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Participant
October 25, 2022
Question

Color Values Tool

  • October 25, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 189 views

Does anyone know of a colour values tool that can automatically list all hex, rgb, cmyk values etc  for a single colour in Illustrator - the kind of list used in a brand guide? This'd save SO much time!

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    3 replies

    Bob_Hallam
    Legend
    October 27, 2022

    The correct way to do this is to use Lab values.  Thoose are universal and hooow color spaces for  RGB,CMYK and Hex are derived.  As DFosse suggests the RGB and CMYK color spaces are specificto a gamut or print process.  CIELab values are device independent and the only way to geep  the same caolor across devices.  Specificaly 16 bit CIELab though if your colrs contain vignettes or gradients.  

    ICC programmer and developer, Photographer, artist and color management expert, Print standards and process expert.
    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 27, 2022

    Numbers are color space specific! Generic tables are useless for this reason - unless the color space is specified (which it very rarely is).

     

    Look at the numbers here. The reference is the Lab patch in the middle:

     

    Hex is just base 16 notation for standard RGB numbers. They are as color space dependent as RGB:

     

    If the "brand color" was decided as a hex number in a standard office sRGB environment, but you are looking at it in, say, Adobe RGB, it won't be the same color. A lot of people believe that hex is a definition of a color. I don't know where that comes from, perhaps because it sounds computerish and "geekish", implying precision that isn't there.

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 25, 2022