Illustrations in Pantone to CMYK

Hi guys,
The designer sent me a couple of illustrations with many details all in Pantone colors. It is kind of a pain to convert one by one to CMYK. Here is a sample
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=17Sx5f0rxPvgN1aP0HUfwiFRqiqY80
Do i have to convert each of the colors to CMYK in order to print it? Is not going to be Offsett or Spot colors, just a regular fast color printer like Kinkos in order to test it.
Thanks for any info.
Cheers,
Sebs

For digital printing, don’t bother. All colours will output as process using either the CMYK values in the swatches or (possibly better) Pantone tables build into the printer.

Similar Messages

Adobe Illustrator: Neon Pantone to CMYK Conversion

So I am working with a client who is going to be making keychains. She wants neon colors, so in Illustrator, I used the Pantone colors 801-814 which are supposed to be neon. I know that those will not show up accurately on the computer screen (They show up pastel-looking). I wanted to convert the colors to CMYK so that she can print it out and see a close comparison. But when I converted it to CMYK, it stayed that same dull/pastel color--both on the computer screen and when I printed it. My confusion is that I thought when you convert Pantone to CMYK it's supposed to convert to a color closest to the actual Pantone and not what you see on screen, yet that is exactly what I got when i printed the converted CMYK.

sgchun,
You can hardly get further away from the CMYK gamut (the range of colours obtainable with CMYK inks) than neon colours.

Why is illustrator converting pantone to CMYK/paler colors?

Hello,
I have been working on the graphic design of a tin top for some time now, and just now came across this problem this morning. I have been working entirely in RGB since I began so that I could utilize a full range of colors. Recently, I found out that the company that is manufacturing the tin is able to print in Pantone solid coated. I then decided to convert the tin design to RGB colors that match colors in the Pantone solid coated color book. This worked for quite some time without any problem; i was able to design the tin using a vibrant green, red, orange, and purple. This morning, I went to save my most recent document - i have created multiple documents using the same colors with slight design variations - and the only thing that was different about this document was that the red tone i used came directly from the pantone solid coated color swatch palette. When i went to save the document, a message came up that read "when spot colors are used with transparency, changing them to process colors outside of illustrator can generate unexpected results." After that, i don't know what happened. Aside from the original design, which has the vibrant green, i am unable to duplicate the green using the color palette. It automatically converts to a paler, ugly green. As with CMYK, there now many shades that I cannot seem to use because the shade is deemed 'out of gamut'. This problem seems to apply to many of the colors i have been using, primarily green tones. I have checked, and all my color settings are still RGB, even though the color palette seems to be acting as though it is in CMYK. When i select the vibrant green using the eyedropper, it immediately appears paler when i try to access it from the color picker. Also, whenever i save my current tin... the one that still appears with the vibrant green in illustrator... it appears as the paler green as a jpeg and pdf (unless i look at the file in acrobat pro, then the vibrant green is retained.) I don't know what is going on, and am wondering how to get back to my old settings so that I can work with a full range of colors. What surprised me was that I haven't run into this problem before and I have been working with these colors for many weeks... It is also putting these restrictions on all my older documents as well as newly created ones. Any advice would be much appreciated...
Thanks!

I will clarify by taking some screenshots...
Shot 1: This is what the tin should look like, and has looked like as I have been working with it. All the colors are RGB colors. Notice that the green of the tin is the same green that appears in the lower left of the screen on the menu. It is R102 G189 B41.
Shot 2: Now, when I double click on the color picker while it is still in the exact same color as shot 2, you will notice that the color picker immediately identifies it as a darker, paler green, even though it claims the RGB value is still R102 G189 B41.
Notice that the green in the little circle is the same green on the tin, while the green in the two boxes by 'OK' and 'Cancel' are the different green... the same way that Illustrator converts color to the nearest CMYK value. Because I am in RGB, i don't understand why this value is changed.
Shot 3: Now, when i save the file as a jpeg or pdf, when i view the jpeg on my computer or as a pdf in adobe acrobat pro, the green appears at it should. However, when i view either the pdf or the jpeg on another computer, it appears as the altered green.
Hope this helps clarify the problem... Another interesting thing i noticed... The pantone color 368c looks different according to illustrator than it does for photoshop. In photoshop, it is considered the exact same vibrant green as my tin, while in illustrator it is much closer to the green in shot 3. Do you know what accounts for this difference?

