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).

Similar Messages

  • Pantone conversions to cmyk don't match pantone color bridge

    We are having issues at our plant with adobe not converting colors properly. Program using to send to our rip for a di press is Indesign cs6, tried cs5.5 and get the same values.
    Example pantone color is 293. We have the latest pantone + bridge and the color break down is 100c 69m 0y 4k but if you let adobe made all spots to process we get a value of 100c 80m 12y 3k.
    Any idea what is causing the incorrect values or what I can update to use the correct values?
    Thanks.

    HI,
    In order to get the best CMYK values from InDesign, set your CMYK working space (color settings or Assign ICC to your document) to your DI Press ICC profile.
    This way, InDesign will convert from Pantone’s Lab valur to the presse ICC profile’s CMYK values.
    CMYK numbers from Color Bridge + are made for european TVI (ISO standard), which is lower that North American standards.
    Hope this help!

  • Pantone color not included in Illustrator?

    Hello,
    I am looking for a Pantone color close to #303030.
    Every converter I found gives me Pantone 29 as the closest match which is #332E2E but in Adobe Illustrator I can't find this Pantone.
    I am not sure how to be sure of a Pantone color close to #303030.
    This is to be used on a Logo.
    Could someone please help me out?
    Thank You,
    Miguel

    Miguel,
    A search on the Pantone site for Pantone 29 returns nothing, http://www.pantone.co.uk/pages/SiteSearch/SiteSearch.aspx
    I have found Pantone 29 mentioned on a few sites with slightly different CMYK/RGB/hex values, see below, but it seems to be a ghost colour. Or where/when has it been used?
    And the muddy CMYK values seem to imply conversion from RGB, not something from a formula guide.
    http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/files/WDD_logo_guidelines_08.pdf (page 7)
    http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.digitale-infop rodukte.de/logos/&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522pantone%2B29%2522%26start%3D30%26hl%3Den%26sa%3D N&rurl=translate.google.dk&usg=ALkJrhhJ9QAh3PoiPvmvg8yfNemVHsNbLw

  • Pantone Color Changes

    I have a series of Illustrator documents created over 2 - 3 years. They are artwork for labels of multiple sizes of the same product. It is important that the colour is consistent. In the period concerned I will have used CS5, CS5.5 and CS6.
    I have just added to the range and the client came back to me saying that the "blue has changed”. Sure enough it has. When I compare, Pantone 652 on one it is darker than Pantone 652 on a newer one. Apparently it prints differently as well. When I copy and paste blue items from one document to another (either way) they change colour. In other words PMS 652 is not consistent from one document to another.
    When I check the CMYK numbers on the two documents they are very different: 50/25/0/10 and 47/24/7/0.
    I have read that Pantone wished to 'improve' some things, and I know I can change the colour book in CS6, or just work some projects in older Illustrator versions. But they all seem to me to be cumbersome work arounds. Surely Pantone 652 should always be Pantone 652.
    What am I missing?

    Dear Monika:
    I wanted to clarify part of the issue here.
    PANTONE 652 is a color that was added to the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM back in 1991, one of a palette of 'light, dirty shades' that was introduced at that time.  As a solid ink, the color and formulation have not changed at all since the color was introduced.
    What has changed over the years are the paper stock on which the colors are printed, as well as the CMYK simulation data contained first in the PANTONE solid to process guide, and later in PANTONE Color Bridge. 
    The current version of PANTONE COLOR BRIDGE, launched in May 2010 as part of the PANTONE PLUS SERIES, was re-engineered with a globally-compatible, G7-based workflow to produce a single version applicable worldwide, in replacement of the previous North American and European versions with separate workflow and CMYK values.  This in part explains the change in CMYK data.  However, in most cases, confusion about CMYK values occurs because users typically access the colors from the PANTONE solid color libraries, and 'convert' to CMYK which provides conversion data which vary from the explicit data contained within the PANTONE COLOR BRIDGE libraries.  It should be noted that the PANTONE PLUS SERIES products include a license for PANTONE Color Manager, allowing users to update the digital PANTONE libraries within their Adobe applications with libraries consistent with the PANTONE PLUS SERIES products.
    Best regards,
    John Stanzione
    Manager - Technical Support
    Pantone, LLC

  • Pantone color issues while PDFing

    The company I work for designs/publishes a magazine and have just been upgraded from CS2 to CS4. Since then, I've started having some problems when I PDF or print an ad. I'll receive an ad as a PDF and a component of their ad will be a Pantone color (typically logo). When I PDF the magazine page, the logo will change to another color. It's as if it doesn't recognize the color as CMYK. This also happens sometimes when I print. Any suggestions?

