CC Libraries, Spot Colors Converting Incorrectly

[jasoneaxtell]

Hello,

I have a team of 6 individuals, all using PCs with Windows 10. We all have the most up-to-date version of our Adobe apps installed, for this example, I will say Illustrator 2022, v26.0.2.

We have been using a shared CC library with pre-defined custom-made spot colors for a few years. This library contains a series of commonly used Pantone swatches (187 C, for example). But it also contains some custom-made spot colors as well. For example, we have one spot color called simply "NONPRINT". The name of these spot colors is important as we run some automation software that identifies those spot colors by name specifically and removes or converts them. Note, I do not believe I can create a spot color that enables the "Global" box.

The problem: Seemingly at random, one of my team members will use one of the spot colors directly from the library, just like any other time, but suddenly, we might find the spot color's name removed and the swatch converted to a simple CMYK formula (c80,m100,y85,b25). Even weirder - once this happens to one person, that same spot color changes for ALL of my team members, myself included - like it infected the library item. This has caused so many accidental printing and cutting errors that we've stopped using the libraries altogether, which is unfortunate, because it is really really useful.

The temporary solution was to reload the entire library from a backup, but then this started happening more frequently. As a result we have resorted to custom-built swatch library that each member must load. 

Question: Is this a mere bug that can be resolved? Or is there something else I should be looking for? I have theories but I'd like to know if anyone else has encountered this same problem and how you resolved it.

Thanks

 

[Ton Frederiks]

I have seen many problems with swatches and colors added to CC libraries.

Instead of adding a color to a library you can add an object with that color to a library.

As a workaround you can drag an object using a brush/pattern/gradient/global or spot color to the CC Library 

You can also drag multiple items using different brushes/patterns/gradients/global/spot colors together into a CC library to simulate a library.

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 patterns/gradients/global 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 and brushes are now part of the document.

[jasoneaxtell]

Thanks. We're sticking with the standard swatch panes for now. if the library updates to make it easier to manage colors, we'll revisit that in the future.

[Ton Frederiks]

I think it is a safe bet to use the standard swatch libraries.

Althoug the method I described works fine, it still is a workaround.