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  1. Illustrator User Guide
  2. Get to know Illustrator
    1. Introduction to Illustrator
      1. What's new in Illustrator
      2. Common questions
      3. Illustrator system requirements
      4. Illustrator for Apple silicon
    2. Workspace
      1. Workspace basics
      2. Learn faster with the Illustrator Discover panel
      3. Create documents
      4. Toolbar
      5. Default keyboard shortcuts
      6. Customize keyboard shortcuts
      7. Introduction to artboards
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      9. Customize the workspace
      10. Properties panel
      11. Set preferences
      12. Touch Workspace
      13. Microsoft Surface Dial support in Illustrator
      14. Undo edits and manage design history
      15. Rotate view
      16. Rulers, grids, and guides
      17. Accessibility in Illustrator
      18. Safe Mode
      19. View artwork
      20. Use the Touch Bar with Illustrator
      21. Files and templates
    3. Tools in Illustrator
      1. Tools at a glance
      2. Select tools
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        4. Magic Wand
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        6. Artboard
      3. Navigate tools
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      4. Paint tools
        1. Gradient
        2. Mesh
        3. Shape Builder
      5. Text tools
        1. Type
        2. Type on a Path
        3. Vertical Type
      6. Draw tools
        1. Pen
        2. Add Anchor Point
        3. Delete Anchor Point
        4. Anchor Point
        5. Curvature
        6. Line Segment
        7. Rectangle
        8. Rounded Rectangle
        9. Ellipse
        10. Polygon
        11. Star
        12. Paintbrush
        13. Blob Brush
        14. Pencil
        15. Shaper
        16. Slice
      7. Modify tools
        1. Rotate
        2. Reflect
        3. Scale
        4. Shear
        5. Width
        6. Free Transform
        7. Eyedropper
        8. Blend
        9. Eraser
        10. Scissors
    4. Quick actions
      1. Retro text
      2. Neon glow text
      3. Old school text
      4. Recolor
      5. Convert sketch to vector
  3. Illustrator on the iPad
    1. Introduction to Illustrator on the iPad
      1. Illustrator on the iPad overview
      2. Illustrator on the iPad FAQs
      3. System requirements | Illustrator on the iPad
      4. What you can or cannot do on Illustrator on the iPad
    2. Workspace
      1. Illustrator on the iPad workspace
      2. Touch shortcuts and gestures
      3. Keyboard shortcuts for Illustrator on the iPad
      4. Manage your app settings
    3. Documents
      1. Work with documents in Illustrator on the iPad
      2. Import Photoshop and Fresco documents
    4. Select and arrange objects
      1. Create repeat objects
      2. Blend objects
    5. Drawing
      1. Draw and edit paths
      2. Draw and edit shapes
    6. Type
      1. Work with type and fonts
      2. Create text designs along a path
      3. Add your own fonts
    7. Work with images
      1. Vectorize raster images
    8. Color
      1. Apply colors and gradients
  4. Cloud documents
    1. Basics
      1. Work with Illustrator cloud documents
      2. Share and collaborate on Illustrator cloud documents
      3. Share documents for review
      4. Upgrade cloud storage for Adobe Illustrator
      5. Illustrator cloud documents | Common questions
    2. Troubleshooting
      1. Troubleshoot create or save issues for Illustrator cloud documents
      2. Troubleshoot Illustrator cloud documents issues
  5. Add and edit content
    1. Drawing
      1. Drawing basics
      2. Edit paths
      3. Draw pixel-perfect art
      4. Draw with the Pen, Curvature, or Pencil tool
      5. Draw simple lines and shapes
      6. Image Trace
      7. Simplify a path
      8. Define perspective grids
      9. Symbolism tools and symbol sets
      10. Adjust path segments
      11. Design a flower in 5 easy steps
      12. Perspective drawing
      13. Symbols
      14. Draw pixel-aligned paths for web workflows
    2. 3D objects and materials
      1. About 3D effects in Illustrator
      2. Create 3D graphics
      3. Map artwork over 3D objects
      4. Create 3D Text
    3. Color
      1. About color
      2. Select colors
      3. Use and create swatches
      4. Adjust colors
      5. Use the Adobe Color Themes panel
      6. Color groups (harmonies)
