how to get the amount (%) of a graphic's colors

[ascotto]

Hi guys, if I had a graphic, eg a green and purple logo, how could I know the percentage of green and the one of purple? Maybe is there some plugin that outputs the area of a item?

Thanks a lot!

[Doug A Roberts]

select each object and look at the colour palette? do you mean tints?

[ascotto]

Hi dougofakkad, nope, i mean: I have a yellow object maybe, so the % of color on the artboard, or better on the selection, is 100% yellow. If I duplicate this object and make it brown, I'd have an amount of 50% yellow and 50% brown. In other words, I'd need a way to calculate area of objects, than I may manually get the % of every color…

[Doug A Roberts]

i can't think of a method off the top of my head. it might help others if you describe why you want this.

[ascotto]

Sure, I have to check if a logo I made follows (approx.) the color ratio mentioned in the company's guidelines, that's 25% green and 75% orange (not the actual data, just i.e.). So my logo has only simple bold closed shapes, either green or orange, and I'd need to know how to check the ratio of those two colors.

[Doug A Roberts]

wouldn't you just eyeball it? if you can't check exactly, how can they?

[Jacob Bugge]

ascotto,

I believe you can get the area, either through the Document Info palette (with Objects ticked in the flyout), or through the good old free Patharea filter available here,

http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/

depending on version.

[Bobby Henderson]

Percentages of colors, tints, etc. in an object will depend on the color model used, as well as any effects such as transparency that are applied to the object.

If the selected object uses process CMYK colors there is no percentage of brown. The brown is going to be created by mixing percentages of primary cyan, magenta, yellow and black colors. The same thing goes for RGB colors; it's a mixture of red, green and blue primary colors.

If the selected object uses a spot color, such as Pantone 469, then that is indeed a brown color. The color can be applied in various percentages to lighten it. Spot colors often have qualities that cannot be reproduced within the gamut limits of normal CMYK process printing. The downside is each spot color will require a separate printing plate, which drives up the cost of a printing job. Spot colors usually must be used sparingly.

It can be a chore to adjust CMYK or RGB percentages to get the fill color right on an object or even just part of a gradient. This is why it's usually a good idea to carefully develop a good color scheme of pre-mixed colors in Illustrator's swatch palette. It's a good way to keep colors consistent.

[ascotto]

Thank you guys, I've already tried Patharea but it seems to not work on shapes with holes like an "A".

Yep, I could actually eyeball it, but It would be nicer to know exactly what I've done…

Bobby, great lesson about inks, really, though it's not what I'm looking for (I admit my issue is not that clear…)

Somewhere someone wrote about a debugging window called with cmd+alt+shift+f12, but with f12 I rise the volume up, does anyone know how to see that window "the-noob-long-way"?

[Doug A Roberts]

the debug window was very handy for odd things like this, but adobe removed it around CS6.

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

ascotto,

Sorry, I forgot to mention the crucial fact that Patharea sums up the constituent paths in a Compound Path. This means that the area of the holes are added to the area of the outer bounds instead of being subtracted.

For a Compound Path, you can get the exact non hole ink using area as follows:

1) Select the Compound Path and apply Patharea and take a note of it/save the number somewhere;

This will give you the area of the outer bounds + the area(s) of any hole(s);

2) With the Direct Selection Tool Alt/OptionShiftClick on the border of each subpath forming a hole (the one in an A, the two in a B or whatever, you only need to hold Shift if there are more than one hole) to get the total hole area;

3) Take the area from 1) and subtract twice (2x) the area from 2).

This should give you the exact ink using area.

You may try it out with paths of known areas, such as a large 100 x 100 mm square with a number of 10 x 10 mm squares cut out, until you are convinced that it works.

[ascotto]

wow, even weirder Ok, I'll give it a try, otherwise I think I'll follow dougofakkad's advice to just say "mmm, yep, I should have nailed it". I'll let you know!

[Jacob Bugge]

ascotto,

There is a certain inner coherence in the weirdness: Patharea just looks at each path that forms part of the Compound Paths without realizing that they work oppositely, and then sums up.

I for one look forward to your findings.

[ascotto]

Great Jacob, that's the only way I found to achieve my job. Thanks!

[Jacob Bugge]

You are welcome, ascotto.

And thank you for sharing.

[defaultggdczfvn8gd7]

Did you ever find a solution to this? Looking for the same thing.

[Monika Gause]

A solution to what?

Separations panel with percentages?

Maybe use the plugin InkQuest? Or just do as mentioned in the correct answers?

[Jacob Bugge]

defaultg,

If you seek the same as ascotto, you can still use the old Patharea link, or this one,

http://shspage.com/aijs/en/