Color Conversion from Spot to CMYK

How are you able to convert spot colors to the correct color bridge numbers in when rasterizing an eps file? It appears to be driven by color settings,
but no matter what is selected, the numbers are never correct.

Depends what you mean by 'correct' as there are several models and possible correct answers...
A spot colour is often outside the gamut of cmyk and therefore will look different to the spot and there are different ways to come to a representative colour, so there is no 'correct' numbers, it is a subjective assessment.
If you can find a conversion environment that gives a good 'look' then that is correct, for you...

Similar Messages

Changeing color modes from rgb to cmyk

Good Morning Everyone,
I am editing a file for a Realestate customer of mine. For some reason her previous designer didn't understand to make print material in cmyk ( I cant believe how many "designers" dont understand the difference.). I am now going back and correcting that issue so they will print accuratly. Usually I can do this in Illustrator and just go to the edit menu and then go to edit colors and choose convert to cmyk. That option is greyed out in this situation. Does anyone no why? I am attaching a screen shot. I am using illustrator cs6 on a mac running 10.7.5.

What Jacob says but check that you Color Settings are set right for the type of printing in question. Otherwise the colours may not convert satisfactorily.

Conversion from RGB to CMYK

Hi,
I would be so grateful if someone could help! I need to submit a PDF of a book I have written to the printers. They tell me that they are printing in CMYK. My book has many paintings inside and two use RGB mode (others are CMYK). I have tried converting these to CMYK however they loose their colour variations and brightness. It is important that the colours remain the same. Is it necessary that I convert these to CMYK (my printer said he would try printing samples of the PDF's I've sent in RGB mode and see what happens). I am worried since when I export the book to PDF I get a big exclamation mark warning me not to proceed since all is not in CMYK. Is this simply a caution or is there any reason for real concern. Help!
Thank you, Rachel

There's no way to tell what the settings are from what you've posted. This is a modification of the [High Quality Print] predefined preset, which DOES NOT convert colors to CMYK, but without going through the panels there's no way to know what was modified.
Whatever settings you end up using, you must look at the "output" panel and check what it says under color. If you are expecting the output to convert RGB to CMYK you must set that field to one of the "Convert to Destination" settings, and under destination you must choose the correct profile for your printer conditions.
Choosing "Convert to Destination" and a profile that doesn't match your document CMYK working space will result in the appearance of colors being preserved, but all of your native CMYK elements, including your black type, will be converted tot he new color space, and more than likely your type will now be a four-color rich black instead of K only, which is a printer's nightmare.
Choosing "Convert to Destination (Preserve Numbers)" will keep the CMYK values for native elements, which will preserve your solid blacks, but will result in some color shifting as the numbers are re-interpreted in the new space. This is roughly equivalent creating a document in one working space, then ASSIGNING a new working space before export.
Peter

CMYK to RGB color conversion?

Hi,
I have to convert CMYK color array in the RGB color space and vice versa.
I am using the following code;-
UID colorUID = iDrawing->GetColorUID(kFalse);
UIDRef colourUIDRef(iDrawing->GetDataBase(), colorUID);
InterfacePtr<IColorData> colorData(colourUIDRef, UseDefaultIID());
char
strColor[16]={0};
if(colorData->GetColorSpace() == kPMCsCalRGB)
    ColorArray rgbColor = Utils<IUIColorUtils>()->GetRGBColorValue(m_DB, colorUID);
    sprintf(strColor,
"#%.2x%.2x%.2x", ToInt32(rgbColor[0] * 255), ToInt32(rgbColor[1] * 255), ToInt32(rgbColor[2] * 255));
else
    ErrorCode errStatus = GetRGBColorStr(colourUIDRef, strColor);
ErrorCode GetRGBColorStr(UIDRef colourUIDRef,
char* strColor){
    ErrorCode status = kFailure;
    do
          I
nterfacePtr<IColorData> colorData(colourUIDRef, UseDefaultIID());          IDataBase* m_DB = colourUIDRef.GetDataBase();
// If color sapce is other then RGB then get the colour array
    ColorArray colourArray = colorData->GetColorData();
    // If the colour space is CMYK then convert it to RGB
    if(colorData->GetColorSpace() == ICMSProfile::kSourceTypeBuiltInCMYK)    {
          IDocument* document = Utils<ILayoutUIUtils>()->GetFrontDocument();
          ColorArray rgbColor = Utils<IColorSystemUtils>()->ColorTransform( document, colourArray, ICMSProfile::kSourceTypeBuiltInCMYK,ICMSProfile::kSourceTypeBuiltInRGB);
     sprintf(strColor,
"#%.2x%.2x%.2x", ToInt32(Round(rgbColor[0] * 255)), ToInt32(Round (rgbColor[1] * 255)), ToInt32(Round(rgbColor[2] * 255)));     status = kSuccess;
}while(kFalse);
return status;
}while(kFalse);
return status;

