Re-Tint Color

Converted artwork and ended up with dozens of slightly different CMYK or RGB shades of one colour? Re-Tint turns those shades back into one spot colour with tints, in fills, strokes and gradients. Perfect for one- and two-colour screen printing, or for turning a supplied CMYK logo back into a spot colour.

See it in the shop · Version 1.0.11 · Needs PowerScripts 3.8.42 or later

Open the PowerScripts panel (Window > Extensions > PowerScripts) and choose Re-Tint Color from the Color Tools scripts.

1. Select the artwork, all of it if you like.
2. Press Selected Fill. The darkest colour becomes the Process Color (the 100% colour), and the lighter shades are shown on the graph.
3. Type a New Spot Name and choose the New Spot Color.
4. Press Re-Tint.

Every shade on the curve is now a tint of your new spot colour. The panel tells you how many colours were changed.

Re-Tint draws a curve from white (0%) to the Process Color (100%). A shade that sits on that curve is a tint of the colour: a pale pink on the way from white to magenta might be a 30% tint. Each shade is swapped for the new spot colour at its own tint.

Colours that aren't on the curve (for example the black outline of a pink logo) are shown as red rings on the graph and left alone. Above the graph, the panel says how many of the selected colours will be re-tinted.

• Selected Fill and Selected Stroke: read the colours of the selected artwork's fills (or strokes). The darkest becomes the Process Color, and the rest are added to the graph as samples. With one shape selected, its colour simply becomes the Process Color.
• Selected Swatch: use the swatch selected in the Swatches panel as the Process Color.
• Process Color: the colour that becomes 100% of the new spot colour. It must be in the document's colour mode (CMYK or RGB).
• Blend Method: how the tints between white and the Process Color are worked out. Linear CMYK/RGB mixes the ink values in a straight line. Lab follows how the colour looks, which is often closer for artwork converted from another program.
• Curve Mapping: the graph. Across is the tint (0 to 100%), up is the colour. Each sample shows where it sits.
• add Fill Samples and add Stroke Samples: add the colours of another selection to the graph, without changing the Process Color. Samples on the curve are re-tinted exactly at their tint.
• Gamma Adjustment: bends the curve to make the tints lighter or darker. Drag the slider and the graph updates as you go. 1.00 is no change.
• Match Tolerance: how close a colour must be to the curve to count as a tint (in ink percent). The band on the graph shows it. Raise it to catch more shades, lower it if colours that should be left alone are being changed.
• New Spot Name: the name of the spot colour to make (or use, if it already exists).
• New Spot Color: its colour. Pick a colour book colour (such as a Pantone) or a Lab colour, and the graph also shows that colour's own tints as a dashed line to start from.
• Re-Tint: does it, on the selection, or on the whole document if nothing is selected. On big artwork a Stop button shows. Undo puts everything back.

1. Select the logo and press Selected Fill.
2. Check the graph: the shades of the logo colour sit on the curve, other colours are red rings.
3. For New Spot Color, pick the Pantone from its colour book. New Spot Name is its name.
4. Press Re-Tint.

1. Select everything and press Selected Fill, then add Stroke Samples if the art has coloured strokes.
2. Raise Match Tolerance a little if some shades show as red rings but should be tints.
3. Set the New Spot Name to the ink name, for example Screen Red.
4. Press Re-Tint. The artwork now separates onto one plate.

• Work on a copy, or check with Undo: you can always try again with a different tolerance.
• Use Separations Preview (Window > Separations Preview) afterwards to check that everything is on the new spot plate.
• White always stays white: it is never turned into a 0% tint.

• Gradients are re-tinted too, in fills and strokes.
• Spot colours already in the artwork aren't changed: only process (CMYK or RGB) colours are re-tinted.

• 1.0.11
  • New: the graph shows every selected colour, with a live Gamma slider and the Match Tolerance band.
  • New: pick a colour book or Lab colour as the New Spot Color to start from its own tints.
  • New: a long Re-Tint can be stopped.
  • Fixed: Re-Tint now follows your sample colours (they were ignored), so converted tints come back much closer to their original tint.
  • Improved: about three times faster on big artwork, gradient strokes are re-tinted too, and general bug fixes and reliability.
• 1.0.8: Updated for PowerScripts 3.8.32.
• 1.0.7: Updated for the new version of PowerScripts.
• Older changes: PowerScripts Release Notes