Color Mode Tool

Use Tools → Methods → Color Mode to set the active Illustrator document to RGB or CMYK. This method changes a document-wide property, so it does not target artwork by Darty tags.

Color Mode is useful when a generated document must enter the correct color workflow before later methods create or modify artwork. It can also make the intended output mode explicit in a reusable Darty sheet instead of relying on whichever mode the source document happened to use.

For spreadsheet syntax and sample files, see the Color Mode method reference.

Choose the Document Color Mode

The Document Color Mode choice writes the mode property.

RGB is selected when the editor opens or is reset. This choice is the configuration that Color Mode will apply; it should not be treated as a live status indicator for the active Illustrator document. Select CMYK explicitly when the row must produce a CMYK document.

The editor supports only RGB and CMYK because those are Illustrator's document color modes. Lab, Grayscale, HSB, and similar values can appear in color-specific features, but they are not valid choices for this document-level method.

Understand What Changes

Changing the document color mode changes how Illustrator represents and interprets process colors across the active document. Illustrator may convert color values to the destination model, and colors that cannot be represented identically in both models may shift in appearance.

The operation does not merely change the labels shown in a color panel. Review color-critical artwork after switching modes, especially when the document contains:

• Brand colors that must remain within an approved tolerance.
• Process-color gradients, blends, or transparency.
• Raster images or raster effects.
• Appearance effects whose output depends on the document color model.
• Colors prepared for a specific print profile or screen workflow.

This method does not replace color-management, proofing, or print-production decisions. It establishes RGB or CMYK as the document mode used by Illustrator and subsequent Darty operations.

Use a Document-Wide Action

Color Mode has no Artwork Tags field because selecting individual objects would not change the scope of the operation. The active document is always the target.

Apply to Document performs a one-time mode change without adding a row to the Color Mode Table. Use it when the current document needs to be corrected immediately but the choice does not belong in a reusable sheet.

Add Row records the selected mode without changing Illustrator. Apply records the row and dispatches it through the Table workflow. See Tools Method Actions and Apply Modes for the distinction between those actions.

In a spreadsheet, Color Mode still occupies a method block with a tag-header cell. Because there is no artwork target, the established reference format uses * in that header cell.

Place Color Mode Deliberately in a Sheet

Method order matters when later operations create colors, rasterize artwork, add effects, or prepare output. Put Color Mode before those rows when they should run under the destination document model.

For example, a print-oriented workflow can:

1. Set the document to CMYK.
2. Apply CMYK-aware appearance or swatch values.
3. Rasterize or export using the intended production settings.

A screen-oriented workflow can set RGB before adding RGB colors or creating Web assets.

Avoid switching back and forth repeatedly in one workflow. Repeated conversions can make color outcomes harder to reason about and may produce cumulative changes in process-color values.

Skip a Reusable Color Mode Row

Skip is a three-state checkbox that writes skip only when True or False is selected.

• True writes skip:true and leaves the document in its existing mode for that data record.
• False writes skip:false and explicitly allows the selected mode to be applied.
• Unset omits the property and leaves the row to normal execution.

Skip is useful when one reusable sheet serves both print and screen records but only some records should execute a particular mode-setting row. See Skip and *.

The spreadsheet method also skips a row whose mode value is blank. The visual editor always keeps RGB or CMYK selected, so use Skip when building that conditional behavior through the interface.

Build a Safe Color Mode Configuration

1. Decide whether the final document is intended for an RGB or CMYK workflow.
2. Select the destination mode; do not assume the default RGB choice reflects the document's current state.
3. Save a recoverable copy when color fidelity is important.
4. Use Apply to Document for a one-time conversion, or Add Row to capture the reusable setting.
5. Place the captured Color Mode block before mode-dependent color, appearance, rasterize, and export operations.
6. Review representative process colors, gradients, raster effects, and final output after conversion.

Validation, Warnings, and Common Problems

• An active Illustrator document is required for a direct document action.
• Only RGB and CMYK are valid document-mode values.
• A selected RGB option does not prove that the current document is already RGB; it is the value the editor is prepared to apply.
• If a spreadsheet row appears to do nothing, check whether skip:true, *:false, or a blank mode prevents it from running.
• If colors look different after conversion, review the destination workflow and color-management settings rather than repeatedly switching modes.
• If later rows depend on a particular document model, confirm that Color Mode appears before them in the method sequence.

Control-to-Property Summary

The default visual choice generates mode:rgb; selecting CMYK generates mode:cmyk.

Capture, Apply, and Review

• Tools Method Actions and Apply Modes explains Reset, Add Row, Apply, and Apply to Document.
• Tools Method Table Preview explains how to inspect, edit, reorder, copy, download, and apply captured Color Mode rows.
• Color Mode method reference provides the spreadsheet layout, valid values, screenshots, and sample downloads.