How to change the default font & swatches in Adobe Illustrator CC

Hi there, in this video we're going to set the defaults for the Swatches in Adobe Illustrator. We'll also set the default font, get rid of Myriad 12 point, we'll change everything we need to. We'll even turn off that pesky hyphenation. All right, let's go do that now in Illustrator. 

First up, it can be a pain, I'm using Illustrator, it's called Illustrator 22, right? Under 'Illustrator', 'About', this is version 22. It's also called CC 2018. It should work for everything, this version, and up. Earlier versions, you might-- it gets really tricky so if it doesn't work for you, you might have to go search the net, and it gets complicated. For us though, it's partially complicated, not that hard. 

So what we're going to do is, we're going to-- at this Welcome screen, we're going to create a 'New Document'. Basically what we need to do is, we can't just do it for the whole program, we need to do it for Print, Web, and Mobile. Basically for me, I do most of my stuff in Print and Web. So you just need to change these two defaults. So we'll do Print. In Print, what we need to do is, go to this 'More Settings' option down the bottom here, and once that opens, we need to go to where it says 'Profile', drop that down. We'll only go to the one that says 'Browse'. Really what we're just doing here is just locating where these things are kept because on a PC, and Mac, they're different. 

So if I drop this down, it tells me, this is where the Profiles are kept. So we need to dig this out, that's the hard bit. Adjusting the Fonts and Swatches is easy. You can get lost, there's a couple of versions of Library. So there's a Library down at this level, so you need to really make sure. So maybe take a screenshot of this now, or if you're using a PC, take a screenshot of your screen. Just notice, you got to go here, here All the way through to this. I'll show you how to get there. I'm going to close that down. It's basically what we use that for. 

I'm going to go into 'Finder' here, and show you how to find it. So, go to any folder; documents, desktop, doesn't matter. And if you hold down the 'Command' key, and click on this, whatever it says at the top it kind of tells you where you are in the world. So we're partially where they are, we're in HD, we're in Users, we're in My Name, and we're in Documents. But I want to go to this one here. And there should be a folder in here called Library. Problem is that Macs like to hide that from you. You got to go and change Permissions, and stuff. You don't want to do that, the sneaky trick is, on 'View Finder', go up to 'Go', hold down the 'Option' key on my Mac, and you can see, if I just toggle it on and off the Library just appears. It's a little sneaky trick to get him. 

So, I'm in the right place now. I'm in 'Library', now we're going to follow the rest of that. And it was 'Application Support', it was 'Adobe'. We worked on version 22, you might be on a later version whatever that version yours is, the highest number is going to be the one. I'm using 'English US'. And we're trying to find-- we're going to do this one, and this one. Basically we're going to go change these, and we're going to save them. You can go off and do that now, but together, I'll show you the long way. You can see there, our kind of Profile, I'm going to open up 'Print'. And in here, what I'd like to do is, anything you change in here, most of the things you change in here will now be your default. If you want your default for Fill color and Stroke color to be different you could say, actually I want that from now on whenever I'm making a document. The big one you came for is Font. 

I'm going to click once, and 'Myriad Pro'. I'm going to change it to something else, you can change it to anything. If you're following along in this course, I love the old Museo. I'm going to use that. Probably when I'm working, I use 10pt a lot more. Now I want to go change a lot of other things but as a trainer I really need to keep everything by default. So I'm just going to save myself some time now by not changing too much. We're only half way there, right? So you've changed the fonts, and go to 'Window', 'Type', and go to 'Character Styles', and basically this is the kind of default Character Style for maybe, you type anything new. You can see, it's got a '+' there to say you've adjusted it, and all you need to do is go to this Burger menu, when you find Character Style, that '+' goes away. If I save this document now, let's do it, delete that guy, save it, close it. 'File', 'New'. You're ready? It's going to get cool. Print any of these, covers anything under Print. So I'm going to use this, click 'Create'. Grab my 'Type Tool', click once. It's Museo Sans, it's 10pts. 

Couple of other things we want to change. I'm going to close that down. Other little shortcut while I'm here, if you get this one to here, if you hold down, on a Mac, this is Mac only, unfortunately, PC people. Hold down 'Command' key, and click the first letter of 'S', 'C', or 'D'. It's the shortcut, I hit 'D' for don't save. I don't know why I love that shortcut. I'm still on Print there, you can go to 'File', 'Open Recent', same one. I'm going to change a couple of things, Hyphenation, goodbye buddy. If I grab a box, it hyphenates by default. So I'm going to go to my Paragraph Window. So, under 'Window', 'Type', I'm going to open up 'Paragraph'. I'm going to say, Hyphenate, don't do it by default. Weirdly the box that I drew is like the first box ever. It doesn't hyphenate, let's change it. There it is, Hyphenation, turn it 'off'. 

What we need to do now is adjust. Very similar, the Paragraph Styles. So there's a normal Paragraph Style. I say 'Redefine Style', and that will be off by default. I'm not doing mine now, just because. I know it works, you've seen it work, for Character Styles, but because I'm a trainer, I have to kind of keep everything same as yours. Other things you can do here is, you can do your Swatches in this window. So, in here, I'm going to delete that. What I'll do is, I'll leave Hyphenation 'on'. Let's go to our Swatches Panel, so 'Window', let's go to 'Swatches'. And you might just bin everything, just have black, white, maybe a few colors, maybe some brand colors that you're using. You can import colors from logos here. All you need to really do is make sure that your Swatches Panel is how you want it. 

Let's say that you don't use this fantastic Fill. Pattern Swatch. You can go into here, I'm going to delete it, forever. I'm going to make a new Swatch. First of all I'm going to pick a color. Now I'm going to add it as the Swatch. Give it a name, I'm going to turn mine off, not being Global, and not in my Library, just because. Just want it to be a basic Swatch. Now if I save the document, close it, I go to 'New Document' window, anything under 'Print', click 'Create'; A4 even. Can you see, there's my cool Swatches. That one's gone, and that one's there now. It doesn't back date. So it doesn't go back to old documents and adjust the Swatches. It's a really personal thing in Illustrator where these Swatches are attached to their ai file and have been embedded in there. But anything new, that can be changed. That's true of Type as well, so any new documents will be Museo but any previous document, that kind of Character Style's stuck in there. So, old documents, boo, new documents, yes. 

All right friends, that is how to reset your default Font and Swatches in Adobe Illustrator. All right, let's get on to the next video.