Select Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork, and then select Advanced Options.
Last updated on
Oct 27, 2025
Learn how to reduce or manage colors in Illustrator.
When you create artwork for different types of output media, you often need to reduce colors, convert them to grayscale, or limit them to a specific color library. With the Recolor Artwork dialog box, you can easily reduce the number of colors in your artwork.
Reduce colors with a preset
Selecting a preset to reduce your colors is a quick and easy way to limit your artwork to a specific number of colors or a swatch library.
Select an object in the artwork you want to recolor.
Select Window > Color Guide, and then select Edit or Apply Colors .
In the Assign tab of the Recolor Artwork dialog box, select a Preset from the Specifies a recoloring preset dropdown menu.
Tip
Enable Recolor Art to view live updates in your artwork as you assign new colors to the current ones. You can also select Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor with Preset, and then select a preset option.
Select a Library from the Limits the swatch group to colors in a swatch library dropdown menu, and then select OK.
Note
If you don’t want to limit colors to a swatch library, leave the Library selection as None, and select OK. The New column displays the number of colors you select as your Preset, plus black. The new colors are taken from your original artwork.
Select OK in the Recolor Artwork dialog box.
Reduce colors with custom options
Select Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork, and then select Advanced Options.
Select an object in the artwork you want to recolor.
Select Window > Color Guide, and then select Edit or Apply Colors .
To add different colors, select a color group from the Harmony Rules dropdown list in the Edit tab of the Recolor Artwork dialog box.
In the Assign tab, select Color Reduction Options , specify the following options as required, and then select OK:
- Preset: Specifies a preset color job, including the number of colors used and optimal settings for that job. If you select a preset and then change any of the other options, the preset changes to Custom.
- Colors: Specifies the number of new colors that the current colors are reduced to.
- Limit To Library: Specifies a swatch library from which all new colors are derived.
- Sort: Determines how the original colors are sorted in the Current Colors column.
- Colorize Method: Specifies how new colors are applied:
- Exact: Replaces each current color with the specified new color.
- Scale Tints: Uses the darkest color as a base, lighter ones become tints. This option is a default selection.
- Preserve Tints: Uses the darkest color as a base, lighter ones become tints for non-global colors. For spot or global colors, it applies the current color’s tint to the new color.
- Tints and Shades: Replaces the current color based on average light and dark values with the specified new color.
- Hue Shift: Replaces key color and shifts others by relative hue, saturation, and brightness.
- Combine Tints: Sorts all tints of the same global color into the same Current Colors row, even if colors are not being reduced. Use this option only when the selected art contains Global or Spot color applied at tints less than 100%. For best results, use in combination with the Preserve Tints colorization method.
Note
Even when Combine Tints isn't selected, color reduction combines tints of the same global color before it combines different non-global colors.
- Preserve: Determines whether the White, Black, or Grays of the artwork are preserved in the final reduction. If a color is preserved, it appears in the Current Colors column as an excluded row.
Select OK in the Recolor Artwork dialog box.
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