Using the Color palette
You use the Color palette to apply color to an object's fill and stroke, and also to edit and mix colors--either colors that you create or colors that you selected from the Swatches palette, from an object, or from a color library. (See Applying color fills and strokes to objects.)For more information, see Using palettes. ![]() Selecting colors in the Color palette A. Fill color B. Stroke color C. Palette menu D. None box E. Color spectrum bar F. Color slider G. Text box for a color component Displaying the Color palette Choose Window > Color. Using the Color palette menu Click the triangle Showing and hiding options Choose Show Options from the palette menu to show all options, or choose Hide Options from the palette menu to show just the color bar. Choosing a color model The Color palette can display color values using different color models. To change the color model, choose Grayscale, RGB, HSB, CMYK, or Web Safe RGB from the Color palette menu. For more information on the different color models, see About color models and color modes. Selecting a color Click the Fill box or the Stroke box on the left side of the Color palette or the bottom of the toolbox. Then do one of the following: Shifting to a printable color Some colors in the RGB and HSB color models, such as neon colors, cannot be printed, because they have no equivalents in the CMYK model. If you select an out-of-gamut color, an alert triangle Shifting to a Web-safe color If you select a color that is not Web-safe, an alert cube Inverting a color Choose Invert from the Color palette menu to change each component of a color to the opposite value on the color scale. For example, if an RGB color has an R value of 100, the Invert command will change the R value to 155 (255 - 100 = 155). Changing a color to its complement Choose Complement from the Color palette menu to change each component of a color to a new value based on the sum of the highest and lowest RGB values in the selected color. Illustrator adds the lowest and highest RGB values of the current color, and then subtracts the value of each component from that number to create new RGB values. For example, suppose you select a color with an RGB value of 102 for red, 153 for green, and 51 for blue. Illustrator adds the high (153) and low (51) values, to end up with a new value (204). Each of the RGB values in the existing color is subtracted from the new value to create new complementary RGB values: 204 - 102 (the current red value) = 102 for the new red value, 204 - 153 (the current green value) = 51 for the new green value, and 204 - 51 (the current blue value) = 153 for the new blue value. |