Why Does My CMYK Illustrator Document have a 4-color Default Black?

For months now, I have been plagued by an unusual Illustrator problem: 4 color default black. I've always been told pressing the letter D will revert the fill and stroke to their default colors. Like so:

Illustrator default black

But I have a vast collection of Illustrator documents which have a different default black. Instead of getting the expected result of 0, 0, 0, 100, Illustrator gives me this:

Mysterious 4-color default black

Early on, I assumed that perhaps I had made an amateur mistake of working in a RGB color space for my print documents. But nope.

I thought perhaps somehow the default black had gotten edited within the Illustrator master templates, so I checked those. But those all had the correct black definitions as well...

What plagued me about this problem was that it occurred on ALL the files for a particular project, and NEVER for any other project. So I figured that since all the files for this particular project were created from a single Illustrator template, the problem must be within that template. But all was seemingly correct with the template. It was a CMYK document, with CMYK swatches. What was interesting about this version of 4 color black was that it appeared to be a CMYK representation of an RGB black.

So, out of curiosity, I started at the beginning of the lifespan of a file, and created a bunch of new documents, using all the different New Document Profiles. Eventually, I was able to replicate the problem. The problem can be replicated by creating a new document using one of the RGB profiles and then changing the Color Mode (in the lower "Advanced" portion of the dialog box) to CMYK.

You see, you can use any of the new document profiles to create a CMYK document. The new document profiles come with a default color mode. But you can change it to whatever you want! However, these New Document Profiles correspond with actual .ai files that Illustrator uses to create new documents. Adobe has a good writeup about new document profiles here.

So if you start with an RGB file and simply change the document color mode to CMYK, Illustrator still remembers that the files started out as RGB. But since you changed the color mode to CMYK, Illustrator assumes that you want CMYK swatches, so it reinterprets those original RGB swatches and displays them as CMYK. 

So after months of wondering, I finally figured out the original source of the problem.

• I opened a screenshot (which is an RGB raster image) in Illustrator in order to trace it.
• I changed the color mode from RGB to CMYK.
• I added my own CMYK swatches and symbols.
• I saved this file as a template and created hundreds of other files from it.

But Illustrator still remembers that the original file was RGB. Of course, the original file as a screenshot, and had no swatches of its own to begin with. But it was RGB. And so forever more, this file, and all of its descendants, have a four-color black as their default.

So, the moral of the story is:

• If you have a CMYK workflow, don't open an RGB raster image in Illustrator. Instead, place the image into an new CMYK document.
• Alternatively, you can open an RGB image in Illustrator, but be sure to copy and paste it into a new CMYK document.

Author edit on 2-19-13: I recently included this at a lesson of the Raleigh InDesign User Group. Here is a video illustrating this blog post.

Using Illustrator to Make Patterned Stamps for Engineering Drawings

I was recently asked an excellent question by my neighbor, a nuclear engineer:

"I am marking up a drawing and created an octagon shape. I wanted to fill it in with a pattern – where can I find patterns? I thought I used this before but can’t seem to find it.

While Acrobat does indeed have some built-in stamps, they're very generic, and not appropriate for what my neighbor needed to accomplish.

Standard Business Stamps

Sign Here Stamps

Dynamic Stamps

After a little discussion, I decided to go ahead and make him a pattern-filled object in Illustrator, which he could then import into Acrobat as a custom PDF stamp. While this was a good short-term solution, I thought it would good to figure out a solution that would let him make his own custom stamps, in whatever shape and color he needed.

But first let me show you how I made him the stamps in Illustrator. Start with a new document in Illustrator.

1. First, start with some pattern swatches. Unbeknownst to many Illustrator users, Illustrator has a bunch of built-in patterns. You can find them with the swatches here:

Windows> Swatches > Patterns > Basic Graphics > Basic Graphics_Lines

Basic Graphics: Lines

Side note: by clicking on the little triangles at the bottom left of the panel, you can easily move from one built-in swatch library to another.

Basic Graphics: Dots

Basic Graphics: Textures

But I digress, let's go back to making our pattern-filled Octagon.

2. Next, make an octagon and give it a stroke and a pattern fill. I chose one of Illustrator's built-in pattern swatches from Basic Graphics_Lines. 

3. Make the lines go diagonal. Now, you'll notice that the lines in Illustrator's default Lines swatches are all either going horizontal or vertical. But my engineer friend wanted the lines to be going diagonally. To do this, go to Window > Transform to bring up the Transform Panel. On the panel flyout menu, choose Transform Pattern Only.

Transform Pattern Only

Now, the "Transform Pattern Only" command is confusing because there are a couple of things they don't tell you in that little panel flyout menu. The first can be seen when you hover over the little yellow warning triangle that now appears in the Transom panel: "Transformations will only be applied to the pattern fill of the selected object(s)."

We only see that warning by hovering over the little yellow triangle. Now, if you go and try to then transform the pattern, as I did, using the rotate tool, both the object and the pattern are transformed. That's not what I wanted!

