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In Illustrator, I want to use a color that is a placeholder so that later I can change it in one place, and everything using that color will be changed. Simply knowing what AI calls this feature might be enough to find it in the online help! I’m pretty sure I saw this some time ago.
More generally, can I create a group of theme colors, and change them as a set? What about colors based on theme colors as a starting point, but (e.g.) made lighter or otherwise transformed?
These are called Swatches
Swatches palette, which also has an option to create groups of swatches (marked J below)Global for each one - this allows you to edit one swatch and automatically update every object using that color
As was already mentioned, you're looking to use global swatches to act as "placeholder colours."
To change colours as a set, create a color group with the same number of colours as there are in the artwork. Select your artwork and double-click the folder to the left of the color group in the Swatches panel (assuming you're in a thumbnail view). That will bring up the recolor artwork dialog, which will let you map the old colours to your new colours.
Alternatively, you can simply use the Recolor Artwork dialog (click Edit at the top rather than Assign) and adjust the brightness slider to quickly get new tints or shades.
There are Color Groups in Illustrator. Using Color Groups in the Swatches Panel you can switch between groups easily.
This works best if each group has the same number of swatches in it. The animation below is using Illustrator CS6, but it's relatively the same in CC versions.
Merely set up color groups containing swatches you'd like to use. Note they must be flat swatches - no gradients and no patterns.
Then select the artwork and choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork. From there, just click the group on the right.
