Table of Contents
Color Replacer
See every colour in a document and swap the ones you don't want, fills, strokes and gradients together, in one list. Fix supplied artwork, standardise blacks, turn process colours into spot colours (or back), and keep a library of the colours you use every day.
See it in the shop · Version 2.1.6 · Needs PowerScripts 3.8.42 or later
Where to find it
Open the PowerScripts panel (Window > Extensions > PowerScripts) and choose Color Replacer from the Color Tools scripts. The script has three tabs: Find and Replace, Color Library and Options.
Quick start
- Select the artwork (or set Find colors in to All Swatches).
- Press Get Colors. Every colour is listed, with how many fills, strokes and gradients use it.
- In the Replace with column, choose a new colour for each colour you want to change. Leave the rest blank.
- Press Replace Colors….
Options
Find and Replace
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Find colors in | Where to get the colours to replace: the Selection, All Swatches or Selected Swatches |
| Choose from colors in | Where the replacement colours come from (they're added to the Replace with list) |
| Get Colors | Clears the list and gets the colours again |
| Add Selected | Adds the colours of the selected artwork or swatches to the list |
| Clear | Clears the list |
| Removed unused swatches | After replacing, remove the swatches nothing uses any more |
| Replace Colors… | Does it. On big artwork a Stop button shows while it works |
The colour list
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Name | The colour's name |
| Spot Formula | For spot colours, the actual formula (hidden when the panel is narrow) |
| Colour blocks | The colour now, and what it will become. Click the right-hand block to edit the new colour |
| Replace with | What to change the colour to (see below) |
| Fills, Strokes, Grads, Total | How many times the colour is used in fills, strokes and gradients |
The Replace with list offers:
- Left empty: no change.
- [None]: remove the colour from the fill or stroke.
- New Color: a new colour you set by clicking the right-hand colour block.
- Converted: the same colour converted from spot to process, or process to spot.
- Library: the colours from your Color Library tab.
- Spot Matches: the closest colours from a colour book, for example the closest Pantone (only when there are close matches).
- Found Colors: the other colours in the list.
Tints are kept: a 50% tint of a colour becomes a 50% tint of its replacement. Two colours can be swapped in one go (red to green and green to red).
Color Library
Your everyday colours, such as house colours, standard black or rich black. They're always offered in the Replace with list.
Options
- Include Library colors in replace list: show your library colours in Replace with.
- Only include Library colors matching Document Color Mode: in a CMYK document, only offer your CMYK library colours (and RGB in an RGB document).
- Edit existing Spot/Global Colors: change the formula of a spot or global colour itself, so the swatch and all artwork using it change. Off by default.
- Find closest matching Colorbook Color: offer the closest colours from the colour book below as Spot Matches.
- Number of matches to show: how many of them.
- Colour book: the book to search. The button next to it opens your own colour book (.acb or .ase file).
How to...
Standardise blacks in a supplied file
- Set Find colors in to All Swatches and press Get Colors.
- For every near-black (for example 0,0,0,95 or a rich black you don't want), choose your standard black from Library.
- Press Replace Colors….
Turn CMYK artwork into spot colours
- Select the artwork and press Get Colors.
- For each colour, choose Converted (a spot colour of the same formula) or a Pantone from Spot Matches.
- Press Replace Colors….
Tips
- Save a replacement list as a preset (see Using Presets) and use it on every file from the same customer.
- To change one colour at a time with a ranked list of Pantone matches, see Find Spot Color.
- Undo (Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z) puts everything back.
Good to know
- Gradients are recoloured too, in fills and strokes.
- The panel tells you how many shapes were changed.
What's new
- 2.1.6
- New: a long replace can be stopped: it shows how far it has got.
- Fixed: two colours can now be swapped in one replace (red to green and green to red).
- Improved: about three times faster on big artwork, gradient strokes are recoloured too, and general bug fixes and reliability.
- 2.1.3: Updated for PowerScripts 3.8.32.
- 2.1.2: Updated for the new version of PowerScripts.
- Older changes: PowerScripts Release Notes