to be the same, but in actual fact they are different and
we would use these colors in different instances. Notice the color library
below has these little white tabs with the spot in it. This is Illustrator
communicating to us that these are Pantone colors and are different from the
other swatches.
Some of you may use
Pantone books to discover and reference your colors. Once you know your Pantone
number, you're going to need to source
it in Illustrator. So, to do this, you need to come to your swatches panel and
come to the top right, and click on the little menu button. On the click, you
will then need to come down to open swatch library. When you roll over this, you
then see a large list of color libraries. We are then going to come to color
books, and again we will see another list. And here we can see a series of
Pantone color books. So, I'm going to go ahead and select the Pantone solid
color book. Upon click, you will now see your new Pantone panel.
If you know the number
of your Pantone, you can simply click the number in the top to search for it. For
example, if you in 802, and this will find the same green Pantone we have above
here. So, to discover many Pantones and get access to other color books, you
can use that technique. If you use Pantones a lot, you can simply drag your
Pantone panel into your panels to the right, and that will remain there for
quick access in future.
In Illustrator, you can
also source colors from images. If you take any photos for your design research
or find images on the Internet, you can simply place them into Illustrator and
use the eyedropper tool to pick out colors from the image.
To do this, draw a shape
on the document area. We have some shapes and select a shape with the selection
tool. And if we look in the tool’s menu, we can see that this vector shape
currently has a gray fill and no stroke, and we know this because the stroke
color has a red dash to it.
Now, select the
eyedropper tool from the menu. Once you have this tool active, you will notice
the mouse cursor change to the eyedropper. Then move the mouse cursor over into
the picture and choose a color you like. Upon click, the gray box will change
to a color, that particular color that you just selected in the image. You have
a new colored square vector, and the color is currently selected in the tool’s
menu. With the swatches panel, if you like this color, simply click on the
square in the tools menu and drag across and drop into my swatches panel and
you can use again later.
Select the selection
tool, click on the next gray box and select the eyedropper tool. This time instead
of clicking once, click and drag over the image. As you move your mouse around,
you will see the colors changing in the tool’s menu. This is Illustrator giving
you a prompt to what color this is. This will make it easy for you to move around
until you find a color, you're interested in. So, once you find color, release
click, and you will make the selection and the square vector will change.
Gradients
Click on your gradient
panel. In Illustrator, we can apply gradient effects to vectors. With the
selection tool, press a V on the keyboard and select the circle with the
gradient applied. After selecting, look in the gradient panel,
and here we can see what
colors make up the gradient and the values of distribution. It's here where we
can modify the gradient.
To create own gradient
here on the empty circle to the right. So first select the circle with our
selection tool and come to the swatches panel. Now, Illustrator comes with a
predefined gradient, and we are going to find it and click it. So here we are with the gradient. Next reactivate
the gradient panel so we can see the properties.
Next, we are about to
use the gradient tool, and we can see this just above the eyedropper tool. If
we select this, we now have a gradient bar on our shape. Now, this represents
our gradient effect applied to our shape, and we are going to use this to
adjust the gradient. So, if you click and drag over the shape, and you will
notice this will change the gradient direction and distribution. So, once you
are happy with a gradient, you can move the mouse cursor closer and over the
line, and now you can see the colors that make up the gradient. If you are not
happy with a color, you can simply click and drag it off. If you want to alter
the distribution of a color, you can click on a tab and drag it along the bar. If
you double-click on one of the color tabs, up will pop a color picker menu. Notice
to the left, you can activate your swatches and choose a swatch from this. So, just
alter the gradient until you got something you want.
If we look on the
gradient panel to my right, we can do a couple of things like we can alter the
type, we can change this from linear to radial and if you come down just to the
left here, you can click on the reverse button and that can reverse my
gradient.
Transparency
Open transparency panel.
Here we have two circles, and you can see they are overlapping in the middle. We
have this effect because the top object is transparent, showing some of the
circle below through it. At any point if you click on an object, you can see
its opacity in the transparency panel. With the selection tool, select the
first circle on the left. And if we look in the transparency panel, we can see
the opacity of this circle is 50%. If you want to toggle the opacity, you can
simply type in the value or click the drop-down menu to select a value from
there. So, if you click this and select 80% and go to select the circle to the
right, and we can see this is set at 20% go ahead and change this to 70%. So
that is how you can toggle opacity in Illustrator. Be sure to get comfortable
with the color panels, as that will improve your workflow and assist you to use
the right colors for the right task.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
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