I did some experiments with Illustrator CS6 and the MacBeth RGB test chart and verified my results with Photoshop CS6. I discovered Illustrator is (mostly) doing what it should be doing, within a 1% error (probably rounding) on the output CMYK values. Here's a summary, in case anyone else needs this info:
Assuming the source file's elements are all untagged, when a mixed RGB/CMYK PDF is opened in Illustrator and CMYK mode is
chosen, Illustrator will use the profiles and rendering intent defined in
Color Settings to make the color conversions from RGB to CMYK. Thus, we
have control over the profiles used for this conversion.
If the RGB elements in the PDF file have embedded ICC profiles,
Illustrator will use the embedded ICC profile instead of the RGB profile
defined in Color Settings. This ONLY happens, however, if the PDF file
also includes the correct CMYK output intent profile.
If the PDF doesn't contain a CMYK output intent, Illustrator will fall
back on the Color Settings RGB profile for RGB->CMYK conversion. I believe it
would be more correct for Illustrator to use the embedded RGB profile and
the CMYK profile defined in Color Settings, but that's not how it seems to work.
If the PDF contains the incorrect CMYK output intent, Illustrator will
ignore the Color Settings and respect the embedded RGB and CMYK profiles
for the conversion, as might be expected.

Choosing profiles for forced RGB to CMYK color conversion

When a mixed RGB/CMYK PDF is opened in Illustrator CS6, Illustrator forces a conversion to one color space or the other. See this screenshot: http://imgur.com/sK8iEdn
I assume this is a limitation of Illustrator and there's no way to keep both color spaces. Under that assumption, Is it possible to choose the profiles used for the conversion from RGB to CMYK? Can Illustrator be made to use the RGB and CMYK profiles defined in its Color Settings to make this conversion?

I did some experiments with Illustrator CS6 and the MacBeth RGB test chart and verified my results with Photoshop CS6. I discovered Illustrator is (mostly) doing what it should be doing, within a 1% error (probably rounding) on the output CMYK values. Here's a summary, in case anyone else needs this info:
Assuming the source file's elements are all untagged, when a mixed RGB/CMYK PDF is opened in Illustrator and CMYK mode is
chosen, Illustrator will use the profiles and rendering intent defined in
Color Settings to make the color conversions from RGB to CMYK. Thus, we
have control over the profiles used for this conversion.
If the RGB elements in the PDF file have embedded ICC profiles,
Illustrator will use the embedded ICC profile instead of the RGB profile
defined in Color Settings. This ONLY happens, however, if the PDF file
also includes the correct CMYK output intent profile.
If the PDF doesn't contain a CMYK output intent, Illustrator will fall
back on the Color Settings RGB profile for RGB->CMYK conversion. I believe it
would be more correct for Illustrator to use the embedded RGB profile and
the CMYK profile defined in Color Settings, but that's not how it seems to work.
If the PDF contains the incorrect CMYK output intent, Illustrator will
ignore the Color Settings and respect the embedded RGB and CMYK profiles
for the conversion, as might be expected.

