How to Add Spot Color in Adobe Illustrator

See Adobe Illustrator: Tips and Tricks for similar articles.

Spot colors are specially blended inks that are used in commercial printing when color consistency is critical. Color that is manufactured from cyan, magenta, yellow and black can vary throughout the course of a print run. Spot color is also used for metallic or neon colors. In most of the western world, the Pantone® Matching System is the industry standard.

  1. To add a spot color to your swatches, click the Swatches Panel menu and go to Open Swatch Library > Color Books > Pantone.... For regular (non-metallic, neon, etc.) choose either Pantone + Solid Coated or Pantone + Solid Uncoated. Coated and uncoated refer to the kind of paper that will be printed on. Coated paper has a hard finish, such as glossy magazine paper. Uncoated paper is more porous, such as newsprint or stationery. Inks are formulated differently, and there can be a drastic appearance in color between coated and uncoated. Swatches Panel Menu
  2. A library panel will open. Most Pantone® colors are named with numbers. Type the number in the search field at the top of the Pantone + Solid... Panel and matching names will be returned. Pantone Panel
  3. Click on the swatch to add it to your main Swatches Panel. Note the black dot in the lower corner. That indicates that it is a spot color swatch. Swatches Panel

Related Articles

  1. Creating an SVG logo
  2. How to Use the Gradient Tool in Adobe Illustrator
  3. How to Use the Gradient Mesh Tool in Adobe Illustrator
  4. How to Use a Photoshop File in Adobe Illustrator
  5. How to Use Live Paint to Color and Paint Artwork in Adobe Illustrator
  6. How to Put Type in Perspective in Adobe Illustrator
  7. How to Create Variable-width Stroke Profiles in Adobe Illustrator
  8. How to Create a Line Graph in Adobe Illustrator
  9. How to Create a Pattern Brush in Adobe Illustrator
  10. How to Use Isolation Mode in Adobe Illustrator
  11. How to Add Spot Color in Adobe Illustrator (this article)
  12. How to Use Draw Inside Mode in Adobe Illustrator
  13. How to Find and Replace in Adobe Illustrator
  14. How to Divide Basic Shapes into Component Pieces in Adobe Illustrator
  15. How to Work with Bezier Curves in Adobe Illustrator
  16. How to Create a Brochure in Adobe Illustrator
  17. How to Use the Shape Builder Tool in Adobe Illustrator
  18. How to Use the Group Selection Tool in Adobe Illustrator
  19. How to Check Spelling in Adobe Illustrator
  20. How to Use Image Trace in Adobe Illustrator
  21. How to Use Global Color Swatches in Adobe Illustrator
  22. How to Manage Artwork with Sublayers in Adobe Illustrator
  23. How to Import Illustrator Files Into Adobe Animate
  24. How to Create Shapes from Multiple Paths in Adobe Illustrator
  25. How to Adjust the Default Artboard in Adobe Illustrator
  26. How to Create a New Document in Adobe Illustrator
  27. How to Use a Color Group to Change Multiple Swatches in Adobe Illustrator
  28. How to Create a Package File from a Template in Adobe Illustrator
  29. How to Work with Hidden Characters in Adobe Illustrator
  30. How to Work with Template Layers in Adobe Illustrator
  31. How to Create Symbols for Mapping Artwork to 3D Objects in Adobe Illustrator
  32. How to Work with Threaded Text in Adobe Illustrator
  33. How to Convert Type to Outlines in Adobe Illustrator
  34. How to Use Draw Behind Mode in Adobe Illustrator
  35. How to Use Adobe Illustrator to Create Website Graphics
  36. How to Create a Custom Pattern in Adobe Illustrator
  37. How to Use Warp Design Elements in Adobe Illustrator
  38. How to Create Custom Graphics from Letter Shapes in Adobe Illustrator