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Anonymous
Feb 18, 2019 5:08 AM UTC
Answered

CMYK to Pantone

I have two main colors I have used on my artwork
66308d  ( a purple color)
and
28a992  ( a green color)

Is there a process in Illustrator to find out what the cmyk colors convert to in Pantane colour?

Thanks

      barbara_a7746676
      barbara_a7746676Correct answer
      Community Expert
      Feb 18, 2019 6:46 AM UTC

      Select an object that has the color you want to convert.

      Choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork.

      Click the icon in the lower right "Limits the colors to colors in a swatch library".

      Choose the Pantone solid color library that you want to use. Click OK.

      Illustrator will apply the new color swatch to the selected object and will add the new color to the Swatches panel.

      Note that when converting colors you will get the closest Pantone color swatch available and it may not be an exact match to the original CMYK color.

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      16 replies

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      Legend
      Feb 18, 2019 12:41 PM UTC

      Ok... but that implies you are going to be printing in Pantone inks. Do you understand how to set up a job for printing in Pantone inks - it won't just happen because your colours match. This isn't obvious stuff and you typically need to work with your printer to get where you both need to go - different printers will need different things. Are you sure you need to print in Pantone, rather than process - have you designed in 3 colours or less (you say you have two main colours, but you won't be able to print even small amounts of other colours)?

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        Test Screen Name
        Legend
        Feb 18, 2019 11:36 AM UTC

        If you want to be sure the answers are useful to you in your work, it may help to explain EXACTLY why you are looking for Pantone colour matches to some RGB values (or any values at all). Usually it happens the other way round: designer and client sit down with a Pantone swatch and agree on the colours they want, and the designer goes away and uses what was agreed. The printer prints that colour, everyone is happy. Sometimes, at least.

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        Anonymous
        Feb 18, 2019 12:29 PM UTC

        it was so I could give my printer the correct colors

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        Test Screen Name
        Legend
        Feb 18, 2019 10:24 AM UTC

        There are 16,777,216 different RGB colours in Adobe apps (you are choosing RGB colours because you picked hex codes) and 104,060,401 CMYK colours can be specified. There are a few hundred Pantone colours, so hoping for "equal" is a bit optimistic. "Close" is all you can get.

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          Monika Gause
          Community Expert
          Monika GauseCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          Feb 18, 2019 9:41 AM UTC

          petelaw  schrieb

          I have two main colors I have used on my artwork
          66308d  ( a purple color)
          and
          28a992  ( a green color)

          Those aren't even CMYK mixtures, those are HEX colors (which is RGB).

          How they convert to either CMYK or Pantone completely depends upon how your color management is set up. If that is even a close match then depends upon if your color management is set up suitably for your printing process (machine, paper, inks).

          And if that is even a close match to what you see on your monitor depends upon whether your system (computer, monitor) ist calibrated correctly.

          Whatever you do, you might want to compare it to actually printed samples. Which means printed on a press with Pantone colors and maybe also printed in process just in case you have never seen how those HEX colors print. And not just printed on your office printer.

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            Anonymous
            Feb 18, 2019 10:05 AM UTC

            Thanks.
            So my work is set to CMYK but I can use those colors..
            So surley it must equal something in the pantone color somewhere .??

            Looking at the patone color number I got it is the same color.

            MMM maybe I got it all wrong..

            LOL Thanks

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            Monika Gause
            Community Expert
            Monika GauseCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            Feb 18, 2019 10:29 AM UTC

            petelaw  schrieb

            Thanks.
            So my work is set to CMYK but I can use those colors..

            In HEX (RGB) you can specify a lot of colors that can't be reproduced in CMYK color space. And then will be converted.

            When CMYK in reverse gets converted to HEX (which happens on the fly in the color panel) this again happens basd on color management settings. So when I use the HEX code to picture the color you want, I might get different values than you got.

            In case you think you got it all wrong I would suggest you read about color reproduction and color management.

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            barbara_a7746676
            Community Expert
            barbara_a7746676Community ExpertCorrect answer
            Community Expert
            Feb 18, 2019 6:46 AM UTC

            Select an object that has the color you want to convert.

            Choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork.

            Click the icon in the lower right "Limits the colors to colors in a swatch library".

            Choose the Pantone solid color library that you want to use. Click OK.

            Illustrator will apply the new color swatch to the selected object and will add the new color to the Swatches panel.

            Note that when converting colors you will get the closest Pantone color swatch available and it may not be an exact match to the original CMYK color.

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              Anonymous
              Feb 18, 2019 9:37 AM UTC

              Thankyou Barbara Ash

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              Test Screen Name
              Legend
              Feb 18, 2019 6:39 AM UTC

              You should probably choose the colours using a Pantone swatch book. The colour codes you give aren't specific colours, they depend on your monitor and system set up - different for everyone.

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