      7. Color Themes panel
      8. Recolor your artwork
    4. Painting
      1. About painting
      2. Paint with fills and strokes
      3. Live Paint groups
      4. Gradients
      5. Brushes
      6. Transparency and blending modes
      7. Apply stroke on an object
      8. Create and edit patterns
      9. Meshes
      10. Patterns
    5. Select and arrange objects
      1. Select objects
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      3. Group and expand objects
      4. Move, align, and distribute objects
      5. Stack objects    
      6. Lock, hide, and delete objects
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      8. Rotate and reflect objects
      9. Intertwine objects
    6. Reshape objects
      1. Crop images
      2. Transform objects
      3. Combine objects
      4. Cut, divide, and trim objects
      5. Puppet Warp
      6. Scale, shear, and distort objects
      7. Blend objects
      8. Reshape using envelopes
      9. Reshape objects with effects
      10. Build new shapes with Shaper and Shape Builder tools
      11. Work with Live Corners
      12. Enhanced reshape workflows with touch support
      13. Edit clipping masks
      14. Live shapes
      15. Create shapes using the Shape Builder tool
      16. Global editing
    7. Type
      1. Add text and work with type objects
      2. Create bulleted and numbered lists
      3. Manage text area
      4. Fonts and typography
      5. Format type
      6. Import and export text
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      10. Character and paragraph styles
      11. Tabs
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      13. Find missing fonts (Typekit workflow)
      14. Update text from Illustrator 10
      15. Arabic and Hebrew type
      16. Fonts | FAQ and troubleshooting tips
      17. Create 3D text effect
      18. Creative typography designs
      19. Scale and rotate type
      20. Line and character spacing
      21. Hyphenation and line breaks
      22. Text enhancements
      23. Spelling and language dictionaries
      24. Format Asian characters
      25. Composers for Asian scripts
      26. Create text designs with blend objects
      27. Create a text poster using Image Trace
    8. Create special effects
      1. Work with effects
      2. Graphic styles
      3. Create a drop shadow
      4. Appearance attributes
      5. Create sketches and mosaics
      6. Drop shadows, glows, and feathering
      7. Summary of effects
    9. Web graphics
      1. Best practices for creating web graphics
      2. Graphs
      3. SVG
      4. Create animations
      5. Slices and image maps
  6. Import, export, and save
    1. Import
      1. Place multiple files
      2. Manage linked and embedded files
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      4. Unembed images
      5. Import artwork from Photoshop
      6. Import bitmap images
      7. Import Adobe PDF files
      8. Import EPS, DCS, and AutoCAD files
    2. Creative Cloud Libraries in Illustrator 
      1. Creative Cloud Libraries in Illustrator
    3. Save
      1. Save artwork
    4. Export
      1. Use Illustrator artwork in Photoshop
      2. Export artwork
      3. Collect assets and export in batches
      4. Package files
      5. Create Adobe PDF files
      6. Extract CSS | Illustrator CC
      7. Adobe PDF options
      8. File information and metadata
  7. Printing
    1. Prepare for printing
      1. Set up documents for printing
      2. Change the page size and orientation
      3. Specify crop marks for trimming or aligning
      4. Get started with large canvas
    2. Printing
      1. Overprint
      2. Print with color management
      3. PostScript printing
      4. Print presets
      5. Printer's marks and bleeds
      6. Print and save transparent artwork
      7. Trapping
      8. Print color separations
      9. Print gradients, meshes, and color blends
      10. White Overprint
  8. Automate tasks
    1. Data merge using the Variables panel
    2. Automation with scripts
    3. Automation with actions
  9. Troubleshooting 
    1. Crash issues
    2. Recover files after crash
    3. File issues
    4. Supported file formats
    5. GPU device driver issues
    6. Wacom device issues
    7. DLL file issues
    8. Memory issues
    9. Preferences file issues
    10. Font issues
    11. Printer issues
    12. Share crash report with Adobe
    13. Improve Illustrator performance

