Illustrator

Assign colors to your artwork

The Assign tab of the Live Color dialog box lets you assign colors from a color group to your artwork. You can assign colors in the following ways:

  • Assign new colors to your artwork using a color group from the Color Groups list.

  • Assign new colors to your artwork using a new color group chosen from the Harmony Rule menu.

  • Reassign current artwork colors amongst themselves. You can reset the Live Color dialog box so that the artwork is displayed with its original colors by clicking Get Colors From Selected Art .

Original artwork colors (top), assigning new colors by selecting a color group in the Color Groups list (center), and assigning new colors by creating a new color group using the Harmony Rule menu (bottom).

Using the Current Colors and New columns, you control how colors are assigned. When you select Recolor Art, the selected artwork is recolored with the active color group according to the columns assignments.

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A.
Active color group

B.
Get Colors From Selected Art

C.
Colors from selected artwork

D.
New colors from active color group

E.
Exclude Row

F.
Recolor Artwork

For a video on assigning colors in Live Color, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0061.

Assign new colors to selected artwork

  1. Select the artwork you want to recolor.
  2. Choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork.

    The Live Color dialog box opens, displaying the Assign area with colors from the original artwork in both columns.

  3. If you want to assign colors from a color group, do one of the following:

    • Choose a color group from the Color Groups list.

    • Create a new color group by selecting a new harmony rule from the menu from the Harmony Rules menu.

      Note: If you create a new color group, you can click Edit to fine tune the colors, and then click Assign. Or, if you want to adjust a few colors in the selected artwork, select the color you want to adjust and edit it with the color sliders.
  4. To preview the color changes in your artwork, click Recolor Art.
  5. Do any of the following to reassign colors:

    • To assign a current color to a different color, drag the current color up or down in the Current Colors column until it’s adjacent to the new color you want.

      If a row contains multiple colors and you want to move them all, click the selector bar  at the left of the row and drag up or down.

    • To assign a new color to a different row of current colors, drag the new color up or down in the New column.

    • To exclude a row of current colors from being reassigned, click the arrow  between the columns. To include it again, click the dash.

    • To exclude a single current color from being reassigned, select the color and click Excludes Selected Colors So They Will Not Be Recolored .

    • To randomly reassign colors, click the Randomly Change Color Order button . The New colors move randomly to different rows of current colors.

    • To add a row to the Current Colors column, click Add A Row .

  6. To separate or merge colors in the Current Colors row, do either of the following:

    • To separate colors into separate rows, select the color block you want to move and click Separate Colors Into Different Rows .

    • To merge colors into one row, Shift-click to select multiple colors, and then click Merge Colors Into A Row .

  7. To change tints or shades of new colors, click the triangle next to the right of a new color and choose an option. Select Apply To All if you want the same option to apply to all new colors in the color group.
    Note: Tints And Shades and Hue Shift are only available when you choose not to preserve spot colors.
  8. Click OK to recolor the artwork. If you don’t want to recolor the artwork, click Cancel, or deselect Recolor Artwork and click OK.

Randomly change saturation and brightness in all colors

  1. If necessary, select an object and choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork.
  2. In the Live Color dialog box, click the Randomly Change Saturation and Brightness button .
    Note: You can also do this when editing a color group using the Color Bars display.

View original colors in your artwork as you assign new colors

When you recolor selected artwork, the original colors are replaced by those in the selected color group. When deciding how to assign new colors, you may need to see where an original color (from the Current Colors column) appears in your artwork, especially if your artwork is very detailed or contains many original colors.

  1. If necessary, select an object and choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork.
  2. In the Live Color dialog box, click the Click On Colors Above To Find Them In Artwork button  , and then click a color in the Current Colors column.

    The artwork that uses that color appears in full color on the artboard while all other areas of the selected artwork are dimmed.

  3. Click the icon again to return your artwork to full color.