Inspiring

Question

Is there a LAB to Pantone lookup table/technique

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
June 16, 2012
3 replies
30111 views

If I know a color's L*A*B values, is there a way I can easily located the nearest Pantone color? I don't currently own any of the books but would buy one if there is one that provides this capability. Maybe it is just me, but I find their produce range bewildering.

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NB, colourmanagement

Community Expert

Gernot

Gernot_Hoffmann

you can search by Photoshop.

An example:

Color Picker

Type Lab 60/50/40

Color Library

Choose e.g. Pantone Solid Coated

Find immediately 7416C

Read Lab 61/49/36

that’s interesting

please describe the actual steps between step 2 and 3

1 Color Picker

2 Type Lab 60/50/40

- - - ?

3 Color Library

4 Choose e.g. Pantone Solid Coated

thanks

neil barstow

NB, colourmanagement

Community Expert

Hi Marie

Pantone is all about putting an extra "special" or "spot" colour on a printing press. The spot ink is normally mixed from special base inks using expertise, tables and a weighing scale

Pantone 'CMYK process equivalents' seem to be based on mystery CMYK, not ideal IMO.

If your print process is CMYK (process inks only, no extra colour on the press) then you need to know what CMYK profile is being used to successfully convert RGB images for that publication.

Then use Photoshop to convert Lab to CMYK (with Absolute Colorimetric Rendering)

You can measure swatches in Lab using a spectrophotometer, useful tool if doing this a lot.

I hope this helps

if so, please "like" my reply

thanks

neil barstow, colourmanagement.net

[please do not use the reply button on a message in the thread, only use the one at the top of the page, to maintain chronological order]

G

Gernot_Hoffmann

Participating Frequently

Marie,

you can search by Photoshop.

An example:

Color Picker

Type Lab 60/50/40

Color Library

Choose e.g. Pantone Solid Coated

Find immediately 7416C

Read Lab 61/49/36

Or you can search here:

http://www.fho-emden.de/~hoffmann/swatch16032005.pdf

Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

M

MarieMeyerAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks very much. Your document is very interesting. Are those the official Pantone LAB values, or did you measure them? Also, I'm curious: you used D50 for the LAB values but D65 for the RGB values - why switch? I am never certain of which if these two I should use for a conversion.

G

Gernot_Hoffmann

Participating Frequently

Marie,

I don't even mention the name Pantone in my doc. With a little help

from a friend I found a data base.

Pantone changes the values occasionally a little. Especially there is

some uncertainty about the CMYK represention (which is anyway

only valid for a specific Pantoe process). In any case of doubt define

your CMYK process in Photoshop's Color Settings, define the Spot

color by Lab and read the equivalent CMYK values. Many Spot

colors are out of gamut for sRGB or AdobeRGB (see my doc - if

a number 0 or 255 for R,G,B appears, then the RGB values are

clipped. As well, many Spots cannot be reproduced by any CMYK

system.

D50 is the observer illuminant and the reference for Lab for paper

prints, a convention.

D65 defines the reference white point for some RGB color spaces

like sRGB and AdobeRGB, but not for all:

http://www.fho-emden.de/~hoffmann/cielab03022003.pdf

page 10

D65 is mostly used as monitor white. Some people consider it

as a contradiction: monitor D65 - print D50 .

Practically it works - a matter of adaptation (one doesn't view

the monitor and a print side by side).

Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

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