Color

Randomize Mode

Randomizing colors in Adobe Illustrator can be done by dialing in acceptable ranges of HSL/RGB/CMYK values, or by randomly selecting a color from a set.

Randomize from a color range

HSL Mode: Randomize the fill colors of all objects in your selection using an HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) color range. Dial in the range by manipulating the handles on the color sliders or by manually typing in minimum and maximum values. Ranges can be independently set for hue, saturation, and lightness. For each object in your selection, a color is randomly generated from these HSL ranges, and then applied as an RGB color to the object. Fill color randomization is compatible with paths, compound paths, groups, and text.

RGB Mode: This mode works the same as the HSL mode, but the sliders are for Red, Green, and Blue values instead of HSL.

CMYK Mode: This mode works the same as the HSL mode, but the sliders are for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black values instead of HSL values. Colors are applied as CMYK colors, so if your document is in the RGB color mode, these applied CMYK colors will be automatically converted by Illustrator to RGB. This can lead to color inaccuracies.

Randomize from a color list or set

You can also create a list of colors that Randomill will randomly choose from to apply to selected objects. These lists, or ‘sets’ can be created by importing fill colors from objects in the document, or by importing swatches from the swatches panel.

Most color types can be imported into the set with the exceptions being gradient meshes and free-form gradients. Patterns are unable to be previewed in the panel, but will work as expected when applied to objects in the document. In the UI screenshot, you can see a pattern, empty fill, linear gradient, radiant gradient, grayscale color, spot color, and RGB color all added in to the set.

A note on color conversion: Using RGB or HSL color range randomization for documents that are in the CMYK color space may result in faded colors due to imperfect conversion of HSL/RGB colors into CMYK colors. The same applies for using CMYK color range randomization for documents that are in the RGB color space.

Shift Mode

Randomill’s color shift function allows the fill or stroke color of any object to be shifted by a specified amount. As Randomill iterates through selected objects, colors are shifted by an increasing amount.

Shift and offset colors of selected objects

For example, let’s say you have 4 black squares next to each other with fill colors of Red: 0, Green: 0, and Blue: 0. Running the color shift function on these squares in the RGB submode with values of R: +10, G: +0, B: +0 would result in the following:

• Square 1: Unchanged (unless ‘include first object’ checkbox is checked)
• Square 2: Red value shifted by +10.
• Square 3: Red value shifted by +20.
• Square 4: Red value shifted by +30.

You can think of it like Randomill shifting the hue value of each object by 10 degrees more than the object before it.

You can even use the ‘Restart loop every N steps’ field in the advanced options to restart the iteration loop at a specified number of steps, or use a 0 value to evenly apply a color shift across all objects and avoid any gradual change in color shift. This would act more like a ‘transform each’ function in this case.

Use color cycling to avoid topping or bottom out color values

RGB values have a range of 0-255. Hue values have a range of 0-360. CMYK values go from 0%-100%. So what happens if your settings end up making Randomill try to exceed these boundaries?

There are two possibilities. let’s say you have a square that has an HSL color of H:360, S:100, L:100. This square would be bright red, and cannot get any redder. If you try to shift the Hue value 10 degrees forward using this shift mode, Randomill will do one of two things:

• If ‘Hue cycling’ is enabled in the advanced options, Randomill will treat the hue value overflow as a reason to go back to the beginning of the hue range and then apply the value. So you would end up at a hue of 10.
• If ‘Hue cycling’ is disabled, the hue will simply remain unchanged, and Randomill will move on to the next object.

Loop Mode

Apply colors in order to a color set, over and over. This function can be a great way to create complex cascading checkerboard patterns.

Apply colors in a specific order/pattern in Adobe Illustrator

Do you have a 10×10 grid of squares that you’d like to be colored in a Red, Yellow, Blue order? Just add those colors to the color set and use this function. This can be great for creating complex checkerboard patterns.

Colors will be assigned to selected objects in the order of those object in their layer stack. For example, let’s say you have red, yellow, and blue in your color set and you have 10 squares next to each other selected in the document. This would be the result.

• Square 1 (top-most square in the layer stack): Red
• Square 2 (next-highest square in the stack): Yellow
• Square 3: Blue
• Square 4: Red
• Square 5: Yellow
• Square 6: Blue
• Square 7: Red
• Square 8: Yellow
• Square 9: Blue
• Square 10: Red

Keep in mind that multiple color types can be added into the color set including gradients, spot colors, and even the empty/no-color swatch.

Blend Mode

Programmatically create blends in Illustrator without relying on the blend tool, and keep individual objects editable after the fact.

Blend between multiple RGB colors seamlessly

Easily perform color blends with multiple colors across an unlimited number of objects. This is different from Illustrator’s native blend mode in that it doesn’t require intermediate blend objects to create a multi-color blend. Just add the colors into the set and blend away.

Easily add or remove colors into the blend by adding colors into the list within the Randomill panel, and just re-execute the blend. Randomill also allows for drag-and-drop color rearranging within the panel UI.

Color blending in Illustrator has never been easier.

Organize objects before blends

Colors will be calculated based on object position in the layer stack. If object layer order is random, color blends won’t work properly. You can use the Arrange Layer Order function within Randomill to sort this out quickly.