Why Blend effects converts Pantone to CMYK

Dear All,
There are two lines with different Pantones are used here. (Pan 108 C and Pan 126C). And given Blend effect. while doing this in between strokes are converting into CMYK. Is there any way to do the blending with the color conversion. (From pantone to CMYK). Pls do the needful.
Thank you,
Joe

Joe,
You are asking Illy is to blend two colours that do not form part of a common colour set forming a Color Mode, and you have her confused; so she is doing her best with CMYK.
You may create two blends, one in each Pantone colour, going from 100% to 0% (obviously reversed), place them on top of each other, Group them, and tick Overprint Stroke in the Attributes palette/panel.

Help with imported eps files from photoshop and illustrator using PANTONE

I am new to InDesign and running into some very frustrating issues. I am preparing a catalogue for print which was created in Quark XPress previously. I tried converting it initially but had all kinds of strange things happening with type re-wrapping. The printer advised to recreate in InDesign. FIne by me because I'll learn as I go along.
So I created a page in InDesign and place and eps file created in Illustrator using a spot Pantone color and a halftone created in Photoshop also using the same spot Pantone color. In InDesign the color swatch menu show both colors one as 228 C and the other as 228 C 1. How do I get just one definition for PMS228 coated that works across all three programs? Stuff like this pisses me off. Adobe should have one definition across all three.
Help!!!

My best guess for the two definitions is that the CMYK values of the colours do not match, so InDesign treats them separately. You can merge them using the In Manager. Open the Swatches panel and select Ink Manager from the flyout menu. Select PANTONE 228C 1, go to the Ink Alais pop-up menu, and select PANTONE 228. Now InDesign will treat the two colours as one separation on output.
You should also take the time to open each graphic and resave as a native file. This means .psd for Photoshop and .ai for Illustrator. While there, see if you can make sure the colour names and definitions are consistent.

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

Help!! White line around image with placed in Illustrator from Photoshop, possible CMYK issue?

I have a CMYK file, outlined product, that looks perfect in Photoshop. When I place the image into Illustrator, it shows up with a thin white line around parts of the product (fyi - it shows up on a print as well). I have tried to place an RGB file and it does not have the white line around the product. I assume it has something to do with it being CMYK, but I'm at a loss on how to fix this. I'm desperate for any help.

Okay, please refer this image and change the option within Ai General preferences. Uncheck the option Anti-Aliased artwork.

Illustrator with pantone colour can't show up

I am make some graphic in the Adobe Illustrator CC. I use the graphic with pantone colour and after that i save in the PDF.
Pdf files made in Illustrator have a problem being displayed on mac computers during the preview when the colors are Pantone colors and will show up as black and white.
I don't know what's the problem...

I have attached a screen shot of what I am referring to. The second one is the box that pops up after clicking on Enter/Submit on a Company page for Contests or even connect to Facebook through any website.

Spot Pantone to CMYK processed with ease?

Hi,
I am placing a series of graphic art samples that consist of
Pantone spot colors into what will be a CMYK (processed color)
document for a presentation.
How can I convert all the samples that are Pantone assigned
color to CMYK easily?? Is there a broad selection sort of solution
because these are detailed & I don't want to have to
individually click each & every element by hand + click on the
color mixer to convert...that would take ages!
Surely you've got the answer? -- Thanks!

r_tist wrote:
> Judy, I will indeed be printing to an imagesetter. So
your advice is to trust
> Acrobat Distiller & hand over to the printer with
the settings you specified
> and that will be good enough? -- Do you recommend this
particular method
> because it will save a bunch of time vs. the conversion
process & providing an
> .EPS?
>
>
> From past experience I know that every single graphical
element must be
> converted to CMYK otherwise it will not show up on the
plate. (I need to be
> really cautious with this particular job)
r_tist,
I'm very sorry, my advice to create a composite CMYK PDF via
the print
dialog does not work. I should have checked before I wrote
that. You are
correct. The Pantone spot colors will be preserved in the
PDF.
I'm fairly confident the PDF would print fine, as long as the
printer
selected 'separations' and 'convert all spots to process' in
the Acrobat
Advanced Print Setup. However, you'd be relying on someone
else to make sure
that happened.
I do know that Pantone solid colors will correctly output to
process
separations when 'print spot colors as process' is checked in
the FH print
dialog.
You may want talk to your print shop and see what kind of
file they would
prefer. Because they would know the characteristics of their
own press and
paper, they may want to do their own adjustments to convert
Pantone solid
colors to CMYK.
Judy Arndt

Pantone to CMYK?

