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hayungs
Known Participant
September 5, 2024
Question

Illustrator not linking colors from CC library with document

  • September 5, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 1550 views

Helly community, maybe someone here can help me, because I just canÄt find an answer anywhere else on the web.

I have a CC library with color swatches of a company styleguide. When I colorize objects in Illustrator everything works, but the colors are not connected or updated from the CC library. So when I update the library colors, nothing changes in the illustrator document.
I also can't drag an drop colors from the CC library panel onto the document objects or edit the colors from the panel (have to go into PS for that).

I could copy all my colors from the CC library to my local swatches, losing all the names, but that somehow misses the point of having the colors in the cloud.

Am I missing something here?

2 replies

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 5, 2024

Unfortunately colors in a CC library do not behave as you would expect.

But as a workaround, create rectangles and  fill them with the named global colors or spot colors from your swatches panel.

Select them and add them together to the CC library. Give the CC item a name.

The easiest way to add them to a new document is to hold down the Alt key when you drag them from the library and place them in a new document. The colors automatically get added to your swatches panel.

You can hit escape before you click to place the object(s) or delete the dragged library items because the swatches are now part of the document. 

You can do the same with patterns, gradient and brushes.

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 5, 2024

And when you doubleclick the library item, it will open in Illustrator where you can change/add colors.

 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 5, 2024

That's how colors work in Illustrator.

The only thing you can do is make a feature request: https://illustrator.uservoice.com

H
hayungsAuthor
Known Participant
September 5, 2024

Silly me, I actually thought Adobe would have basic features in a professional software that coste me hundreds of dollars each year.

    H
    hyperspace3
    Participating Frequently
    March 13, 2025

    OMG really they don't automatically update. What a bunch of idiots? What are they doing with all that money we pay them? What a stupid feature if the colors don't update. It's not saving any time and it's actuallly make work a lot more complicated by adding swatches with different names.

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