How do I determine what Pantone colors are used in my logo?

[TXWebDesigner]

I use Adobe Illustrator CS4 and I have a logo (.ai file in CMYK) that uses 2 colors.  I don't know how to convert / find what Pantone colors my logo uses.  Please advise ASAP!  Thank you in advance!!!

[Doug A Roberts]

they should be listed in you swatches window.

[Guest]

I think if you create an account and log-in to Pantone.com, they have a download app that may help ( sorry, can't recall the name of it...something like Kuler ).  Another way is to use Photoshop's Color palette > input the percentages to create a swatch > double click on the swatch to get the Color UI > click on "Custom" and the Pantone Spot color flyout should open up on the closest Pantone to your CMYK equivalents. 

[TXWebDesigner]

There is no way (within Illustrator) to determine the closest Pantone color to the colors in my logo?  I have to open up Photoshop to do this?  This just seems odd. 

I do have a swatches window where I can view all these different Pantone color books, yes.  But I don't know what to do once the color book is open.  And how do I know which color book I am supposed to be using?  Solid Matte?  Solid Coated?  Process Uncoated?  Process Coated?  How do I know what my client will need for their printer?

Thank you!!

[Doug A Roberts]

doesn't the document swatches window display whatever swatches are used in the doc?

coated or uncoated depends on what you're going to be printing onto.

[Mylenium]

As dougofakkad said, if you have the AI file, you have the swatches and even if the Pantones have been converted to process colors, the CMYK percentages can help you find the right colors in teh Pantone color book. if they're still spot colors, their names will be the colors.

Mylenium

[TXWebDesigner]

thanks Mylenium.  But can you tell me what I do with those percentages (I can get those for the colors - I just don't know how to then use those percentages to get the Pantone.)  What do I click on?

[Guest]

Open the color palette > click on a color element in your artwork > open the swatch panel and the CMYK color slider panel > read the percentages and write them down > refer to a Pantone Solid-to-Process book and look at the color ( if Yellow, look in the Yellow sections ) >  locate the percentages listed and the Pantone reference number.  This, obviously, requires you to have a Pantone color book reference.

[TXWebDesigner]

When I open the Swatches library, it pulls up the entire selection of all Pantone colors. I don’t understand how to determine which 2 of those are the ones used in my logo. I really need someone to tell me step-by-step what to click on to get to the 2 colors used in my logo. Sorry, I am really inexperienced at this.

Thank you!

[Guest]

For logos, you'll want the Solid color book.  If you are building for stationery, use the uncoated solid color references.  If you are building a file for glossy stock, magazine, brochure, etc., use the coated refernce colors.  Should you be building a file for matte paper, use the matte color references.  You could submit your CMYK percentages here in the forum and get an answer pretty quickly on which Pantone color comes closest ( surprised you hadn't thought of that by now ).  Illustrator is useful in creating logo vector graphics.  You are working in reverse of the typical workflow.  Typically the Spot colors are created in the original file and saved with the file.  Then, when the CMYK conversion is done later on, you'll have both the orginal spot swatch and the added CMYK swatch in Illustrator, hence never the need to use any other application to get a read on spot color(s).  I recommended the procedures I would use.  You are free to decide your next step.

[TXWebDesigner]

Thank you John – that explanation was very helpful. Didn’t realize I was expecting Illustrator to do something it wasn’t built to do. Again, thank you for your time!

[Creativity321]

I had the same question — this video should answer it.

[Monika Gause]

Creativity321  schrieb

I had the same question — this video should answer it.

This video could actually have been done in under a minute.

Just select the complete artwork and then use Recolor artwork. You don't need all this copying and then selecting single colors to convert them. Maybe read the documentation before creating such a video.

But apart from that: what is not shown in the video: You have to set up color management appropriately in order to get halfway decent results. Better yet: buy a real printed swatches book and then select a color from printed swatches. Otherwise you can never be sure the output will get even near to what you expect.

[Jeff Witchel, ACI]

And here's a video which demonstrates Monika's instructions above:

http://www.jeffwitchel.net/2012/02/the-secret-to-finding-the-right-spot-colors-fast/