Both Object and Pattern have been rotated

After a little experimentation I figured out that the only way to get just the pattern to rotate is by using the Rotate and Shear fields within the Transform Panel.

4. Make your artboard the same size as your object. Go to Object > Artboards > Fit to Selected Art. This will make the stamp import properly into Acrobat's Custom Stamp created.

5. Save as an Illustrator PDF.

6. Go to Acrobat and open a PDF.

7. Create a Custom Stamp. Go to Comments > Annotations > Click on the Stamp tool > Custom Stamps > Create Custom Stamp.

8. Select Image for Custom Stamp. Navigate to the PDF you just made.

9. Give the stamp a category and a name. Now your stamps ready for use.

10. To use the stamp, click not the stamp tool and choose your new stamp from the list.

11. To use the stamp repeatedly, right-click on the stamp tool ann choose "Keep Tool Selected."

12. Now start stamping. You can stamp at different sizes. Acrobat does not allow for disproportionate resizing of stamps, so you can click and drag without fear of changing the proportions of your stamp. If you like, you can even change the opacity of your stamp using the Properties toolbar (Cmd+E).

13. Make some more options. I figured since one texture is good, more textures would be even better. So I went back to Illustrator and made a few more artboards and applied different patterns. You can download the patterned octagons here.

To learn how to make these damps in Powerpoint, see part 2 of this series: Use Powerpoint to Make Patterned Stamps for Engineering Drawings.

Edit: 9-13-918

If you need an easier way to create and manage stamp annotations in your PDF, check out my article on Bluebeam Revu. It's an amazing program designed specifically to meet the needs of users in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction. Specifically, read about the Toolchest, where you can store annotations that you use frequently.

Understanding the Interchangeability of PDF Comments Across Adobe programs

One of the things I love the most about PDF comments that they are tidy little packets of information,  stored as XML, that can be copied, pasted, sorted, and moved around. They can contain information about:

• Author
• Content
• Date Created
• Date Modified
• Color
• Page position
• Type of comment (Highlight, strikethrough, drawing markup, etc)

And certain specialized attributes such as

• Icons
• Line style
• End caps
• Transparency
• Review Status
• Checkmark Status
• Topic
• and more

PDF commenting is one of my most researched topic on my blog. Some time ago, I wrote an article about how to work with Forms Data Files, and why you'd want to. That article explained some interesting uses for saving out the comments as FDF files, changing the extension to XML, and opening it in a code editor.

What's interesting to me about how comments are contained in an XML file is that various Adobe programs can actually import and interpret those FDF files.

Wait, PDF comments aren't just for Acrobat?

I am so glad you asked, Grasshopper!
Some programs can export documents with PDF sticky notes, such as:

• Microsoft Word
• InDesign (through a plugin from Kerntiff Publishing)
• InCopy

Those three programs all require exporting from their native file format into a PDF format. But there are other Adobe programs that will allow you to save a PDF directly, and then open it again as a native file format.

• Photoshop
• Illustrator

I've done some experimenting and wanted to share with you my findings, in hope that some of these findings will eventually make their way into the Adobe suit as full-fledged features.

Illustrator

Sadly, Illustrator doesn't have a Note tool, as does InCopy, InDesign, and Photoshop. But interestingly, Illustrator ignores PDF comments. So if you save your Illustrator document as a PDF, add some comments to it in Acrobat, save it, and reopen it in Illustrator, the comments will still be there. Illustrator is ambivalent to PDF annotations. I wish that Illustrator had the ability to view and interact with PDF annotations, but it doesn't and that okay. It's better than the alternative, which would be to delete them.

Photoshop

Photoshop is very interesting to me because, like InDesign and InCopy, it has a Notes tool. But unlike Indesign and InCopy, it also has the ability to save, directly from Photoshop, a native, layered, fully functional document as a PDF, and reopen it as a native document.

What's so great about that is that it allows for direction interaction with PDF sticky notes made in Acrobat. Let's give it a whirl.

First, we have to find the Notes Tool. It's hiding under the eyedropper.

Next, I'll add a note to photo we took on a trip to Yellowstone.

Now I'll save the file as a PDF (Be sure to check the "Notes" icon in the Save dialog box).

Then open it in Acrobat. Voila! But notice that the comment Author is missing.

Next, let's make a new comment here in Acrobat so we can see what will happen on the round-trip back to Photoshop. the comment I made in Acrobat has a different icon, as well as the author name.

Notice how in Photoshop, the second icon is now the same as the first, but the author name is populated into the Notes panel. After closer examination, there is an open space in the Notes panel, just for the author name to populate.

But wait, there's more!

This is just the first article about the interchangeability of PDF notes. There is so much more! This article I hope will whet your appetite for learning more about how you can use Notes across the Adobe Suite. Here is Part 2 of this article series.

