Pantone colours and CC libraries
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Background:
The latest Pantone colours e.g. Pantone 3564C are not available using the standard Pantone Books available within Adobe CC programs. Other threads address this issue and it's apparently due to complicated agreements between Adobe and Pantone.
The solution to this is to download the "Pantone Connect" extension.
However, ...
The new problem:
Pantone colours selected through the "Pantone Connect" extension cannot be saved as Pantone colours within Adobe CC Libraries. When saved they are converted to HEX values and the reference to Pantone lost.
As an agency that recently moved all brand elements such as logos and pallets to Adobe CC and now needing to use a new Pantone colour within Adobe CC programs we now have to manually remember these differences.
Solution please Adobe?
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If it's a spot colour for printing a Pantone colour, don't worry if you can't reproduce the colour on your monitor as the ink will be mixed especially for printing. But be careful for specifying spot colours for things like logos, as the particular colour may not be able to be reproduced in CMYK which, would be used in things like magazine advertisments.
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- getting old!).
The point I am making is around the lack of integration that results in a
management issue, especially over larger teams of creatives.
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The free Pantone Connect extension works for creating single swatches, but you have to watch the color mode when you create the swatch. Pantone also has Pantone Color Manager which lets you export entire libraries as .acb files, but it’s not free. I haven’t checked lately, but there was a 30 day trial, that let you export.
When you search Connect make sure you select the correct guide. Here I searched for 3564, and selected the Formula Coated guide, which are the Lab defined spot colors. Hover over the swatch, and click with the eyedropper to transfer the color to your ID Color Picker:
Open your Color Picker and make sure your cursor is in one of the L, a, or b fields, and click Add Lab Swatch
Rename the swatch and set its Type to Spot and add it to your Library
The Library item is defined as Lab, and comes back into InDesign as a Lab defined spot color swatch:
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Also, you might find this post on branding guides useful—there is a link to an InDesign Pantone guide, which is searchable and contains the newer solid ink library:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/branding-color-guide/td-p/10818696?page=1