Spot-to-CMYK conversion: Pantone vs. ID

I know this is not a new issue, and was discussed here, but more from the point of view of the visual aspect of colors on one's screen.
I'm baffled as to the conversion of spot colors for printing purposes (sheet-fed).... My client wants me to use PMS 322c in a CMYK job, and she's been always very picky about colors and the way they print. The difference in the conversion formulas between ID and using Pantone's website -- is striking.... See how ID has a significant amount of M, yet low K, while Panton suggests ZERO M and lots of K.... So I'm asking, WHO CAN I TRUST???....

Part of the “problem” is that of how you actually represent the Pantone spot colors. Yes, Pantone provide CMYK equivalent values, but in exactly what CMYK color space? According to what I have been told by Pantone, those CMYK values are nominally SWOP.
You didn't indicate what your full workflow looks like, but the most reliable method of dealing with spot colors, whether used as real spot colors (i.e., you actually have those spot color inks at the press) or you are simulating them, is to pass through the spot color information in the PDF file exported from InDesign or at least as LAB colors otherwise. Preferably, you are using a PDF/X-4 workflow.
Bring in the swatch at follows:
The swatch will then look like:
When you export PDF, you have two choices. If you are actually printing spot color or if you don't know whether real spot color inks are available, set the Ink Manager as follows:
In this case, the RIP will use the spot color if available or if not, it will convert Pantone's more precise LAB color values specified as the “alternate color space” to the press' CMYK color space.
If you know that the press definitely won't have the spot colors, set the Ink Manager as follows:
On PDF export, all references to PANTONE 322 C will be output to the PDF with the exact LAB color values which your RIP will convert to CMYK and no references to the spot color at all.
This is the method getting precisely what Pantone defines for the spot colors and how they will look in process color.
Note that many Pantone spot colors cannot precisely be matched in process color simply because such colors are outside the gamut of whatever process CMYK color space your printing workflow supports.
- Dov

Color conversion : special behavior with Spot Color "All"

Hello,
I have a document with printmarks which have a spot color "All". While I convert the page using the "Color conversion" to Gray 1.8 with Adobe Acrobat X the spot color "All" are still present (with the alternate color space DeviceGray).
Using Adobe Acrobat 9.x all objects have a DeviceGray color.
Is it a bug or a new behavior? Moreover the SDK method doesn't convert the spot color but keep the name (but I know this is not the right place to post it - it's just for information).
Regards,
Joe

I sense you may not understand the difference between sopt and process colors in the printing process.
When you use process inks you build all color representations by combining dots of varying sizes from each of the four process colors, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Because the dots are two small to be seen individually your brain is fooled into thinking it sees other colors. Process color printing requires four printing plates to produce the full range of colors possible, but that range is limited compared to what you can see in real life or capture in RGB.
Spot colors, in contrast, are similar to paint. Each color is mixed individually, and every spot color requires its own plate on the printing press (and you must use a press -- toner and inkjet printers use cmyk inksets and cannot print real spot colors). Because of the expense of these plates, the use of spot colors is usually limited to one or two colors in any print job, and if the job has other color (like photographs) that requires process inks, converting the spot colors to the closest process simulation is often employed if the spot colors can be simulated "close enough" to satisfy the client and the budget is tight.
I would avoid using process colors for type in small sizes or for very thin strokes, especially in lighter colors, as you are likely to see ragged edges.
So, how many spot color swatches did you use? More than two? More than four? Do you have a huge budget to produce the work? This may be a project that really should be designed from the ground up as process, or process and one spot for that hard to print bright accent color.

Printing RGB colors - Conversion to CMYK?