In the meantime, you can learn more about how I think Notes should be improved: My Wish List for Notes - Across the Suite

Green Circle and Crosses Fabric Pattern (PatternMaker)

Recently, while watching one of my favorite sitcoms, I noticed an attractive geometric pattern in one of the chairs on the set. I wanted to see how closely I could recreate the pattern using Teacup PatternMaker. Here is a photo of the chair fabric pattern we'll be recreating.

This pattern has two primary shapes: circles and crosses. First let's create the circles. The circles aren't just random circles, they are a grid of circles. And wouldn't you know it, PatternMaker has a pattern type called "Concentric Circles Grid."

So, after creating a new frame with a green fill, I applied that pattern. Here is the result:

Next, I adjust the number of circles. While the pattern is title "Concentric Circles," you can actually reduce the number of circles to 1.

The default grid angle is 70 degrees, so next I change the angle of the grid to 0 degrees.

Now, I need to make my circles larger. After a little experimentation, I determine that I need to adjust the Shape Size to 75 pt and the Inner Radius to 35 pt.

We're almost done with the circle. Now, we just need to thicken the stroke and make the circles white. I change the stroke weight to 4pt and the color to white.

Now that my circles are complete, I'll move onto the crosses. Copy the frame and paste in place. One the top frame, remove the green fill. This will allow you to see the cross pattern in the frame below. Then select the bottom frame and change the pattern to Crosses.

Next I change the pattern angle and shape angle. This looks slightly different than the fabric pattern. See how in the above screenshot, the crosses are on a diagonal grid? By changing the pattern angle and shape angle, the crosses are now aligned in a horizontal and vertical grid.

Next I change the cross size to 21 pt and the and Element Gap to 50 pt. I chose 50 pt. because that was the distance used for the Element Distance in the Concentric Circles pattern.

Then, make the frame larger than you need it and reset the pattern. This will allow you to nudge the I nudge the Crosses frame so that the crosses are aligned in the correct spot within the circles.

Now, nudge the Crosses frame so that it is positioned correctly. Then reduce the size of the frame so that it is the same size as the Concentric Circle frame.

Finally, I increase the Crosses stroke weight to 6 pt.

You may notice that the original fabric pattern looked slightly different: the crosses had pointed ends, and didn't have the little white specks near where the circles intersected. But the goal was to get as close to the original pattern as I could, without leaving InDesign. Mission accomplished!

But wait, there's MORE!

Just for fun, let's push the exercise a little farther. Next, export the InDesign page to a PDF, with Acrobat 5 compatibility. 

Then open the resulting PDF in Illustrator. Here is what you get:

And here is the same objects, viewed in outline mode (Cmd/Ctrl + Y). Notice how it is blank. Where are my patterns? I have no idea....

Why is this blank? I don't know.

I've been told that Adobe doesn't officially support opening up random PDFs and editing them in Illustrator. I've always known there can be some weird conversion issues like outlining some of the type, but I've never seen anything as strange as this. 

Now, I don't know what kind of code is going on behind the scenes that would make the pattern freak out, but fortunately, there are still some fun ways to get this patten as an editable file within Illustrator.

First I tried going to Acrobat and selecting the pattern with the Edit Object tool. Then right-clicking and choosing: Edit Obejct. Because the object is vector, it opened in Illustrator. But, unfortunately, I got the same result.

So now, go back to InDesign. Select the two patterns (Crosses and Concentric Circles Grid). Set the transparency to 99.9%.

Now, export a PDF with Acrobat 4 compatibility. You'll get a warning about bookmarks, transparency, yadda, yadda. Click OK. This will flatten the objects and make them more editable within Illustrator.

Here is the resulting file when opened in Illustrator. Now it looks right!

And here it is in when viewed in Outline mode. Aha! Now I have paths to work with.

Now, you may hear heated opinions about how flattened PDFs are evil, inflexible, and the bane of prepress technicians' existence. And when I send PDFs to my printer, I do my best to never send them flattened PDFs. But sometimes, flattening a PDF can be a good thing. Because Acrobat 4 is more archaic technology, I think that flattening a PDF is sort of like dumbing it down.  

By reducing the transparency just a little bit, it's enough to sort of give the resulting PDF a kick in the butt and make it behave correctly. I wish I had a better explanation, but I not a coder. Sorry.

So now that you have access to the paths within Illustrator, you can (with a little digging in the layers panel) extract the white circles and crosses as one giant compound path.

Then, you can change up the colors a bit. Teacup PatternMaker is great, but it doesn't allow you to apply gradients to patterns. But by extracting the pattern in Illustrator, you can color it however you want. Here are a couple of colorways that I came up with.

Yellow concentric circles grid on red 

Purple concentric circles grid on blue

Let's push it one step further, and do some Live Painting. Interestingly, when Live Painting with a gradient, the gradient is applied across the width of the entire live paint group, rather than the individual area you're painting.

Concentric circles and cross - painted using the Live Paint Bucket Tool

I hope you have enjoyed today's lesson. Have fun patterning!