When Illustrator Suddenly “Cleans Up” – And Designers Are Left Searching

With the major interface update, Adobe Illustrator quietly removed several functions that had worked reliably in the background for years.
Not spectacular, not glamorous – but genuinely useful.
Especially for anyone documenting colors, creating CI guidelines, or defining product and machine design specifications.

Functions that disappeared include:

  • the complete labeling/annotation feature
    (swatch labels, automated notes, dynamic annotations)

  • copying color values via right-click

  • and several other small but well-established color tools

For many workflows that means:
What used to be one click… is now, well… manual work again.Für viele Workflows heißt das:
Was früher ein Klick war, ist heute… nun ja… wieder Handarbeit.

Instead of getting nostalgic, we simply solved the problem ourselves.

The Small Script That Brings Those Lost Functions Back

To make everyday work as efficient as before, we wrote a compact ExtendScript:

color_label_helper.jsx

A single click on any object in Illustrator generates:

  • a small color chip next to the object

  • HEX value

  • RGB

  • CMYK

  • including full SpotColor support

The result:
A cleanly formatted color label – perfect for presentations, CI documents, and technical reviews.

Why a Script?

Illustrator offers an official automation interface through ExtendScript.
Our script relies exclusively on public functions – no hacks, no reverse engineering – and behaves fully within Adobe’s guidelines.

In short:
Legal, lightweight, useful.
And most importantly: back to one click instead of five.

Download

You can download the script here:

👉 Download: color_label_helper.jsx

Quick installation guide:

  1. Close Illustrator

  2. Place the file into the Scripts folder

    • Windows: Program Files/Adobe/…/Presets/en_US/Scripts/Windows: Programme/Adobe/…/Presets/de_DE/Scripts/

    • macOS: Applications/Adobe …/Presets/en_US/Scripts/macOS: Applications/Adobe …/Presets/de_DE/Scripts/

  3. Restart IllustratorIllustrator neu starten

  4. Menu: File → Scripts → color_label_helper

Done.

Why We’re Sharing It

Because small tools – especially in design – often save more time than big ones.
And because good digital tools are the ones that quietly integrate into your daily workflow.

If you have questions or requests (LAB values, custom layouts, branding versions, or a script that labels entire swatch libraries):
Just get in touch.