    Some further clarification may be in order.
    Spot colors ar not CMYK, though they might have a fairly close approximation. Most magazines don't offer spot color support, so everything must either be designed in CMYK, or converted. There are MANY spot colors that don't have good CMYK equivalents, and for those you will see a color shift after the conversion. Checking the "use Lab values" box will probably get you the closest possible match in a properly color managed workflow.

  • Pantone Swatch values vs. Pantone+ Color Bridge Coated Book values

    I'm working with a set of Pantone colors.
    Why don't the Pantone's CMYK/RGB values in Illustrator CC match the values given in the Pantone Plus Color Bridge Book?

    J,
    I understood from the other threads that the RGB value set was predetermined by the company, and not to be replaced by something from whomever (even Pantone).
    Apart from that, when you have the colour of a Pantone ink and need to substitute it by a CMYK and/or RGB value set, it will always be off in some way or another. And if you need to combine multiple substitute colours, they may very well be off in different ways with the conversions provided by Pantone, which means that they be more inferior to the Pantone inks than they need. Something similar may apply to cases with combinations of substituted Pantone ink colours and original CMYK/RGB colours.
    So at least in some cases there may be a better choice of CMYK/RGB values than a conversion provided by Pantone.
    In other words: who says that you agree, or should agree, with the (latest) conversion(s) provided by Pantone in each and every case?
    It may be worth noting that Pantone themselves have changed their mind about the best conversions more than once.

  • Mesh gradients using pantone colors

    Hi,
    I'm struggling to create gradients for screen printing purposes. The artwork will be printed on 12oz canvas using 3-4 pantone spot colors.
    1) if I fill an object with a single Pantone color, create a mesh gradient from it using a variety of different opacity settings, say 100%, 50% and 25%, then play around with the mesh handles to produce a pleasant, mixed background, will a gradient of this type work for screen printing? I don't know if a gradient of this type will require halftones, as a linear or radial gradient would.
    2) it's my understanding that when you prepare artwork for screen printing using spot colors, each color should be on its own layer. In an attempt to add highlights or shadows to an object, if I copy an object and paste it in front of itself, then apply a gradient using another Pantone spot color, say Pantone Process Black(100% to 0% opacity), does it matter what the blending mode is? Obviously you'll get different results based on the option you choose, but again, I'm concerned here only with screen printing. I can then place the gradient on the Black layer.
    The problem is that I'm familiar with off-set printing, and apparently gradients have to be converted into halftones when screen printing, so I'm trying to figure out the best way of creating shadows and highlights.
    Thanks for any help you can provide.
    Mark