Hi,
I have been working for a little while in converting my old RGB colors to CMYK printer friendly colors.
However, I carefully choosed my printing friendly CMYK colors to be as close as possible to the RGB colors but the prints are dull !
On the other hand, when I print my file withj RGB colors using the PDF Distiller tagged with Adobe1998 profile and send the file to the printer, colors look smarter !
It means that the CMYK colors I picked myself are not good enough anf the Color Managment in Adobe PDF or Illustrator are better than me ! As follows:
- In Illustrator -> Print -> Color Management tab -> Color Handling: Let Illustrator determine colors
- in Acrobat Reader -> Print -> Color Management tab of the plotter: Application managed colors
Both ouput similar quality prints, and better than my own CMYK colors !
Are the Application Color Management engines in Illustrator and in Adobe Reader similar in their conversion?
How can I find out which are the CMYK colors printed when the application (Reader or Illustrator) manages colors, from my initial RGB colors? I would like to use them directly in my document...
Thanks

Hi,
Thanks for your response. I put these color issues on hold because I had no time to search more on that recently...
However, I have still lots of questions about color conversion!
When I said "carefully choose" CMYK colors, it means CMYK colors printable and which look similar to my old RGB colors on-screen. But of course, screen is not enough!
What I noticed is that when I print my old RGB colors (not in printer color space), Adobe Reader or Illustrator were able to make good conversion to CMYK for printing.
Now, I would like to find out to which CMYK color codes Adobe Reader or Illustrator converted my RGB colors? Then, I would be able to use these CMYK color codes directly in my application...
Is there any way to find out that?
Cheers

CS5.5 & CS6 Spot to CMYK conversion not matching Pantone + Guide book

Hey,
I have both cs5.5 & cs6 indesign both of which are giving me different values of cmyk compared against the Pantone + guide, eg if I select pms 173C and convert to cmyk the values are not correct when I check the values in the book is there a way to fix this, other wise it will be highly annoying to have to manually put in the cmyk values for each job when matching spot colours for digital prints. Any help /suggestions or if there is any settings to change?
Cheers.
Jack.

In CS6 the Pantone solid libraries are always defined as Lab—as far as I can tell the Ink Manager's Use Standard Lab Values no longer has any effect.
So these libraries are now defined as Spot colors with Lab definitons–if you convert the spots to process via Ink Manager your document's CMYK profile makes a color managed conversion:
If for some reason you want a predefined CMYK mix (but for what press or device?) there is Color Bridge Coated and Uncoated—those colors are defined as process CMYK. So you could delete PANTONE 173 C and replace it with Color Bridge Coated PANTONE 173 CP.

How do I find out if a photo in iPhoto is RGB or CMYK color? How do I change from RGB to CMYK?

How do I find out if a photo in iPhoto is RGB or CMYK color? How do I change from RGB to CMYK?

Open the file with Preview, type Command + i to bring up the Info pane and it's color mode and profile will be listed as shown here:
To change the color mode to CMYK you'll need a 3rd party image editor like Photoshotp or GraphicConverter to do it. Why do you need CMYK?
OT

Converting from pantone to cmyk color mode in Indesign CS3??

I am working on a business card for a customer, I am using Adobe Indesign CS3.
I use an outside company for the printing job called 4over (4over.com) and they require you use their cmyk pdf print engine so they can do the job properly... Basically to break it down: I am in Indesign CS3, I choose Print, and as the printer I choose their "4over pdf cmyk print engine" so the colors do not convert and the color doesnt change when they use their printers.
4over is telling me my document is in pantone color mode, they can see the pantone color 371C, but not the cmyk values.
How do I change from pantone color mode to cmyk color mode???
if anyone can help me please. I would really appreciate it.
I attached the file I sent to 4over incase that helps anyone answer my question.
Thank you,
Brandon

Before exporting, in the swatch panel, select your Pantone colour, right click and select swatch options. Change the color type to Process and the color mode to CMYK.
If it's a business card and you showed the client a pantone swatch, know that you won't get the same colour results. There's a very useful Pantone book available that shows swatches side by side with CMYK values.
http://www.pantone.com/pages/products/product.aspx?pid=283&ca=1&s=4

How can I convert Pdf from RGB to CMYK, keeping font color 100% K while working in Illustrator?

