Expert: Amy - 8/31/2004

Question
I am working on a PC using Illustrator 8. Where is the color tint slider that is referred to in the User Guide? I want to make a tint of a color, and it should be easy to do, but I can't figure out where/how to do it.

Thanks!

Answer
Hi Arlo,

There are two basic types of colors in Illustrator.  There are process colors and spot colors. You can only use the tint slider on spot colors.

To do what I'm about to descibe, you should have the Color Window and the Swatch Window visible.

1. Create your object and fill it with the desired CMYK color (the one you're going to want a tint percentage of later).

2. With that object selected, take a look at the color window.  Grab the little box in there that displays the fill color of the selected object and drag it into the swatch window and drop.

3. Double click on the new swatch you've made.  You'll see a little menu that says process color.  Change that to Spot Color and click OKAY. You'll see the swatch now has a tiny dot in the corner.

4. Take another look at the color window and you'll see that slider bar now.  Select your object, make sure it is filled with the swatch you made, and use the slider bar as desired.

Hope this works for you!
Amy