    Mark,
    Getting your head around a few age-old fundamental repro principles will clarify this stuff for you:
    First and foremost: Think in terms of INKS, not "colors." Take off your designer hat and think like a mechanic. You're dealing with real-world substances: scoops of thick, gooey, solid-color ink that will be squished onto some object.
    Line Art: Artwork designed to be reproducable using only areas of solid ink coverage. No graduations of any kind whatsoever. In other words, nothing but 100% "tint" (often called "solid") of the ink(s).
    Tint Screens: Uniform coverage of a given ink, but at any percentage other than 100%.
    Continuous-Tone Artwork (often called "contone"): Anything involving varying percentages of a given ink, be it a "grayscale" gradauation of a single ink or graduation involving two or more inks.
    Halftone: A photomechanical process used to distribute small dots (or lines, or some other pattern) of ink so as to SIMULATE tints and/or gradations. That's the important concept: There are no "graduated inks." Any given location on the final print either has ink or it has no ink on it. The ink is always a solid color. So anything other than the actual color of the solid (100%) ink is a mere SIMULATION.  That simulation requires that the ink be laid down as a series of tiny dots (or array of lines, etc.) so as to suggest things other than the 100% color of the actual, physical ink that is loaded into the press (or silkscreen).
    Spot-color (opaque) versus process-color (translucent) is a SEPARATE ISSUE from line art (no tone screening) versus contone art (tone screening required). You are confusing those two separate and distinct issues.
    Now put this in the context of screen printing:
    All artwork involving  tints or continuous tone requires halftoning. Compared to offset lithography, screen printing is very limited in its ability to handle halftoning. Many small local screen printing shops can't do halftoning at all. Typical medium-size screen printing shops (local T-shirt shops, etc.) can often do halftoning at a very course frequency (i.e.; large dots), often no smaller than 30~50 Lines Per Inch (LPI), and both color fidelity and sharpness suffer. Only larger and more sophisticated screen printing shops, running expensive, high-end automated equipment utilizing very fine screen mesh fabrics can reliably hold small halftone dots and consistently maintain color.
    Bottom line: The way you prepare artwork for screen printing is highly dependent upon the kind of shop that will be doing the printing.
    Screen printing is done on a wide variety of materials (substrates). Substrates are quite often not white. They are often dark. So spot color inks designed for screen printing are usually very opaque. That puts them in a whole other world from the almost-always translucent inks of offset lithography, AND from the real world that Illustrator's interface is capable of simulating. Illustrator does not provide any means by which to specify the real-world opacity of a Spot Color Swatch. So when you use blends, grads, and overprinting, Illustrator cannot do a good job of simulating what you will actually see in the final screen printed results.
    Bottom Line: If you are building continuous-tone artwork involving blends, grads, tints, etc. (i.e.; anything requiring halftoning) and/or overprinting, you need some real-world experience to reasonably well anticipate how your halftoned artwork is going to look when printed. Best advice is to start simple. Design around your limitations, and those of the screen shop you will be using. Limit your designs to spot colors and entirely line art.
    Now to your specific questions:
    I'm struggling to create gradients for screen printing purposes.
    Grads are going to require halftoning. Have you asked your screen printer what halftone frequency (LPI) he is able to reliably hold?
    The artwork will be printed on 12oz canvas using 3-4 pantone spot colors.
    Understand: Pantone is a company. The Pantone company publishes its own standardized formulae for its own branded inks, which are offset lithography inks, not silkscreen inks. In other words, it's just a commonly-used color reference. You would be better off refering to actual color swatches of the actual screen printing inks your screen printer will be using. Set up your Spot Color Swatches in Illustrator corresponding to the actual inks.
    1) if I fill an object with a single Pantone color, create a mesh gradient from it...
    Always state WHAT VERSION of Illustrator you are using. Grad mesh did not always support spot colors. Blends still don't.
    ...using a variety of different opacity settings, say 100%, 50% and 25%...
    Don't confuse "opacity" with "tints." What Illustrator calls "opacity" and "transparency" usually involves rasterization and/or conversion to process color.
    ... then play around with the mesh handles to produce a pleasant, mixed background, will a gradient of this type work for screen printing?
    It will work for screen printing IF:
    The particular screen printing setup adequately supports halftoning.
    The mesh is built appropriately for the color separation model (spot, process, or process-plus-spot) that will be used to print it. Again, you have to be aware of the number of INKS that you are designing for, and make sure your design does not require more than that when it is color-separated (think "ink-separated").
    Current version Illustrator provides a color-separation preview feature, which can save you alot of grief if you use it. If using an earlier version, but have Acrobat Pro, save the file as a PDF, open it in Acrobat, and use its Separation Preview feature. If using an earlier version and do not have Acrobat Pro, "print" as color-separations to a PDF virtual printer like Adobe PDF. Then open the PDF in Reader and study the separate pages. (Screen print jobs are, in fact, often delivered as such a pre-separated PDF.) 
    I don't know if a gradient of this type will require halftones, as a linear or radial gradient would.
    Based on the above, you should now know that. Yes, ANYTHING that involves graduated color requires (at least a simulation of) "graduated ink". Since "graduated ink" does not exist, halftoning (or some other kind of tone screening--there are others) is required in order to simulate it.
    2) it's my understanding that when you prepare artwork for screen printing using spot colors, each color should be on its own layer.
    No. Absolute nonsense. (Don't believe everything you find written by self-proclaimed "experts" or "tutors" on the web, no matter how fancy you think their demonstrations are.) If that were true, then how, (for just one example) could you possibly screen print a rectangle with a spot-to-spot grad fill? The path containing that grad resides on one Layer, doesn't it?
    In an attempt to add highlights or shadows to an object, if I copy an object and paste it in front of itself, then apply a gradient using another Pantone spot color, say Pantone Process Black(100% to 0% opacity), does it matter what the blending mode is?
    Yes, it matters. Blending Modes has to do with so-called "transparency" effects. Again, anytime you muck around with "transparency" you increase the liklihood of rasterization and/or conversion to process at output. You would be safer setting that copied, pasted, grad-filled object to overprint. Halftoning will still be required, at least on the separation corresponding to the ink(s) for that grad.
    Obviously you'll get different results based on the option you choose... I'm concerned here only with screen printing.
    If you are designing for SPOT COLOR screen printing (as opposed to process color), stay away from transparency effects unless/until you understand what you're doing.
    I can then place the gradient on the Black layer.
    Again, forget Layers corresponding to ink separations. A total misconception. Utterly unnecessary.
    The problem is that I'm familiar with off-set printing, and apparently gradients have to be converted into halftones when screen printing, so I'm trying to figure out the best way of creating shadows and highlights.
    The best way to create shading is HIGHLY dependent upon the technical capabilities of the specific screen printing shop. Always ask:
    Can the shop support halftoning?
    If so, what is the maximum halftone ruling (LPI) they can reliably hold on the particular target substrate? (If they don't understand this question, either stick to line art or find another screen shop.)
    This does not mean that you cannot do shaded artwork without halftoning. (In fact, much of the most stunning screen-printed work is done entirely as line art.)  Designer fully acquainted with the limitations of screen printing commonly employ artwork shading techniques to avoid the need for halftoning altogether. They use hatching or stippling or contour linework to build "shading" into the artwork, and all inks are printed as line art. In this regard, preparing artwork for screen printing is often more "creatively rewarding" because you first, understand the real-world limitations of the reproduction method and, second, devise clever and original artwork methods to work within those limitations.
    But it's not something anyone can give you a step-by-step, one-size-fits-all-situations crash course in, in an online forum.
    JET
    JET

