Absolutely change saturation of multiple objects to uniform amount in Illustrator

Question

I need to change only the saturation level of multiple objects in Illustrator to a uniform value.

Basically, I'm creating a design which uses only brightness derivations to contrast items from each other. I'm using the eye dropper tool to copy the color from one item to another, but as I move from item to item, the saturation slowly increments upward, probably due to rounding errors on Illustrator's end. For example, if I use the eyedropper tool to copy the color from one shape to the next, to the next, repeatedly, say, 50 times, the saturation level will be, say, 40 for the first shape yet because of repeatedly incrementing up slightly, the last shape's saturation level will be something like 50. I need to take all these shapes and change their saturation level back down to 40.

Is that possible in Illustrator? The recolor artwork tool does not seem to be able to handle cases like this.

Answer 1

1. Select all colored objects which need equal saturation.

2. Goto Edit > Edit Colors > Saturation.

3. Adjust the saturation slider to +100% (= double all saturation percentages), click OK

Repeat 2 and 3 until all objects have 100% saturation. You must do steps 2 and 3 four times if there are some objects with 10% saturation level, but all others have more.

4. Reduce the saturations to the wanted level with the same function. For example, if you want common saturation level = 40%, select -60% change.

Answer 2

Select the objects and open the “”Recolor artwork panel”.

Change the color sliders to HSB.

Select the color you want to change in the Active Color list.

Chance its S slider.

In case you want to change all together, click the Link harmony Colors icon.

Now you can change the S slider to increase or decrease the saturation of all objetcs with the same percentage.

Answer 3

You can select all shapes of same color and adjust their saturation back down using the magic wand tool or by selecting one and clicking Select > Same > Fill Color.

To spread one color, style or saturation level to many objects I make a sample rectangle to the side of my art board and use the eyedropper tool to distribute styles from my sample to the objects.