Transform Your Design: From RGB to CMYK in Adobe Illustrator

How to Change Your Document Color Mode in Adobe Illustrator

If You're working on a project in Adobe Illustrator, you may find that you need to change the color mode of your document. This can be especially important if you're working on a project that will be printed, as the color mode can affect the final output of your design. In this tutorial, we'll go over how to change your entire document color mode from an RGB color mode to a CMYK color mode in Adobe Illustrator. We'll also cover how to change a general swatch color from one color mode to the other.

Understanding RGB and CMYK

Before we get started, let's briefly talk about the difference between RGB and CMYK. RGB stands for red, green, and Blue, and is meant for digital work. CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, and is meant for printed work. There are many sources online about the technical differences between the two, so we'll link some in the description below. For our video today, we'll keep the explanations simple.

Changing Your Document Color Mode

When you open your Illustrator document, take a look at the tab up above. Here in the parentheses, you can see the color mode your document is in. This is quite helpful for us, especially since we now know that this document is not in the color mode we want it to be in.

To change your document color mode, go to File, and then scroll down to Document Color Mode. Roll over this, and you will see CMYK Color and RGB Color. Select the one you want to use, which in this case is CMYK Color.

Look again at the tab for your document, and you should see that your color mode has changed. However, this does not mean the elements in your document have changed. You still need to do that separately.

Changing Your Element Color Mode

To change the color mode of the elements in your document, select all of the elements in your document. You can do this by hitting Command + A on a Mac or Control + A on a PC. You can also come up here in the Illustrator menu to Select, and then All.

Now click on Edit, and scroll down to Edit Colors. Roll over this, and then move your mouse down to Convert to CMYK. Now not only will your document be converted to CMYK, but all of your elements in your document will be as well.

Changing Your Swatch Color Mode

What if you need to change the general swatch color? Something to keep in mind is that when you initially created your document, you selected your color mode, whether it was for web or print. Your swatch names, as seen here, will match that initial color mode no matter what you change your document color mode to.

When you follow the process before, all of your colors will automatically be converted to your new color mode, even though their names reflect otherwise. Understandably, this can be confusing. If you want to check and make sure one of your general swatch colors is in the right color mode, here's how you can do it manually.

Go to Window, and then scroll down to Swatches. This will bring up the color saved in your document, as well as any others you may have saved before. Click on the element of your document you want to check the color of, and this color should be highlighted in your Swatches panel.

Double-click on this color, and a window will pop up. You can see here that, despite the name of the swatch displaying an RGB name, its color mode is set correctly to CMYK. To manually change this, click on the menu, and you can then select the color mode you want to use for the element in your document.

With that, your Illustrator document should be all set and converted properly to CMYK from RGB. We hope this tutorial has been helpful for you. Thank you for joining us today, and see you next time for our next how-to video.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Changing your document color mode can improve the final output of your design, especially if it will be printed.
• Adobe Illustrator makes it easy to change your document color mode and the color mode of your elements.

Cons:

• Changing your document color mode can be confusing, especially if you're not familiar with the differences between RGB and CMYK.
• If you have a lot of elements in your document, changing the color mode of each one individually can be time-consuming.

FAQ

Q: What is the difference between RGB and CMYK? A: RGB stands for red, green, and blue, and is meant for digital work. CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, and is meant for printed work.

Q: Why do I need to change my document color mode? A: If you're working on a project that will be printed, changing your document color mode to CMYK can improve the final output of your design.

Q: Can I change the color mode of individual elements in my document? A: Yes, you can change the color mode of individual elements in your document by selecting them and then going to Edit Colors > Convert to CMYK.