Swatches and opacity

My basic question is how can you make swatches with different opacity? For example, I want to have 6 swatches of one blue, but the difference between each swatch is the opacity (i.e. 10%, 20%....) Is this possible?
Illustrator CC, Mac OS X

Hi Monika,
Thanks for your help. Your suggestion of using tints/global swatch will work on this project, but I was curious if generally it is possible to set opacity for swatches, or if swatches can only determine the fill color.

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http://www.ahadesign.eu/download/allgemein.html
http://www.ahadesign.eu/bildbearbeitung/tutorials/bildbearbeitung/381-mura-filter-meister- und-windows-vista-problem.html
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essage was edited by: sbrackenrich

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Message was edited by: Dumble_dad adding missing words

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1. Prompt user to select a color from a predetermined set of colors (hard coded in the script) via a dropdown list
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3. Find and replace all text in the document from "Primary" to the text that the user had previously selected from the drop down (it was also a swatch name).
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In my made-up test document this worked but Im not sure what mileage you will get… Worth a test anyhows…
#target illustrator
// Global Variables
var aSel,bSel
// Main Window Dialog
function csDialog() {
     var fabGroup = app.activeDocument.swatchGroups.getByName('Fabrics');
     var allFabs = fabGroup.getAllSwatches();
     var fabNames = Array();
     for (var i = 0; i < allFabs.length; i++) {
          fabNames.push(allFabs[i].name);
          if (i < allFabs.length-1) fabNames.push('-');
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     csdlg.Pnl = csdlg.add('panel', [15,15,285,72], 'Pick your "Primary" fabric swap:');
     csdlg.Pnl.cs1 = csdlg.Pnl.add('dropdownlist', [15,20,255,37], fabNames);
     // Panel 2
     csdlg.Pn2 = csdlg.add('panel', [15,92,285,149], 'Pick your "Secondary" fabric swap:');
     csdlg.Pn2.cs3 = csdlg.Pn2.add('dropdownlist', [15,20,255,37], fabNames);
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     csdlg.okBtn = csdlg.add('button', [175,164,285,186], 'OK', {name:'ok'});
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     csdlg.Pnl.cs1.onChange = function() {
          aSel = csdlg.Pnl.cs1.items[parseInt(this.selection)];
     // Panel 2 call back
     csdlg.Pn2.cs3.onChange = function() {
          bSel = csdlg.Pn2.cs3.items[parseInt(this.selection)];
     // Button call back
     csdlg.okBtn.onClick = function() {
          csdlg.close(1);
          colourSwapper(aSel,bSel); // Here call the process
     csdlg.center();
     csdlg.show();
// Main active document commands go here
function colourSwapper(a,b) {
     var uIL = app.userInteractionLevel;
     app.userInteractionLevel = UserInteractionLevel.DONTDISPLAYALERTS;
     var docRef = app.activeDocument;
     recurseLayers(docRef.layers);
     alert('Now run Action:\r"Delete Unused Panel Items"');
     app.userInteractionLevel = uIL;
// Main active document check function
function activeDoc() {
     if (app.documents.length == 0) {
          alert('NO document open?');
          return;
     } else {
          csDialog();
activeDoc();
function recurseLayers(objArray) {
     for (var i = 0; i < objArray.length; i++) {
          var l = objArray[i].locked;
          if (l) objArray[i].locked = false;
          var v = objArray[i].visible;
          if (!v) objArray[i].visible = true;
          changeText(objArray[i].textFrames);
          changeColours(objArray[i].pathItems);
          if (objArray[i].layers.length > 0) {
               recurseLayers(objArray[i].layers)
          if (objArray[i].groupItems.length > 0) {
               recurseGroups(objArray[i].groupItems)
          if (objArray[i].compoundPathItems.length > 0) {
               loopCompounds(objArray[i].compoundPathItems)
          objArray[i].locked = l;
          objArray[i].visible = v;
function recurseGroups(objArray) {
     for (var i = 0; i < objArray.length; i++) {
          var l = objArray[i].locked;
          if (l) objArray[i].locked = false;
          var h = objArray[i].hidden;
          if (h) objArray[i].hidden = false;
          changeText(objArray[i].textFrames);
          changeColours(objArray[i].pathItems);
          if (objArray[i].groupItems.length > 0) {
               recurseGroups(objArray[i].groupItems)
          if (objArray[i].compoundPathItems.length > 0) {
               loopCompounds(objArray[i].compoundPathItems)
          objArray[i].locked = l;
          objArray[i].hidden = h;
function loopCompounds(objArray) {
     for (var i = 0; i < objArray.length; i++) {
          var l = objArray[i].locked;
          if (l) objArray[i].locked = false;
          var h = objArray[i].hidden;
          if (h) objArray[i].hidden = false;
          changeColours(objArray[i].pathItems);
          objArray[i].locked = l;
          objArray[i].hidden = h;
function changeColours(objArray) {
     for (var i = objArray.length-1; i >= 0; i--) {
          var l = objArray[i].locked;
          if (l) objArray[i].locked = false;
          var h = objArray[i].hidden;
          if (h) objArray[i].hidden = false;
          if (objArray[i].fillColor instanceof SpotColor) {
               if (objArray[i].fillColor.spot.name == 'Primary') {
                    objArray[i].fillColor = app.activeDocument.swatches.getByName(aSel).color;
               if (objArray[i].fillColor.spot.name == 'Secondary') {
                    objArray[i].fillColor = app.activeDocument.swatches.getByName(bSel).color;
          objArray[i].locked = l;
          objArray[i].hidden = h;
function changeText(objArray) {
     for (var i = objArray.length-1; i >= 0; i--) {
          var l = objArray[i].locked;
          if (l) objArray[i].locked = false;
          var h = objArray[i].hidden;
          if (h) objArray[i].hidden = false;
          if (/Primary/.test(objArray[i].contents)) {
               objArray[i].contents = objArray[i].contents.replace('Primary', aSel)
          if (/Secondary/.test(objArray[i].contents)) {
               objArray[i].contents = objArray[i].contents.replace('Secondary', bSel)
          objArray[i].locked = l;
          objArray[i].hidden = h;
I left quite a bit of stuff that deals with hidden and locked items… If you don't require this it can be easily stripped out…

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Tick Show All Swatches.

Swatches and opacity

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