A

Anonymous

Question

How to desaturate (or color edit) an IMAGE?

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
December 25, 2014
8 replies
63135 views

I have an image imported to Illustrator. Some of JPG files. Now I want to add to my image desaturation 100%.
Scale of gray, you know what I mean.

But I didn't see an option to edit that image.
When I click this: http://prntscr.com/5kpc43 what means "Edit original", my image opens in... Microsoft Paint!

There must be any option to do that in Illustrator. I can't do this in Photoshop because I would have to do all things from the beginning (scale, rotation, position etc).

Please, help

How to

K

Keith353049316iyl

Participant

FWIW: create a black rectangle; position it over the image; set blend mode to 'color'

M

Ming Hsiung

Participant

select image, go tto Effect>Rasterize set Color Mode to Greyscale

D

dav.dec

Participant

I don't know regarding previous versions of Illustrator, but in CC2015 a raster image can be set to grayscale if it is EMBEDDED (LINKED images will not work). For an embedded image, edit color-> grayscale will work. To embed a linked image, select the image and click on embed button on top toolbar.

dario.

Known Participant

"Raster image" set to gray will do for linked images if you pick it up from the Effects menu.

Mike_Gondek10189183

Community Expert

First I would fix your edit original:

Mac Finder - Command I on any files of the type and change default program for that file type then click change all

Window - Right click properties on any file of the type and change default program for that file type then then click change all

You can then make the change in photoshop for better control. If you wish to do this in illustrator instead, draw a aware adn fill with a neutral color, adn set blending mode to saturation.

Wesołych Świąt

A

Anonymous

Thanks to everyone for trying to help me.

1. My pictures are opened by graphics explorers, like IrfanView or standard Microsoft Browser. So I can't do that. Because I don't want after that opening my Image files in Photoshop, no. I want to just edit it one time. I think Illustrator should open my image in Photoshop automatically when I select my image in Illustrator and click "edit image", don't you think?

2. I work mostly on Corel Draw. It'a also vector software but there we can change color of rasterized images.

3. Hey, there must be a way to do that in Illustrator. C'mon, this is not a very heavy, complicated thing to do with rasterized image. I want only to DESATURATE it, that's all. I don't beliewe that default Illustrator can't do that simple thing.

4. Color editing isn't work:

5. The most important. I know that I can do it all over again but I place my object in "create clipping mask". And put this very carefully etc. So I want just edit a color (desaturate a little bit). Instead I would have to delete this, desaturate in Photoshop, paste this in Illustrator, then create a clipping mask again etc. And after that I think "hmmm, maybe desaturation is a little to much, let's see how it looks like next time" and I will have to do this all over again! No way, there must be option to do this SIMPLE action in Illustrator without aby plugins.

A

Anonymous

I work mostly on Corel Draw. It'a also vector software but there we can change color of rasterized images.

Corel Draw can adjust saturation of RGB images natively, but not CMYK. For CMYK, it uses a jump-to command to PhotoPaint, similar to Illustrator's Edit Original command. Canvas can (among many other things) natively desaturate raster images in CMYK and RGB.

No way, there must be option to do this SIMPLE action in Illustrator...

As I explained, Illustrator simply does not provide its own native commands for such things. That's why you keep getting responses recommending jump-to commands to launch a separate raster editing program, or workarounds involving effects. Illustrator has historically been very late to the game in many functions that other drawing programs can do. For example, it only relatively recently acquired the ability to apply a color swatch to a grayscale image (a simple matter of assigning it to specific color sep(s)).

JET

Hi Mike.

Mike, no, point number 1 is not a good way. It should open in Photoshop instantly. Not by Windows.

Yes, point number 3 can be helpful as a one way to do that.

Hi JETalmage.

Yes, in Corel we have jump-command to Photo-Paint but in my case... In case of Illustrator my jump-command doesn't show me a Photoshop, it shows me a Paint. I don't know why. Mike isn't right I believe in his way to do it (tell Windows to open my graphics photo files in Photoshop - it's kind a stupid)

JETalmage napisał(-a):

As I explained, Illustrator simply does not provide its own native commands for such things. That's why you keep getting responses recommending jump-to commands to launch a separate raster editing program

Of course you have right and I want work like this but my image doesn't appear in Photoshop instantly when I do jump-command, when I click "edit original image". I copy/pasted my image to Illustrator.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Try the plugin Phantasm.

Larry G. Schneider

Community Expert

Have you tried Edit>Edit Colors>Convert to Grayscale?

JETalmage

Inspiring

Illustrator is not a raster imaging program. Other than effects and re-rasterization, It does not provide tools for directly editing raster images as do some other vector-based drawing programs.

JET

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

AIU,

You can do some of the work with the help of Illy, and then turn to Photoshop.

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