Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Generate Color Legend from Swatches

Here's a simple script that will generate color rectangles in a document for every color in the main swatch palette.


Suppose that you want to create a visual legend of some colors.  This script will make a map of ALL the swatches in the documents swatch palette.  (If you want to skip the "none" and "registration" values, just edit the script so the "for" loop start at 2 instead of 0.)

Just run this script, and a legend of named swatch rectangles with (by default) their CMYK values will appear in a nicely grouped object on the top of your document.

Sound off in the comments if you find this one useful.

cheers,
-J
at

14 comments:

  1. Marizmendi8:21 PM

    Hey, this is something I need every day in my job, I will give it a try and thanks to you for sharing this..

    Mario
    From Colombia

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ana Pereira5:57 AM

    It is very usefull, I will use it a lot and recomend.
    If I could I would add an improvment: The text label over black swatch or very dark colors should be in non black color.

    ReplyDelete
  3. John3:37 PM

    Great idea Ana!
    Labels now render white over dark swatches.
    cheers,
    -J

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  4. Tom4:46 PM

    This is really useful. I've been doing the same thing for ages by hand. You've saved me countless hours!

    If I may suggest, how about a little spot in a white triangle, like in Illy's color palette, for spot color swatches?

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  5. John7:54 PM

    Good Idea Tom. I'll see about incorporating that into the next version...

    ReplyDelete
  6. IVAN4:41 PM

    wonderful, thanks :)

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  7. Jim de Bruin9:07 AM

    Great script.
    One suggestion:
    Instead of using 'Math.floor', it's better to use 'Math.round'.
    In that case they correspond with the official Pantone Process CMYK values for:
    • Color Bridge Coated / Uncoated
    • CMYK Coated / Uncoated
    • GoeBridge Coated

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  8. Anonymous9:50 AM

    What a wonderful script! Thanks so much for sharing!

    What line of code would you edit to customize the location where the color swatches are placed in the artboard?

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  9. John6:52 PM

    There is no "offset" variable, it just renders from the top left of the current art board.
    The lines to check out are 47 and 48. If you add in a baseline value it should render from there.

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  10. Em4:22 PM

    THANK YOU! I just found your script and it saved me oodles of time on a silkscreen print file. Much appreciated!

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  11. walter4:28 PM

    OK, maybe I'm just blind...

    I DLed this collection of scripts, but I can not locate "Generate Color Legend from Swatches" script.

    Also, what would really be cool is a script that created a swatch panel AND a swatch panel collection (like this script) from all colors on an artboard.

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  12. John11:05 PM

    Hey Unknown, It's called renderSwatchLegend.jsx.
    Neat idea. Let me play with it.

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  13. Anonymous1:54 PM

    How do I do the following:

    - remove all texts except Pantone number.
    - move text under the box.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous8:45 AM

    Been looking for this for a long time! Thank you!
    renderSwatchLegend.jsx still worked great on Illustrator CC 2020

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete