Color Setup

[cgoebel]

Hi, my question is about color settings. When you all are designing a logo, how do you determine the colors? If you choose RGB, then it appears differently when you print them out, and I understand that is a result of RGB to CMYK shift, but how do you go about minimizing the shift in color change? If I setup RGB colors, how can I figure out the equivalent CMYK values for producing that same color?

I have played with kuler, but even colors there, if I enter a RGB value into Photoshop or Illustrator, then the CMYK values Illustrator shows me on the right of the RGB section are different from the CMYK values Kuler will show me, which are safer to follow?

Hope this makes sense, basically I am struggling with how to setup color values for logo and brand identity.

Thanks for any help that can be provided.

[Scott Weichert]

I usually default to a Pantone Swatch book. Looking at the book is much more accurate than anything on screen. Once Pantone colors are nailed down, then I'll manually find the best CMYK and RGB value to match the Pantone color.

It's often necessary to spec all 3 color spaces for a logo -- Spot, CMYK, and RGB. Doing auto-coversions between them will often not be correct.

[cgoebel]

How do you go about locating CMYK values manually based from a Pantone swatch? Obviously, RBG values I understand you can just do on screen, but since CMYK is not what we see on screen anyhow, how do you determine that value manually?

[Scott Weichert]

Well Pantone Bridge is just for that.

If you don't have the Pantone Bridge, you can use Photoshop. Bring up the color Picker in Photoshop, click "Color Libraries", Type the Pantone number (just type even though there is no text field, you made need to type fast for some colors). The Pantone color should highlight. Then click the "Picker" button. That should give you values for CMYK based on your current color profiles.