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Chapter 9. Livening Up Illustrations with Color

In This Chapter

• Choosing a color mode

• Using the Swatches and Color panels

• Working with strokes and fills

• Changing the stroke width and type

• Saving and editing colors

• Discovering patterns

• Employing gradients and copying color attributes

• Exploring the Live Trace and Live Paint features

This chapter is all about making your brilliant illustrations come alive with color. We show you how to create new and edit existing colors, save custom colors that you create, create and use patterns and gradients, and even apply color attributes to many different shapes.

Choosing a Color Mode

Every time you create a new file, you choose a profile. This profile determines, among other things, in which color mode to create your document. Typically, anything related to Web, mobile, or video is in RGB mode, and the print profile is in CMYK. You can also simply choose Basic CMYK or Basic RGB. Here are the differences between the color modes:

• Basic CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black): Use this mode if you're taking your illustration to a professional printer and the files will be separated into cyan, magenta, yellow, and black plates for printing.

• Basic RGB (Red, Green, Blue): Use this mode if your final destination is the Web, a mobile device, a video player, a color copier or desktop printer, or a screen presentation.

The decision you make affects the premade swatches, brushes, and styles and a slew of other choices in Adobe Illustrator.

Tip

You can change the color ...