  • Pantone Color Chart

    How do I add the Pantone color cjart to Adobe Photoshop 10?

    I am not aware that you can add the Pantone chart directly in Elements. However, that chart does provide conversion numbers which can be entered in the color picker.
    http://www.wilcorgraphics.com/ColorCharts1/Index.htm

  • Want to know the PANTONE color of at a certain pixel of the image

    Dear Sir ,
    I am designing a software that will get the pantone color of certain location of the image . I will define a certain pixel location of the image , then I want the software to detect the equivalent pantone color .
    NB> the image is obtained from a scanner .
    thanks, Dr.WS Mak.

    Dear Dir ,
    Thank you so much for you interest , I really appreciate it so much .
    Regarding the Pantone color table ( conversion between Pantone and RGB system ) , I have that table in *.mdb (MicroSoft Access Database) that have each Pantone color and the corresponding RGB , CMY and HEX values .
    The problem is  : HOW to make such comparisons to get the corresponding Pantone . To make the situation easier to you , I have a certain color that is supposed to be a certain  Pantone C137 . I want to check if it is Pantone C137 or not  . I need this to be done by getting the CORRLEATION between two colors , ie the test color is 100 % of Pantone C137 , ie Iam 100% certain that the test color is the Pantone color . In the real world  , the test color may not be the same as Pantone C137 , if it is very close to the reference color , it the correlation will be 99.85 % , and so on . I will make my software make a tolerance for the test color , ie my tolerance is 2 % . ie , I will only accept colors that are 2 % different from the reference color . NB> I can get the reference color (eg in this case Pantone C137) by scanning this pantone and storing the color in the software .
    if you can supply me with a simple code that can compare 2 colors together and get the correlation between them , it will be so helpfull .
    Thanks.
    Best Regards,
    Dr.WS Mak.

