: Illustrator: Change the colors of a symbol Is it possible to change the colors of a symbol in a document without breaking the link with its original shape. Eg.: I have a square a symbol.

@Kimberly620

Dynamic symbols were introduced with Illustrator CC 2015 which let you change the fill/stroke/etc without breaking the link to the master. You just select the placed symbol with the Direct Selection tool and change away.
helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/how-to/dynamic-symbols.html

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@Welton168

Just a little "extension" to David's answer - to color some symbols you can use "Hue" in fill opacity settings:

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@Phylliss782

Sorry I came upon this question so late.
You can have symbols instances with different colors to some extent. Use the Appearance panel to add a fill or stroke color to the selected symbol instance. Here I have added different fill colors to each instance of the same symbol.

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@Murray976

Note This answer is from 2012. Things have since changed.

Adobe has implemented Dynamic Symbols in Illustrator CC, which allow for further editing than was previously possible. See here: Adobe Help for help implementing dynamic symbols and changing colors of symbol instances.



Previous answer, related primarily to Illustrator CS6 or older.

No. You can't have multiple, differing, iterations of the same symbol. You can use the Symbol tools, like the Symbol Stainer, but that won't allow specific color assignments within any symbol.

If you need different colored symbols, you need different symbols.

You can easily swap symbols. Select a symbol on the artboard and then use the Control bar to swap with another symbol.

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