Spot Swatches changing to Process

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
February 25, 2020
7 replies
1840 views

Has something changed about Swatch Libraries? I have libraries provided by paint companies and in the past they would stay named spot colors when used in a drawing. Now, using the same libraries, when I use the swatch, it converts to CMYK and loses the name. I can still see the spot swatches in files I worked on a couple months ago, but can't add new colors without it converting.

Bug

Correct answer Ton Frederiks

That is how it looks when it is a normal CMYK color swatch, you will see the percentages.

If you double click the swatch and check Global you will get what you saw before.

But a spot color is different and looks like this:

A

Anonymous

Hello, Ton!

Do you know how to activate the Global option on Swatch options in Illustrator using a Script?

A

ahmed_4072

Participant

I NEED ALSO CHANGE THIS COLOR TYPE : SPOT TO PROCESS... BUT THIS IS NO WORK?

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Can you share a file that contains this swatch? Rename the extension from ai to pdf then you can share it in this forum.

How did you get the swatch? Via Pantone Connect?

Ton Frederiks

Correct answer

Community Expert

That is how it looks when it is a normal CMYK color swatch, you will see the percentages.

If you double click the swatch and check Global you will get what you saw before.

But a spot color is different and looks like this:

BabendureAuthor

Participant

Ah, I see that I'm saying spot color when I mean global color. Is there a setting somewhere that make global swatches automatic when pulling from a library? I know I didn't manually change it to a global color before.

The library seems like it's different too. Here's a comparison with a library from another company. I thought the Benjamin Moore used to be searchable and viewable as a grid, like in the Sherwin Williams library example. Not it shows as a series of folders, not global colors, and the search function doesn't work within that library.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

I downloaded the ase file.

I can get them into Illustrator and InDesign.

The swatches keep their name, but depending on the document color mode they display as CMYK or RGB.

No spots even tried older AI versions, bu they are all process colors.

BabendureAuthor

Participant

Thanks for checking. Maybe I did something different and forgot about it. Here's how the swatch showed when I did it before. (It still looks like this in the file.)