How to change colors with vector images?

So you may create a new object with gradient fill and replace the clipped images.

I'm suspicious this file was not saved as an Illustrator-friendly PDF. If the stuff is all pure vector-based artwork with normal gradient fills there should not be a bunch of masked objects and clipping groups.

PDFs can be an enormous pain to edit, especially if they were not generated by Adobe Illustrator and saved with the "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities" option checked in the Save Adobe PDF dialog box. When PDFs are saved to conserve on file size for things like web-based viewing and backward compatibility with all sorts of older or off brand PDF viewers all sorts of awful garbage can be introduced into the artwork.

For instance, a single Illustrator object with a gradient fill may end up as multiple objects held in one or more clipping masks in the PDF. The gradient will have its own box with the original vector-based fill. Or it might even get rasterized into a pixel-based object if certain effects were applied to it. The original object may have one or more redundant copies of itself featuring no fill or outline stroke. That's in addition to the actual clipping mask. Rectangle objects can be converted into open 2 point paths with a line stroke applied. A complex drawing can quickly turn in a giant mess when saved in PDF. Every group, clipping group, clipping mask and anything else hiding in there has to be un-grouped, released and laid bare for careful policing and clean-up. It's like doing a complex artwork audit and careful artwork surgery all at the same time.

Redundant objects with no fill and no stroke are no big deal when being printed. They're invisible. But they are a HAZARD if you're sending graphics to a vinyl cutter or a routing table. Every redundant, invisible object sitting on top of each other will be cut. I've seen seen vinyl cutters cut completely through the sheet of roll vinyl and create a wadded up mess of garbage in the plotter. All sorts of bad things can happen on a routing table. It's pretty infuriating.

This doesn't get into the "Messy Marvin" tendencies of some graphics people; I've received plenty of straight .AI files where the designer went nuts with the nested clipping masks. Or maybe he just placed some PDF elements he received from someone else.

I strongly recommend Astute Graphics' Vector First Aid plug-in. It's not a 100% perfect solution. But it can spot a bunch of those hazards in PDF artwork and at least get it into a condition where it's much easier to figure out what's what in the file so it can actually be edited.

You don't have to change the color of the clipping path. Just click on the "block of color" under the clipping path in you layer list. There should be a gradient fill where you can change the colors of the gradient.

Have you checked to see if any of the Objects are locked?

Go to the Object pulldown menu and look for Unlock All.

-Warren

I still don't know how to get the exact colors from another puzzle piece (say the red one) and change the path outlines and inside puzzle to that color using the recolor feature. I read the recolor instructions your attached but WAY confusing.

That is helpful. It allows me to change the puzzle pieces. But how do I change the outlines? It says Path when I click on the outlines of the puzzle pieces? They're all different colors and I need to change to match the color of the puzzle piece.

This is the image. I'm trying to change the color of the puzzle pieces and the outlines.

Please post a screenshot of the design and the layers panel.