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September 6, 2022
Question

Pantone+ CMYK conversion differences

  • September 6, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 125 views

Hi Everyone

 

Im noticing some strange differences with CMYK values when converting from Pantone+ Solid uncoated.

in Indesign Pantone+ 342U when converting to CMYK gives me a breakdown of C:76, M:40, Y:58, K:18.

But we also have enfocus pitstop, with which we do quite alot of editing, with pitstop there are two sets of pantone+ colour libraries; version 3 and a seemingly newer version 4 (Pantone+ Solid uncoated-v3 & Pantone+ Solid uncoated-v4). These two different libraries give me different conversions compared to indesign, and are also different between the two of them.

In Pitstop with Pantone+ Solid uncoated-v3, Pantone+ 342U when using their CMYK Colour space, gives me a CMYK Breakdown of C:96, M:7, Y:80, K:33. When using pitstop's lab colour space the breakdown is L: 43.06, A: -19.82, B: 2.61, which when I convert that to CMYK in Indesign gives me a the same CMYK Breakdown as it does when using the libraries from within Indesign... C:76, M:40, Y:58, K:18.

But when using Pitstop with Pantone+ Solid uncoated-v4, I get different results again. In this instance when using their CMYK Colour space, gives me a CMYK Breakdown of C:92, M:12, Y:66, K:43.

If I use pitstops lab colour space with Pantone+ Solid uncoated-v4, it gives me the same values as in Pantone+ Solid uncoated-v3. Which is L: 43.06, A: -19.82, B: 2.61, which again gives me a CMYK conversion of C:76, M:40, Y:58, K:18, which as i said earlier is the same as the breakdown Indesign gives me.

My concern is which conversion is correct? Obviously we need colour consistency accross jobs and we use both applications intensively, placing supplied pdfs with various embedded pantones. Is it safe to use the pantones that carry through from the pdf through pitstop (after editing) into our Indesign swatch libraries? Or am we supposed to Alias these pitstop swatches with the equivilant swatch from within Indesign? Which ones are correct? 

Looking at the pantone swatch books we have the situation becomes more muddled with the conversions numbers being different again. And with Pantone now seperating from Adobe, im wondering whether it will continue to change?

So any ideas which conversion data is correct?

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1 reply

rob day
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 6, 2022

So any ideas which conversion data is correct?

 

The solid ink swatches are defined as Lab, so the conversion to CMYK produces different values depending on the destination profile (with InDesign the document’s assigned CMYK profile) and the current Color Settings’ Conversion Options. The Conversion Options handle how out-of-gamut colors are brought into the CMYK destination space.

 

Also, don’t use Ink Manager to make the conversion. Set the swatch Color Type to Process and make the conversion to CMYK from Swatch Options.

 

This might help:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/branding-color-guide/td-p/10818696