I have a lot of clients who are asking me to use Internet printers for work they have traditionally done at a local print shops. The problem is a lot of these jobs were printed in PMS colors, and most Internet printers are setup to run CMYK all day. I have a Pantone Coor Bridge, but when I look at a lot of the CMYK equivalents there are huge differences in color, especially with the warmer tones.
How do you guys deal with this?

What can I say? You get what you pay for, if you're lucky.
I personally think I get better value from my local guy. The price may be marginally higher on some jobs (and I do use specialty printers for some things that are less critical), but when color matters, I know I can rely 100% on the output. Part of the price covers epson contract proofs (after I've seen digitals), and if the color isn't right on those it gets fixed and we proof again. He knows me and I know him, and we both know a long term relationship has value.
Who do you call at the internet printer if the job doesn't look right? Will they print again for free? How much money is being saved to give up waht you are losing? Printing is pretty competitive these days, and if you talk to your local guy he might be able to meet you part way on price to keep the work and still do it in spot.

CMYK breaks different in Pantone books to Illustrator swatch conversion

Why are CMYK breaks specified differently in Pantone books as to when you convert the same spot colour to CMYK in Illustrator swatch options?
More importantly, which one is correct?

Patone decided to use LAB formulas in CS6. So, if you call up a specific Pantone number and then convert to CMYK in Illustrator you get different CMYK percentages than what is or has been communicated in their swatch books. I recommend bypassing converting, instead just build your own CMYK swatch based on the swatchbook. This would be just to comply with your pre-existing workflow. But, it means creating 2 files, one Spot, one CMYK for whatever is appropriate for your situation. Obviously the Spot file goes to the print vendor, the CMYK file you build stays with you for proofing. Sidenote: I have seen some screen shots of users who had previous CMYK files next to a newer LAB>CMYK version and, on screen, the color "looks" closer to their ( Pantone's ) swatch book samples. But users are reporting the files print much darker than before and no longer match Pantone's swatch books. Go figure.

Illustrator CS6 / CC and previous Pantone color books

Hi all, I've understood that Illustrator CS6 / CC has the new Pantone+ color books, those color books doesn't have CMYK values so the default of rIllustrator CS6 / CC is to use the Lab values when I add a Pantone swatches to my document. One of my customers, that is a print industry, need to have the old Pantone with CMYK values to maintain the same color rendition on old and continuative jobs. Adobe says that I can load the old Pantone color books from CS5 and change the swatches option so that Illustrator use the CMYK values: http://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/pantone-plus.html The problem is that this doesn't work for me and for my customer, even if I change the swatches option Illustrator continue to load only the Lab values from the older CS5 Pantone color books... anyone of you has a solution?

I am running into the same issue. Both links suggested did not work for me. In a document I created in CS4 (the old document) and opened in CC there is a square with the color Pantone 519U in which it converts to C:67% M:100% Y:30% K:10%. These are the numbers to be expected. If I copy the square that is 519U in the old document and paste it in the same old document the color remains the same.
I create a new document in CC (the new document). From the old document I copy the Pantone 519U square and paste it in the new document. The resulting square in the new document is a washed out purple. The new document square converts to C:57.27% M:68.83% Y:35.06% K:13.06%.
Again I followed Workaround 1 in the link. I obtained the old Pantone Libraries from my CS4 machine so it is not a library issue. I have also created a new Document Profile where I set the Spot Color to be "Use CMYK values from the manufacturer's process books". I am seeing the same problem before and after the workaround.

Pantone colours in Illustrator have changed

I've opened an old packaging artwork in CC that was originally created in Illustrator CS5 and made design amends. All looks OK, everything behaving as it should.
I then copied and pasted the same artwork into a brand new CC document (as I needed to create a new artwork whilst using the same elements) and the Pantone colours all look much paler. Why is this?
Both document set ups are the same and both set up as CMYK not RGB.
If I paste back the elements from the new artwork to the old, the colours look OK again.
If I convert the Pantones to CMYK the values are different. I can't use CMYK colours as the job needs to be printed as Pantones.

Peter,
The Pantone to CMYK values (CMYK representations issued/published by Pantone) have changed a few times over the years. What you see on your monitor reflects the CMYK values.
The Pantone inks themselves have not changed.
So you can keep printing as you did, and hopefully live with the changes in on screen appearance.
You may use the same libraries to have things look the same.

Pantone Colors with CMYK Colors?

