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1. Re: Find closest Pantone spot colors for cmyk colors?
Jacob Bugge Mar 21, 2013 2:45 PM (in response to rigoliarts)rigoliarts,
You may have a look at this recent thread:
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2. Re: Find closest Pantone spot colors for cmyk colors?
rigoliarts Mar 21, 2013 4:08 PM (in response to Jacob Bugge)So, according to the thread mentioned above...
There is no feature within Illustrator to tell us the closest match to a pantone formula color from a cmyk swatch. We have to go on a time-consuming, round-about scavenger hunt between our swatch panels, pen & paper, and a pantone swatchbook that shows both the formula & cmyk color equivalents. Thanks for nothing.
I surely thought Illustrator would have such a feature similar to how it gives you the closest web color in the color picker. Even Photoshop has a feature in the color picker to choose the closest Pantone color. C'mon Adobe, how about giving us print designers' a break? Considering that most logo designs are produced in Illustrator, and many clients require Pantone color callouts for their style guidelines and it's necessary for registering a trademark to specify pantone colors of a logo.
What gives?
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3. Re: Find closest Pantone spot colors for cmyk colors?
Jacob Bugge Mar 21, 2013 4:31 PM (in response to rigoliarts)You are welcome, rigoliarts.
It is far from uncommon (and far from unsound) to start by choosing the Pantone colour(s) and then try to get the best possible CMYK match(es).
Apart from that, the Pantone download mentioned by John in post #3 in that thread might shorten the path and the pain.
This is no statement about what would or would not be desirable as an inherent feature.
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4. Re: Find closest Pantone spot colors for cmyk colors?
Monika Gause Mar 22, 2013 4:00 AM (in response to rigoliarts)rigoliarts wrote:
There is no feature within Illustrator to tell us the closest match to a pantone formula color from a cmyk swatch.
Well, of course there is. Use the Recolor art function (read about it in the manual).
But: it only works as precise as your colormanagement is set up and it is of course only number based, printed results might look differently. And that's why you might want to go the "time consuming" way. I mean: how many spot colors will be used in one printed piece? Shouldn't be too many. So it will be worth it.
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5. Re: Find closest Pantone spot colors for cmyk colors?
abelcher1987 Oct 21, 2014 1:54 PM (in response to rigoliarts)Use Photoshop in tandem to do this. You first need to know which Pantone color book you plan on using. As far as I know it's usually solid uncoated.
- Open up your AI file in Photoshop.
- Make sure you choose CMYK as your color mode (this is extremely important.)
- Grab the color picker tool ( i )
- Click on the first color
- Then click on 'picked' swatch in your toolbar
- In the Picker dialogue window, choose 'Color Libraries'
- You can now browse to PANTONE solid uncoated from the top drop-down in the next window
- At this point, Photoshop will match your selection with a color from the PANTONE color library you chose. Write it down.
- Jump back to Illustrator.
- Choose a shape with the same first color you chose in Photoshop.
- In your swatches window, click the little icon in the bottom left (it says 'Swatch Libraries menu' on hover)
- Hover to Color Books, then click on 'Pantone Solid Uncoated'
- Wow! Rainbow box! But it's messy so let's clean it up.
- In the palette options drown-down (it's the icon in the top right that looks like an arrow with a bunch of lines) choose 'Sort by Name'
- Now you can easily choose the PANTONE color Photoshop guessed for you.
- The selected piece of artwork will automatically update to the PANTONE color you clicked on.j
It's MUCH simpler than it sounds. I'm just explaining it like you're FYO.