  • Color Conversion for all Elements

    Hi,
    I am writing some plug in which can convert Color of the PDF for that i have used "PDDocColorConvertPage" it is perfectly working well for Grayscale Conversion, But the same method is not working for the Pantone (SpotColor) to CMYK conversion, so i tried with PDColorConvertPDEElement it is also not working,I don't find any Code sample to use that function. I was blocked, please help me out to find the best method for color conversion problem.
    Regards,
    Kumar.K

    I am using Acrobat 9, Here i am giving the code which working now, in that my objective is to change all the elements to Grayscale, but i am sure that i did some mistakes, Please let me know where i made the mistake
    Code:
    AVDoc avDoc = AVAppGetActiveDoc();
    char str[256];
    ASPathName aoPDFPathName = NULL;
    char* OutputPdfFileName = "C:\\Output.pdf";
    ASText pathText = ASTextNew();
    ASFileSys aoFileSys = NULL;
    pathText = ASTextFromScriptText(OutputPdfFileName, kASRomanScript);
    aoFileSys = ASGetDefaultFileSysForPath(ASAtomFromString("ASTextPath"), pathText);
    if(avDoc==NULL)
    sprintf(str,"There is no PDF document loaded in Acrobat.");
    else
    PDDoc pdDoc = AVDocGetPDDoc (avDoc);
    int numPages = PDDocGetNumPages (pdDoc);
    ASInt32 ai, aiNumElems;
    PDEContent aoPDEContent = NULL;
    PDEElement aoPDEElement;
    PDPage aoPage = NULL;
    aoPage = PDDocAcquirePage(pdDoc, 0);
    aoPDEContent = PDPageAcquirePDEContent(aoPage, 0);
    aiNumElems = PDEContentGetNumElems(aoPDEContent);
    sprintf(str,"The active PDF Page has %d Elements.", aiNumElems);
    AC_Profile prof;
    ACProfileFromCode(&prof, AC_Profile_DotGain15);
    for (ai = 0; ai < aiNumElems; ai++)
    aoPDEElement = PDEContentGetElem(aoPDEContent, ai);
    PDColorConvertPDEElement(pdDoc, aoPDEElement, prof, AC_UseProfileIntent, true);
    if (aoPDEContent != NULL){
    PDPageReleasePDEContent(aoPage, 0);
    // inform the user if we have done a color conversion.
    if(ASBoolToBool(gbConverted) == true)
    AVAlertNote("Color transform has been done to Gray");
    else
    AVAlertNote("No color transform was made.");
    aoPDFPathName = ASFileSysCreatePathName (aoFileSys, ASAtomFromString("ASTextPath"), pathText, 0);
    PDDocSave (pdDoc, PDSaveFull | PDSaveCollectGarbage | PDSaveLinearized, aoPDFPathName, ASGetDefaultUnicodeFileSys(),NULL, NULL);
    PDDocClose (pdDoc);
    ACUnReferenceProfile(prof);
    Thanks,
    Kumar.K

  • I am using pantone color codes, but my printer is not getting a close color match. What can I do to get a close color match?

    Is there settings in CS5 Illustrator version 15.0.0 that I can set to get a closer match on the pantone color codes?

    Tara,
    What happens if you save the file to PDF and print from Acrobat/Reader?
    Is there a PostScript (emulation) printer driver for the printer, and if so, what happens if you use that?
    If you print a CMYK document through a non PostScript driver, you will have a conversion from CMYK to RGB and then a conversion from RGB to CMYK, so you may expect any colour to be off.

  • Adding pantone colors to a object in Illustrator cc 2014?

    I need to send my Illustrator file but they are requesting that the objects be in the pantone colors. I have been searching and trying different things but i can not find where in the color swatches I can add a pantone. I tried to recolor artwork but i do not understand. Can someone let me know how i can add pantone to an object in Illustrator?

    Using recolor artwork you could limit the color libraries to a Pantone library. That's very tiny button in the middle lower part of the dialog box. You should check the manual for explanation of the dialog box.
    Mind that this kind of conversion depends on color management.

