- In this movie, we'll take a look at the Spectrum Ramp, which is this guy right here. It resides at the bottom of the Color Panel. And what it allows you to do is quickly lift a color. So, for example, if you want a shade of blue, you could just drop your cursor down into the Spectrum Ramp and then click on a shade of blue, like so. And that'll just go ahead and lift those values and then you can make any modifications that you like. Now, you're not gonna get that much of a selection when the ramp is this tiny. And so if you think you're gonna use it very often, you may wanna drag down on the bottom of the Color Panel like so in order to increase the size of that ramp.
And that way, as you click and drag inside the ramp, you're gonna see pretty minute changes to, in my case, the hue and saturation values. Now, notice if you hover your cursor over this area, it's gonna read HSB spectrum, assuming that you're seeing the HSB sliders. If you click on the fly-out menu icon and switch to RGB, you're not gonna see any difference whatsoever in the colors, but when you hover your cursor you'll see the Tool Tip RGB Spectrum. And so if you wanna switch to the CMYK Spectrum just go ahead and choose CMYK instead.
At which point you will see a big difference, because the CMYK spectrum is so much more muted. Now, the thing is, if you wanted to map out all of the colors that are available to you here inside Illustrator, then you would have to create some kind of 3D map. Because consider, for example, if we're working with HSB, I can go ahead and show all the colors around a wheel, and just to jog your memory, I'm going to go ahead and switch back to artboard 2 inside of this document right here. So we can show all the colors wrapping around the circle, and we can show the reduced saturation values toward the center.
But if I wanted to show the different brightness variations, then I would have to turn this circle essentially into a cylinder, where black was at the bottom and white was at the top. And so when we're looking at this 2D representation right here, there's just no way that Illustrator can show us all the colors. So here's what it does. Regardless of whether you're looking at the RGB, the HSB or CMYK spectrum, you're seeing the hue values mapped horizontally across this ramp, starting with red over here on the left and then we have orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and so on.
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the spectrum, the saturation value is 100%, and the brightness value is zero. Then we go up to the middle of the chart, at which point the saturation is still 100%, and now the brightness value has risen to 100% as well. So in other words, the colors are remaining highly saturated down here at the bottom of the chart, but they're becoming increasingly brighter toward the middle. Then, once we cross the middle, the brightness stays 100% all the way to the top and the saturation value eventually drops down to 0%.
So let's say we want to lift a shade of brown. I would go ahead and click down here in the dark oranges. So orange and brown share a common hue value. And so notice, if I click down here at this location, and you can click and hold in order to see the values update on the fly, I just wanna make sure you're aware of that. But at some point I'm going to reach a hue value of 30°, let's say. The saturation value will be 100%, and the brightness value I could get it if I tried hard enough to come in at around 50%. But let's say I don't want a highly-saturated brown.
Instead, I wanna reduce that saturation value in order to achieve more of a kind of muddy brown. This color right here that has a reduced saturation value and a reduced brightness value is not found anywhere inside of this spectrum. And so what's missing are all the colors that have both saturation and brightness values of 90% or less, which accounts for theoretically 98% of the colors you can define in Illustrator.
So, for example, let's say we want a pastel blue. Well, if I click up here in this bright area, you can see that the saturation value has dropped down a little bit, but the brightness value is 100% and it's gonna remain 100% as soon as we cross that threshold right there, it's gonna remain at 100% all the way up as you're seeing right there. So if I want a shade of blue that's a little bit dark and it's a little bit desaturated as well, then I'm going to have to adjust those values manually using the saturation and brightness slider bars.
So in other words, this Spectrum Ramp is a really great way to lift a base color, but I don't want you to think that you're gonna have access to every color you can create inside Illustrator because, in fact, what we see here are only about 2% of the colors. If you want to get to the other 98%, then you're gonna have to manually modify the slider bars whether you're working with the HSB, RGB, or CMYK color model. And those are both the strengths and the weaknesses of the Spectrum Ramp located here at the bottom of the Color Panel.
Author
Updated
8/10/2016Released
9/23/2015Start watching to learn how to create multipage documents with artboards; how to draw anything you can imagine with the Pen, Pencil, and Curvature tools; and how to start adding color to your artwork with swatches. Deke also covers drawing shapes, adjusting strokes, formatting text, and painting digitally, with or without a tablet. Each chapter should leave you with a new set of skills—and a sense of accomplishment.