How can I convert Pdf from RGB to CMYK, keeping font color 100% K while working in Illustrator?
When I try to open the document in Illustrator and I convert to CMYK the black font converts to rich black, but to set up for Offset printintg I need the text to be only in Black (100%K).
The original source of the document is a Microsoft Word file, I have converted the Word file to Pdf in order to setup for OFfset Printing.
Thanks

I have tried that way, but the downside is that the fonts are set in gray not in a 100%K, also I have to deal with other fonts that are composites and meant to stay Full Color. I could select text by text and convert to gray but, its a 64 page document and I wouldn't want to make a expensive mistake.

Color consistency from Photoshop to AI?

I created a new logo recently. All the text was created in Illustrator and one element (radio antenna waves) was built in Photoshop. I've set the color to PMS 464 but when I bring the 'waves' into AI, the color is darker. I've tried adjusting different settings in Photoshop, playing with transparency in AI, etc. Is there a color setting I've missed? Below is the web version with an 85% opacity on the waves, but you can see the difference in colors.
Thanks. Sarah

I have looked at is and the only conclusion I can come to is that using the pantone colors is a good idea for print and not a good idea for the web.
If you use the pantone colors then you have to turn on Overprint preview to see the proper output for press and you will see a pretty close match when you have overprint preview on.
If you try this for the save for the web you will get a very inconsistent color.
However if your only concern is color consistency and one of the objects is vector you can probably use the Edit>Edit Colors>Adjust Color Balance and Saturation to adjust the color.
I would say a wiser way to do this is to color the art in an rgb environment for the web and not use spot colors swatches that were designed to work in a cmyk for print.
If you turn on Overprint preview you will see what I mean, then though it is matched and you do a save for the web you will see the conversion is not working well for that environment
I would save the paths and use swatches you create yourself because this was not intended to work this way and is probably part of the problem.
Overprint preview will show you what you will get in print but the consistency for the web well I would say there is something wrong .
this shows what you can get with adjusting the colors and you will get this for save for the web by doing so this and if you don't adjust the colors but turn on overprint preview you get this as well
This is what you get without overprint preview turned on and what you would get for save for the web if you do not adjust the colors.
I have no idea why there should be so big a difference except to say they are going about this in the wrong way and it needs to be corrected.
There seems to be no reason for this to be. PMS 464 should be PMS 464 if it is in the same environment.
Now of course if one had it as rgb in photoshop and brought it into Illustrator for a cmyk document then there is going to a conversion which you might not like and if you create a cmyk document with art that was convert from rgb to cmyk in transport and are trying to match objects from the different applications that probably would not work.
I really do not know why this is happening in my opinion it is a bug. This is so long an explanation because I really do not have an explanation for it.
Perhaps someone else does.

Pantone Color Conversion

Have 2 Intel Mac Pros running 10.5.5, InDesign 5.0.4. When opening the same document on each machine I get 2 different CMYK color conversion of a Pantone color. Both machines have the same color settings as far as I can tell. Anyone have a idea why this happens, or how to make them the same.
Thanks

Choose the Ink Manager from the Swatches panel menu (or from Print dialog or Export PDF dialog). Look at the "Use Standard Lab Values for Spots" option at the bottom. Depending on whether on or off it will use Lab values (like Photoshop) or CMYK values (like ID and AI have traditionally used).