  • 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.

  • Incorrect Process builds Pantone Color tables in INDD CS6 and CC.

    Why are the Pantone Color tables/libraries in INDD CS6 and CC giving the incorrect process builds?

    I did just that in CS 5.5 and I received a different build. I got 100C,84.22M,41.89Y and 50.43K this is different than the builds I was getting before and matches neither.
    If you want the legacy definitions you have to follow the directions in the link in Peter's #1 post—delete the new PANTONE + spot libraries, install the old libraries and uncheck Use Standard Lab Values for Spots.
    They also provided their brand sheet and neither of these match the readings from Illustartor or InDesign.
    If you don't want color managed conversions of spot colors Pantone now provides CMYK simulation libraries—PANTONE + Color Bridge. Those colors are process and will attempt to simulate solid spot colors but for one assumed press profile. Color Bridge builds are still different from the legacy CMYK builds.

  • Can I easily match Pantone colors using Illustrator?

    Hi all,
    I run a small invitation supply company.
    Our primary design tool up until now has been Photoshop Elements.
    We recently purchased a $6000 printer from Xerox which is the 'gold standard' for graphic arts and Pantone approved.
    We also have a pantone color bridge. When I print a color using the hex code, the color looks NOTHING like the pantone swatch.
    I contacted Xerox and they told me that because Elements has a very low degree of color management that we will never be able to easily color match our pantone swatches and that they aren't surprised the color is way off.
    I suppose I naively figured that spending $6000 on a printer would get us easy and flawless color matching. Xerox says- not so.
    They suggested investing in Illustrator and they are convinced that it will be much more likely to get us to the point that we want. Ultimately I want to be able to pick a color from the pantone deck, enter the code, and feel confident that the print will come out 100% the corresponding color.
    Am I living a pipe dream?
    I would like some feedback before proceeding.
    On top of the financial investment, obviously there is a lot of time that my partner and I will have to spend learning Illustrator.
    Any input would be great.
    Thanks,
    Aaron

    Am I living a pipe dream?
    Yes.
    More precisely, you are just failing to understand the fundamental difference between spot color and process color.
    I want to be able to pick a color from the pantone deck, enter the code, and feel confident that the print will come out 100% the corresponding color.
    Not gonna happen, even if you do all the tedious color management setup you can.
    The above assumes you are, in fact, talking about matching Pantone spot colors. (Pantone does not just publish spot color swatches, but that is the usual sense in which beginners refer to Pantone.)
    A spot color is, by definition, an actual, physical, single ink which is loaded into a press. The only way to achieve your 100% pipedream is to load that actual, physical, single ink into your $6000 printer.
    But that's how a printing press works, not how your $6000 printer works. It works by printing four "primary colors" of inks and then arranging tiny dots of them in proximity to each other in order to "trick" the eye into seeing them as a mixture of colors on the page in proportions which try to approximate the spot color as best it can.
    But physical inks are simply not accurate enough to actually do that. There are many, many spot colors which simply cannot be replicated by mixing arrays of primary colors of inks. That's what all this "gamut" talk is about. That's one reason why spot color inks exist.
    The Pantone spot color matching system is a means by which to consistently communicate proportional mixtures of actual, real, physical inks of known specific colors. All anyone (including Pantone) can do with the CMYK inks (or dyes) in a desktop printer is try to recommend percentages of those CMYK inks to best approximate a match to an actual, physical spot color ink.
    It gets worse. Your monitor cannot actually match a spot color ink swatch, either. Your monitor glows. Ink doesn't. Even on tediously calibrated systems, there is more to perceived "color" than just numerical values of CMYK or RGB or HSL or Lab. There is chroma. There is reflectance. There is opacity. There is grain.
    Then there's the whole matter of the incredibly context-sensitive adaptabability of human vision.
    So if you are selling the output of your $6000 printer as the final product, you should not use Pantone spot color swatches as any kind of contract color specification, because your printer cannot actually print spot color inks. If you're doing color-critical work that the customer will refuse when specified colors don't match, you and your customer must specify colors which your device can actually produce.
    JET

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