Learn how to recolor your artwork using Color Theme Picker.

With Illustrator, you can create unlimited color variations instantly with a color-balancing wheel, curated color library, or the Color Theme Picker tool. Play with colors and pick the one that works the best and recolor your artwork at the click of a button.

Try it in-app!

Apply a randomized color theme to your artwork instantly in Illustrator.

Recolor artwork
Recolor artwork

Get started with recoloring

Recolor artwork
Use recoloring options to explore more colors for your artwork

To start recoloring your artwork,

  1. Select the artwork.
  2. Click  on Control Panel or choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork. 
  3. Click the Recolor button in the Quick Actions section of the Properties panel.

A dialog with the following recoloring options is displayed:

  • Undo: Cancel the latest change made to the artwork color.
  • Redo: Restore the latest change that was reverted using Undo.
  • Reset: Clear your color adjustments and revert to default dialog settings.
  • Color Library: Choose a color from the predefined color library.
  • Colors: Choose the number of colors you want to show in your artwork.
  • Color Theme Picker: Pick color palettes from one or more images, artwork, or their select areas and use them in your artwork.
  • Color wheel: Display and adjust colors, their order, brightness, saturation, and hue.
  • Color order: Click to randomly change the order of colors.
  • Prominent Colors: Shows all colors that are prominent in your artwork based on their hue and other properties.
  • Saturation and Hue and Brightness and Hue: Adjust their value on the slider or randomly change their values using the  button next to the color wheel.
  • Save: Click this button to save your color palette.
  • Advanced Options: Click this button to view the advanced recoloring options.

Recolor using color library

You can recolor artwork using predefined colors available under the Color Library drop-down list. You can choose from color groups, document swatches, or preset color themes. All colors and themes that you've defined are added to your Swatches panel as color group and will be available for recoloring.

Recolor using color library
Recolor using color library

Recolor using Color Theme Picker

Powered by Adobe Sensei

With Color Theme Picker, you can pick and extract color palettes from one or more artwork or images present on the canvas or their select portions and recolor your current artwork with them. Ensure that artwork or images from which you want to pick color inspiration are placed on your canvas. You can extract colors from both vector and raster objects on the canvas.

Do the following:

  1. In the Recolor Artwork dialog, click Color Theme Picker to activate the color picker.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Click the object on the canvas from which you want to pick the color palette.
    • To pick colors from more than one object, hold Shift and click on the objects. 
    • Drag to marquee-select specific sections of an artwork to pick colors.
Recolor using color theme picker
Recolor using color picker

Recolor using color wheel

Color wheel displays the color stops for all the colors contained in your artwork. To recolor your artwork using the color wheel, do the following:

  1. Move the color handle shown at the center of the wheel.
  2. To choose a color from the Color Picker dialog, double-click anywhere on the wheel or right-click the color handle and choose Color Picker.
  3. To select a shade, right-click the color handle and choose Select Shade.
Change color properties
Recolor using color wheel

Add and move multiple color stops

To add a new color stop, right-click anywhere on the color wheel and choose Create New. Now, move this new color stop to pick a color of your choice.

By default, all the color stops move together. To unlink the color harmony and move color stops individually, click the  icon. Click again to relink the color harmony.

Change color weight and properties

You can view the weight of colors present in the artwork in the Prominent Colors section at the bottom of the Recolor dialog. Prominent colors are categorized based on the hue and shade of the color. To adjust the weight of a color in your artwork, hold and drag the edge of the color patch.

 To randomly change the color order, click  next to the color wheel.

Recolor artwork
Change color weight using Prominent Colors slider

Change color saturation and hue

By default, the color wheel shows the color saturation and hue. To adjust the color saturation and hue, drag the slider at the bottom.


Change color brightness and hue

To adjust the color brightness and hue, do the following:

  • Click the  button.
  • Drag the slider and pick a value that works the best for you.

 To randomly change saturation, hue, and brightness, click the  button next to the color wheel. The values are auto-adjusted and displayed in the color wheel.

Save colors

To save colors for future use, you can save them in your swatches panel. Do the following:

Click  and choose Save All Colors to save all colors in the Swatches panel or choose Save Prominent Colors to only save the colors shown in the Prominent Colors section. The saved colors would be saved as color group and will also be available in the Color Library drop-down list.

Save colors
Save colors

Recolor using advanced options

To view the advanced recoloring options, click Advanced Options button. For more details, see Recolor Artwork dialog overview.

If you want to directly open the advanced recoloring dialog next time with the current settings, select the Open Advanced Recolor Artwork dialog on launch.

Prominent colors
View advanced recoloring options

Got a question or an idea?

If you have a question to ask or an idea to share, come and participate in Adobe Illustrator Community. We'd love to hear from you.

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