Recolor artwork not working, please help.

[yolandak32242053]

Hi, I'm trying to recolor some artwork in illustrator. I'm using the same method I used yesterday and haven't changed any settings. It looks like it is doing it but the colors don't change. I'm using the direct selection tool, then select-same-fill and stroke. Then re-colour artwork, double click on the rectangle to bring the colors up, I pick a color, click OK, then OK on the recolor artwork box, it all looks normal but the colors don't change. Please help.

[Monika Gause]

Is the "Recolor" option in the bottom left checked?

If that doesn't help: please show.

[yolandak32242053]

Where exactly do you mean? I'm new to illustrator. Do you want a screen shot?

[Monika Gause]

In the bottom left of the recolor art work dialog box there is this option. It needs to be checked.

And if it doesn't help, please show a screenshot of your artwork with the dialog box and your options in it.

[yolandak32242053]

Yes it is checked, it is showing that it is the new color in the box, but as you can see on the screen behind it is still black. wondering if its a problem with my selection tool or something, I don't get the blue lines everywhere when I click select-same-stroke and fill.

[Monika Gause]

ou haven't selected any black objects. Otherwise there would be black in the "Current colors" section.

When recoloring black you also need to check the recoloring options, which is the small button right to "Preset: Custom".

Have you read the manual thoroughly?

[yolandak32242053]

Hi Monika, Thank you for your help, in the box above the reason its pale blue is because it thinks I already changed it, but it isn't showing that color on my screen, it was still showing black. I've closed the file and re-opened it etc. I've just done it again using the selection tool instead of the direct selection tool and it seems to be working now. So simple, lol. Im sure I was using the direct selection tool yesterday and in my other documents. Thank you.

[Monika Gause]

In that case you might want to check your object hierarchy. Maybe you've grouped your paths and applied a fill to the group.

Use the layer panel and the appearance panel.

[yolandak32242053]

Arrgghh, now its doing it again and I cant figure out why.

[Monika Gause]

Can you post the artwork somewhere?

[yolandak32242053]

Do you mean here? I could grab a screen shot. I suspect its something to do with the selection but I cant figure outs what is different between the ones it's doing it on and the ones it isn't. I'm currently working on 4 designs that have been wee transferred to me and each time I open them from the download it seems to affect different ones. I suspect like you say its something to do with the grouping or something but I didn't draw them and they mostly appear to be un-grouped. I'm currently using the free trial of cs6 as I have a new pc, up till then I was using cs2 so she has transferred them as cs2. could this be the issue?

What screen shot would be helpful? When I open the files that are affected they have corner widgets turned on which I haven't seen before and I've turned them off thinking that might be it. Hasn't made a difference though.

[Monika Gause]

Opening the file in a higher version has no impact on this.

You need to post a screenshot of the fully opened layer panel after you have selected stuff (objects visible).

[asmah90391987]

Thank you!! THis is so helpful, i had the same problem. I use recolour artwork all the time and it omehow became unticked - reticked now and working fine so very grateful as it takes a lot of time to do things manually

[yolandak32242053]

Also its working n my other files, just not this one.

[rohit72835]

1. Select None.
2. Go on Default Swatches.
3. Select Art & Illustration.

Done.

[rohit72835]

also, this can help too.

[Met1]

Isn't there a way to stop anyone replying to a post that's more than a year old?

[stuartm77904997]

hi check this post if you haven't already done so Re: Recolor Wheel keeps changing colors and color selections to color groups rather than artwork col...

its a glitch in the new update and Adobe is aware of it.. work around is to use the eyedropper at the top right to get the artwork colors

[Lazerdemaria]

Maybe this will help somebody though the thread opener might not be interested anymore...

When recoloring black you have to check which color range is active for the chosen element. Before recoloring, select the element and open the "Color" Panel. In most cases when the element is colored black it will show the GRAYSCALE range. Open the dropdown on the upper right of the color panel and set it to RGB or CMYK, whatever you are working in. Then you can continue with recoloring.

If the greyscale range is active for the element, it will actually be recolored but the new setting still shows only greys and so it seems as nothing has changed. This is especially important if you selected a group because it is possible that the recoloring won't work if there is just one element wit the grayscale setting included.

I do not really understand what's the purpose of this behaviour but I guess there might be any... This was at least my personal experience with this recoloring issue. Hope it helps. Have fun!

[msandahl]

I'm having this same issue. Tried re-assigning to a spot color in my swatches panel but no go when I view Separation Preview it confirms it has not applied. For whatever reason I was able to get it to work by re-assigning to a random CMYK color and then changing again to the correct spot color but this is a bit of a convoluted process. That works anyways.

[Artis111]

I had same problem. That was fixed very easy by refresh all illustrator settings. Hold Cmd + Option + Shift (Mac) or Ctrl + Shift + Alt (Win) when app starts. Good luck!