InDesign vs Illustrator - Color conversion - Farbumwandlung

English version further down...
Situation:
1. InDesign verwendet standardmäßig die Pantone-bzw. HKS Umrechnungstabelle zu CMYK
2. Illustrator verwendet die Umrechnung über Lab-Farben
3. Die Werte unterscheiden sich drastisch, wenn CMYK als Endprodukt steht
4. Man kann InDesign umstellen, sodass auch InDesign über Lab-Werte geht - die Farbumrechnung ist dann in beiden Programmen identisch
5. Ich habe einen HKS Vollton-Farbfächer sowie einen HKS CMYK-Fächer (basierend auf der CMYK-Tabelle) meiner Druckerei. Gleich benannte Farben beider Fächer sind völlig anders (Bsp Rot siehe unten).
Anmerkung:
- Alle beteiligten Geräte sind farbkalibriert.
- solides Grundwissen zu Farben habe ich, jedoch weniger zu Farbumrechnung, speziell wenn es von Volltonfarben in gerasterten CMYK-Druck geht.
- aktuelle Versionen bei mir: CC
Probleme/Fragen:
A. Die Unterschiede beider Varianten im Druckergebnis sind drastisch. zB. HKS 16 K aus InDesign direkt zu CMYK (per CMYK-Tabelle) ist eine Rot, das stark ins Orange geht CMYK (30,100,90,0), während über Lab-Werte es ein eher kräftiges Rot ist, das schon einen leichten Blaustich aufweist ca. - gerundet - CMYK (10,93,65,33). Die Unterschiede im Druck sind sehr deutlich.Wie kommt es, dass es so stark unterschiedliche Werte sind?
B. Welche Variante kommt dem Ergebnis am nächsten und vor allem warum? Mein Eindruck: Das Druckergebnis per Lab-Farben kommt dem Volltonfarbfächer am nächsten. Die Ergebnisse per Pantone-Definition erscheinen geradezu "abwegig".
C. Was verwende ich ab sofort für zufriedene Kunden?
(D. Neugier: Angenommen der Weg über Lab-Werte ist die beste Lösung,... Warum ist der default in InDesign immer noch die jeweilige CMYK-Tabelle???)
Die eine Technote von Adobe dazu habe ich gelesen. Weiterführende Infos oder Links hierzu wären klasse.
Danke vorab.
situation:
1. InDesign uses by default Pantone- resp.HKS tables to convert to CMYK
2. Illustrator converts by means of lab-colors
3. Diferences between 1.and 2. are drastic when used to convert to CMYK
4. One can configure to use lab-colors in InDesign. As a result CMYK-Colors are idnetical in Illustrator and InDesign
5. I got a printed HKS spot color palette as well as a CMYK color palette based on standard-tables.Colors with the same name look totally different in both printed palettes (see red further down).
remark:
- all devices are color calibrated
- I got IMHO a solidknowledge on colors,but not aboutcolor conversions esspecially from spot colors to rastered CMYK colors.
- using CC version
problems/issues:
A. Differences in print are totally different e.g. HKS 16 K from InDesign directly to CMYK (by CMYK-table) is a red, drifting strongly towards orange CMYK (30,100,90,0), while by means of the lab-values the same red (HKS16) is strong with a touch to blue app. - rounded - CMYK (10,93,65,33). Differences in print are drastic. How comes the results differ so drastically?
B. Which variant is closer to the intended result? My opinion: using lab color conversion is actually really close to the spot colors. Results by standard table to CMYK look almost "idiotic".
C. What should I use for satisfied customers?
(D. Out of curiosity: Suggested the variant bymeans of lab-colors is best... Why is the conversion by CMYK-tables the default in InDesign???)
Already read a technote from Adobe about it. Asnwers, additional infos and links would be grand.
TIA!!

Prior to CS6 the Pantone Solid libraries had dual Lab/CMYK definitions. If you had Use Standard Lab Values for Spots checked in Ink Manager a Pantone Solid would be defined as Lab and the color conversion to CMYK would be color managed—the values you get depend on your document's CMYK profile assignment. If you had it unchecked the defintion was predefined CMYK (for one set of printing conditions) and the output values were unchanged by your color management settings.
CS6+ took away the dual definition for Pantone and solid colors are always defined as Lab and CMYK conversions are always color managed. If you don't want a color managed conversion use Pantone + Color Bridge—those libraries are defined as process CMYK (not spot).
The HKS libraries still have dual definitions, so if you don't want them to be color managed uncheck Use Standard Lab Values.
while by means of the lab-values the same red (HKS16) is strong with a touch to blue app. - rounded - CMYK (10,93,65,33). Differences in print are drastic. How comes the results differ so drastically?
The conversion depends on your document's assigned profile. Looks like you are using ISO Coated ECI, but if you change the profile assignment you'll get different numbers. US SWOP returns 24|100|83|19. I think Lab conversions are better assuming the press is printing close to the assigned profile.

Color Conversion from Spot to CMYK

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