Illustrator javascript find color of RasterItem

Here is a function that gets the color from a RasterItem. It's unfortunate that we cannot get the color directly, eg. RasterItem.fillColor, but this is a workaround.

(function () {

    var doc = app.activeDocument,
        item = doc.rasterItems[0];

    var c = getRasterItemColor(doc, item);

    if (c != undefined)
        alert(c.typename);


    /**
     * Returns Swatch or Color applied to a RasterItem.
     * @7111211 m1b
     * @version 2023-04-24
     * @9397041 {Document} doc - an Illustrator Document.
     * @9397041 {RasterItem} item - an Illustrator RasterItem.
     * @Returns {Swatch|Color}
     */
    function getRasterItemColor(doc, item) {

        var originalSelection = doc.selection;
        doc.selection = [item];
        var rasterItemColor = doc.defaultFillColor;
        doc.selection = originalSelection;

        if (rasterItemColor.constructor.name == 'SpotColor')
            return doc.swatches.getByName(rasterItemColor.spot.name);
        else
            return rasterItemColor;

    };

})();

And, for completeness, here is a function that sets the color of a RasterItem. Unfortunately this is necessary because the RasterItem.colorize method does not accept SpotColors.

(function () {

    var doc = app.activeDocument,
        item = doc.rasterItems[0],
        sw = doc.swatches[5];

    colorizeRasterItem(doc, item, sw);


    /**
     * Applies Swatch or Color to a RasterItem.
     * @7111211 m1b
     * @version 2023-04-24
     * @9397041 {Document} doc - an Illustrator Document.
     * @9397041 {RasterItem} item - an Illustrator RasterItem.
     * @9397041 {Swatch|Color} swatchOrColor - an Illustrator Swatch or Color.
     */
    function colorizeRasterItem(doc, item, swatchOrColor) {

        if (swatchOrColor.hasOwnProperty('color'))
            swatchOrColor = swatchOrColor.color;

        var originalSelection = doc.selection;
        doc.selection = [item];
        doc.defaultFillColor = swatchOrColor;
        doc.selection = originalSelection;

    };

})();

(Note: I am updating this old thread because it was appearing in searches and had no answer.)

- Mark

Hi Kayr23...,

did you manage to overcome the problem with reading the color of raster image? If so, would you share the piece of code? I'm developing a  colorizer script, where I change colors of selected items according to sone rules, so how does the workaround would work when you have lots of objects selected?

Any help will be appreciated! Take care!

Piotr