Pantone color from CMYK?

[alexjamesbrown]

Hi,
I've attached an AI file with 2 blocks of color in..
www.alexjamesbrown.com/temp/colors.zip

can anyone tell me what pantone ref each color is? and.. how do you check?

thanks.

alex

[eugenetyson]

The top one is

Pantone 7461 solid coated

The bottom one is

Pantone 302 solid coated

[Lukas Engqvist]

From what colour space to what substrate.
The colour of the CMYK values will depend on what colour space you are working with, are we assuming SWOP?
The Pantone colour will depend on what substrate you are printing on…*do we assume solid coated?

0) Make sure your colour settings reflect your workflow (coated, uncoated etc)
1) Select the colours
2) Choose Edit, edit colours recolour artwork
3) Choose the tble icon "Limit colours to library" choose colour books "pantone coated" or whatever is more appropriate different books reference differnt papers.
4) press OK, and you will have made new swatches with the pantone colours that are closest match

I get:
Pantone 285 C
Pantone 2955 C

[eugenetyson]

The values I got were from inputting the CMYK values into Photoshop color dialog box, choosing Color Libraries and selecting Pantone Solid Coated.

I was going to say about the different profiles, as they yield different CMYK values, but I forgot to post it! Thanks Lukas.

[TORCH511]

Although you have to pay for the individual color libraries, Pantone makes an application cally MyPantone Pallettes. It is a color picker/pallette builder. If you have a color library installed it will take any RGB or CMYK color value and snap to the nearest PMS color in the selected library. It's proven to be a handy application over the years. The libraries will set you back about $20 each, and you can get pretty far on only getting the Pantone solid coated and solid uncoated libraries.

If you are a graphic hobbiest, meaning you don't do this professionally then spending the $$$ would be a waste and you can always ask someone. If you are a professional then it's not a bad tool to have hanging around.

[Lukas Engqvist]

We were in an Illustrator forum so I suggested the Illustrator way. It is so simple and has been in illustrator since CS3, but there are many that have not discovered it yet. It is also a great way to change an illustration to a 2 colour or 3 colour for screenprinting on a T-shirt etc.

[eugenetyson]

Pah, i only have CS2.. so that method isn't available to me