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Mr Curieux
Mr Curieux
Known Participant
September 12, 2021
Question

Lab Values changing RGB values

  • September 12, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 1343 views

Hello community,

 

I am facing this struggle too often and Iwould like to understand. I have created a series of color palette for my designs (CMYK - Pantone - RGB), but whenever I load my Pantone palette into any new file, they get converted into Lab (sometimes some colors remains in RGB other change to Lab). I am making sure that all of my files are in Adobe RGB 1998 color profile.

Lab values change my color quite a lot and it is rather annoying to have to correct those each time.

Left side is my Pantone swatch in RGB as spot color and on the right is the same color copy pasted into a blank new RGB document.

Below is the result of the RGB conversion... 


If anyone can explain this mystery...

Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 12, 2021

The Pantone colors are defined by Pantone as Lab colors.

CMYK or RGB are just simulations of a Pantone color ink mix and will vary with the ICC profile for the active CMYK or RGB profile. 

If you select a Pantone color in Illustrator it uses the Book color (Catalogue de couleurs) as defined by Pantone.

The Lab values are the only correct values for a Pantone color, al others are simulations.

    Mr Curieux
    Mr CurieuxAuthor
    Known Participant
    September 12, 2021

    Hello Ton,

     

    Thanks for your quick reply!
    Now I understand better the differences between the Lab and RGB.

    But I just made a quick test on 2 files.

     

    Left are the copy pasted colors into a blank new document (both using Adobe RGB 1998).

    Righ is my color palette file.

     

    On the right side, all colors are set to have RGB values, and my own Pantone values are the one from my Pantone book which I bought last year.

     

    Once copy pasting them into the new document on the left, I notice that the Illustrator Pantone keeps their RGB values, while mines switches to Lab, and as you can see for the magenta is does change the color nuance.


    Do you know why is there more "stability" between the Illustrator default swatches as opposed to the one I created?

    Thanks a lot!

    T
    Test Screen Name
    Legend
    September 12, 2021

    Lab colours should be more accurate. You need to look at how you view and measure your RGB colours, which look diffferent for everyone. 

    Is your screen calibrated? What RGB profile do you use?

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