Scanned images cause swatches to disappear in illustrator 2020

[robertm31666254]

Windows 10. CanonScan LIDE 300

When I scan an image in to Illustrator 2020 directly (from the Canon IJ Scan Utility) or open a scanned image from Illustrator the colour swatches disappear leaving only "none' and "registration".

When I place the same image the swatches remain. Why? And how can I overcome this anomaly?

Context.

I want reduce the number of steps students need to take to create a coloured, traced stroke of the scanned image.

[Ton Frederiks]

Swatches are part of your New Document Presets.

When you create a new document it will show the swatches from the preset.

When you open an image, it does not have swatches because the document is not based on a preset.

[Ton Frederiks]

But you can load swatches using the Swatches panel menu.

[robertm31666254]

Thanks for your quick reply.

Is there no way to create a default document that applies the settings to the image rather than have the image "apply" settings to the document?

For an individual it is only a couple of extra steps to restore the swatches, but when you have a class of 11 year olds any action that reduces the number of steps to success, the chance of error, and need for teacher intevention

has to be investigated.

[Ton Frederiks]

No, when you open an image, you open a file without swatches.

Easier than loading swatches afterwards, you could let them create a new file (that will have swatches) and drag and drop or place the image in that file.

[robertm31666254]

Thanks. I'll give dragging and dropping a go!

[Monika Gause]

Adobe Illustrator is not meant for editing raster images. So people who use it in their daily job usually just don't do that. On top of that the majority of Illustrator users prefer to have their own cutom swatches in Illustrator instead of what any software would propose to use.

There probably is a lot to be fixed around the handling of custom templates and document presets in Illustrator, but to always automatically add a random variety of swatches to a raster image might not be at the top of everyone's list.

[robertm31666254]

Thanks for your reply. We use Illustrator for the image trace function to create paths to laser cut clock designs and Photoshop for editing raster images.

No need for it to always happen but to have the ability to choose to have a default document with a default or custom swatch that didn't change no matter the source of the image would remove the unnecessary step of resetting the swatches each time.