Learn about swatches and how they help you to manage colors, gradients, and patterns better.
Swatches are named colors, tints, gradients, and patterns.
The swatches associated with a document appear in the Swatches panel. They can appear individually or in groups. You can easily edit and manage the colors, gradients, and patterns of all documents in the Swatches panel. You can even name and store any of these items for instant access. When a selected object’s Fill or Stroke contains a color, gradient, pattern, or tint applied from the Swatches panel, the applied swatch is highlighted in the panel.
You can also create tints in the Swatches panel. A tint is a global Process Color or Spot Color with a modified intensity. Tints of the same color are linked together, so that if you edit the color of a tint swatch, all associated tint swatches (and the objects painted with those swatches) change color, though the tint values remain unchanged. They are identified by a percentage (when the Swatches panel is in List view).
The Swatches panel in Illustrator contains the following types of Swatches:
- Process Color: Process colors are a combination of the four-standard process inks, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. By default, Illustrator defines new swatches as process colors.
- Global Process Color: Global color is automatically updated throughout your artwork when you edit it. All spot colors are global; however, process colors can be either global or local.
- Spot Color: Spot Color is a premixed ink that is used instead of, or in addition to CMYK process inks.
- Gradient: Gradient is a graduated blend between two or more colors or tints of the same color or different colors. Gradient colors can be assigned as CMYK process colors, RGB colors, or a Spot color. Transparency applied to a gradient stop is preserved when the Gradient is saved as a Gradient swatch.
The Aspect Ratio and Angle settings applied to elliptical gradients (created by modifying a Radial Gradient) are not saved with the Gradient swatch.
- Pattern: Patterns are repeating tiled paths, compound paths, text with solid fills or no Fill.
- None: None swatch removes the Stroke or Fill from an object. You can’t edit or remove this swatch.
- Registration: Registration swatch is a built‑in swatch that causes objects filled or stroked with it to print on every separation from a PostScript printer. For example, Registration marks use the Registration color so that the printing plates can be aligned precisely on a press. You can’t remove this swatch.
If you use the Registration swatch for type, and then you separate the file and print it, the type may not register properly, and the black ink may appear muddy. To avoid this, only use black ink for type.
- Swatch group: Swatch group can contain process, spot, global process colors, patterns or gradients. You can create Swatch groups based on harmonies by using the Swatches panel. To put existing Swatches into a swatch group, select the swatches and then select New Swatch Group in the Swatches panel.
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