You've probably made your own colors - in Illustrator, saved them and use them in your artwork.
But let's explore a little bit more - about color by making it so you can edit color faster - using something called Global Colors and also make a lighter version - of your existing colors called Tints.
Before we jump into Tints, let's start by making a color - and we're going to explore Global Colors.
Now, these are a faster way - of changing color everywhere.
Let's make a color and save it.
So select this shape and we'll use the Color Picker over here - to grab a quick color.
So double click on the Fill down here - at the bottom of the Toolbar and then click - to sample some kind of color like a blue.
Now, if you want to be more precise, you can enter values here you get - from someone else or somewhere else.
Click OK.
And this color isn't saved yet, so let's save it as a swatch - to be able to reuse it.
Come over to the Properties panel - and click on the Fill and with the swatches showing, make a new swatch - by clicking the New Swatch button down here In the dialog that opens, give it a name, I'll call mine Icon.
And make sure - this Global option is selected, it should be by default.
Let me just quickly explain - what a Global Color is.
If you save a color as a global swatch and you apply it to your artwork, if you then edit the original color, it automatically updates everywhere.
Click OK to save it and you'll now see it - in the Swatches panel.
See that little white triangle - in the corner?
That means it's a Global Color.
Notice that by default - none of the other swatches are global.
Apply the color you just made - to the fill of these shapes.
Now say you want to edit this color, come back out here - and with only one of the shapes selected, come to the Fill swatch - and double click on it In the dialog, change the color - to whatever you want.
I'll change mine to an orange - to match what's there already.
Click OK.
And there it is.
Everywhere it's applied, has been updated.
That's the power of a global swatch.
Now we'll take that orange color and we're going - to make a lighter version of it called a Tint.
First, select one of these other shapes - and apply the orange you just made to it.
Now, are you going - to make a lighter version of the orange.
So come here to the Color Mixer button and you should see a single slider - for Tints labeled T.
That's what the T stands for, Tints.
One of the reasons - why we made a global swatch, besides the fact that it's cool is because you'll only see this T slider - if you have a global swatch selected.
Drag that slider to the left - and you'll see the color is actually lighter.
I think that looks pretty good.
Now you want to save the tint as a swatch - so you can use it again.
So go ahead and show the swatches again and to save it, click the New Swatch button - down here at the bottom.
You should now see a Tint swatch - in the panel and if you move your pointer over, you should see the name - of the original color and a Tint percentage.
Now, if you were - to change the original orange global swatch, any tints that are based on that color - would also change.
So let's try it out.
Click this shape to select it - because it's got the orange fill and to edit the fill color, - click the Fill color on the right and then double click the swatch to edit it.
In the dialog box, make sure you select Preview - so you can see any changes that happen and just try - changing the color a little bit.
You can see that the tint you saved - that's based on this color also changes.
Click OK.
Saving swatches as Global Colors and also working with Tints - or lighter versions of a color can be a great way to be both - creative and faster with your artwork.
If you want to practice, - try applying the icon color to one of these shapes, then create a new tint based on it. -