And as Creative Cloud evolves, so will we. Check back every time Illustrator updates for new movies, new feature reviews, and new ways to work.
- Opening, creating, saving, and closing documents
- Working with artboards
- Zooming and panning
- Drawing lines, arcs, grids, and spirals
- Drawing shapes
- Creating compound paths
- Working in RGB vs. CMYK color modes
- Creating and applying swatches
- Adjusting the line weight of strokes
- Formatting text
- Building custom paths with the Shape Builder and Join tools
- Freeform drawing with the Pencil
- Painting and erasing artwork
- Painting with a tablet
- Drawing with the Curvature tool
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Q: This course was updated on 02/24/2016. What changed?
A: We added five new videos and updated eight others, to keep up with the latest version of Illustrator CC.
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Deke's Techniques
with Deke McClelland154h 49m Intermediate
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Introduction
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Welcome to One-on-One4m 20s
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1. Working with Documents
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Creating a new document5m 2s
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Modifying your new document5m 59s
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Saving your changes7m 46s
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2. Working with Artboards
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Using the Artboard tool8m 51s
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Undo, Redo, and Revert3m 16s
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Artboard tips and tricks4m 46s
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Autoarranging artboards6m 41s
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Artboards and rulers7m 26s
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3. Getting Around
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Zooming in and out5m 59s
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Cycling between screen modes6m 38s
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4. Drawing Lines
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Now, we draw44s
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Creating center guides7m 13s
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Drawing straight lines5m 10s
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Duplicating and extending6m 15s
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Using the Move command5m 19s
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Joining your line segments5m 23s
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Using the Arc tool6m 45s
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Using the Polar Grid tool3m 29s
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Using the Spiral tool7m 31s
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5. Drawing Shapes
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Using the Ellipse tool7m 45s
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Live ellipses and pies4m 44s
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Drawing two perfect circles8m 22s
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Creating compound paths7m 1s
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Using the Rectangle tool5m 39s
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Using the crazy Flare tool6m 19s
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6. Color and Swatches
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How color works1m 7s
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Working with global swatches5m 43s
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7. Strokes, Dashes, and Arrows
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Adjusting the line weight4m 42s
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Caps, joins, and miter limit6m 25s
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Dashes and arrowheads7m 24s
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Variable-width strokes5m 58s
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Combining multiple strokes4m 18s
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8. Creating and Formatting Text
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Text at its best1m 2s
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Setting up page margins6m 25s
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Placing and flowing text5m 34s
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Formatting display text5m 47s
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Formatting body copy5m 59s
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Creating a drop cap3m 39s
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Resolving widows and orphans4m 49s
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Redefining a paragraph style6m 48s
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Creating type on a path6m 3s
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9. Building Custom Paths
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Join and the Shape Builder1m 12s
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Using the Join command6m 26s
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Using the Join tool4m 16s
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Creating an inset reflection6m 32s
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10. Using the Pencil Tool
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Creating a tracing template3m 28s
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11. Painting and Erasing
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The best tools for painting1m 27s
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Introducing the Eraser tool6m 56s
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Merging selected paths4m 58s
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Releasing compound paths6m 7s
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Erasing and smoothing lumps6m 13s
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12. Using the Curvature Tool
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Drawing one point at a time1m 46s
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Curvature tool curiosities4m 32s
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Creating quick smooth shapes6m 29s
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13. Using the Pen Tool
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Creating corner points6m 44s
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How smooth points work6m 51s
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Drawing smooth points7m 55s
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Creating cusp points6m 34s
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Using the Anchor Point tool5m 32s
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Drawing perspective edges5m 48s
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Drawing a few distress marks10m 1s
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A preview of round corners9m 26s
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14. Drawing with Round Corners
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Making corners smooth1m 7s
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The round corner widget3m 44s
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Rounding off corner points4m 54s
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Changing the corner type3m 37s
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Rounding characters of type6m 15s
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Decorating an iPhone screen6m 37s
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Reshaping rounded paths9m 40s
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15. Making Screen Graphics
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Pixel grid "gotchas"5m 5s
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Saving an 8-bit graphic6m 32s
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Saving a JPEG image5m 10s
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Assigning a copyright3m 10s
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Using the Asset Export panel4m 42s
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Conclusion
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Until next time1m 50s
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Video: Selecting a color from the spectrum ramp