Dear all!
I am LUCK. I am wondering about Pantone Colors with CMYK Colors. It's that I got 1 Pantone Color from my customer and then I changed it to the equivalent CMYK Color. Will I get different colors when changing from Pantone to CMYK because I will print with CMYK Printing Process? Anyway, I am wondering whether the Pantone color is the fix and specific color or not. I mean when I print the Pantone Color, I will get the same result as I print before. Is it right?
Please help to explain to me whether Pantone Colors will keep their colors the same and stable or not. Or would you mind telling me what kind of colors that can produce the same color every time I print, especially for the Formal Uses?
Sorry for being unaware of my knowledge here. Thanks a lot and best wishes to all!
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
My best regards,
LUCK

Pantone is a company, not a color. Pantone produces spot color inks, process color inks, and color references.
Understand first: Five color printing ("process plus one") is not uncommon, because six-color presses are not uncommon. When a project is printed on a 6-head press, it does not dramatically affect the costs, because the job can still be printed in one pass. Brochures and other marketing collateral are often printed in 5 inks when a company specifies a spot color as its identity color. When done right, the company's identity specifications also provide a CMYK mix to use in lieu of its spot color(s) when restricted to only CMYK (as in magazine placement ads).
So I'll assume your customer specified a Pantone spot color, and does not provide a preferred CMYK substitute, and your project is restricted to four color process (CMYK) printing.
CMYK mixes do not exactly match spot color inks; they can only approximate. How closely they can approximate depends upon which spot color you are dealing with.
Pantone provides its recommended CMYK values for approximating its spot color inks. That's why Illustrator provides a Pantone solid to process Swatch Library. But such lookups are recommendations; they are not absolute equivalents. There are many many colors in nature (and in spot ink pigment) which simply cannot be matched in CMYK. And any time you try to convert between color models (spot to CMYK, RGB to CMYK, etc.) you encounter ambiguities, because there are multiple algorithms that can be used to generate four values from fewer values.
I often find Pantone's spot-to-process recommendations to be unsatisfactory, and use my own CMYK approximations instead. This is not necessarily due to any failure or shortcoming of the Pantone libraries, but just differences that exist in specific printing houses and workflows. The printing process is full of variables.
Will I get different colors when changing from Pantone to CMYK
Yes, the colors will be different. But whether the difference is noticable depends upon the specific spot ink you are trying to match. It also depends upon the specific use of the color. Fact is, human color perception is very adaptive. Colors that are "mathematically" equivilant according to some colorimetric algorithm are not necessarily perceived as equivilant by human eyes, because much depends upon environment (adjacent colors, etc.)
You can refer to a printed process color reference against which you can compare a printed spot color swatch book and judge for yourself which CMYK values best approximate the spot color. Or, you can set up simple test sheet of your own, and have it printed to determine a "best match" in a particular printing environment.
All the above is just one reason why contract proofs are still important. If your customer is very picky about his spot color, then he needs to understand that converting it to CMYK is merely an approximation, and perfect matching is simply not possible. That's one reason why spot inks exist in the first place. If he is not willing to pay for five-color printing, then he will likely have to settle for a minor compromise.
JET

PMS swatch converted to CMYK does not match colour values of Pantone Colour Book

I am working in Adobe Illustrator CS6 and InDesign CS6.
When I create a swatch using Pantone colour books (solid coated) and then convert the swatch to CMYK the values differ between programs and also differ to my hard copy of Pantone Colour Bridge.
I have followed the Workaround 1 on http://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/pantone-plus.html#main-pars_text_11 which was helpful - now the CMYK values produced in Illustrator and InDesign match HOWEVER they still differ from my hard copy of Pantone Colour Bridge.
I copied the leagacy files from CS4 - is it possible the CMYK values embedded in these files are out of date or is it possible that the CMYK values in the Colour Bridge book have since changed?

Pantone has updated their CMYK match values for PMS colors over time, and so has Adobe. Adobe and pantone have their own values or matches, so they have never matched.
The values between CS6 Illustrator and InDesign should have matched (atleast the files are named exactly the same), so not sure going back to CS4 swatches wasa a good move for you, unless you have a load of older files you are trying to match.
The biggest differences between updates to the swatch colors you will see in tradeoffs between CMY & K.
If you want your CMYK matches for PMS colors to match your bridge book, you may have to manually make a color book .ase file yourself, or try downloading the pantone color manager. Pantone has made this a complicated, multistep process relying on registering a product. Pantone has a history of failed digital products, and using bait & swtich tactics, so do not trust anything they have to offer anymore, but they were in the right place at the right time and exist as the standard for spot color in the US & some other countries.
http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/pantone.aspx?pg=21054&ca=12
http://pantone.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1803

Illustrations in Pantone to CMYK

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