How do you import Pantone PMS colors into Illustrator 2024 Color Books

[Dylan332149342n6i]

So from what I've been reading, apparently Pantone took out their presets in the Color Libraries, specific under the drop down of "Color Books". This has become an annoyance and I've also read that people have been able to go back into previous versions of Illustrator to import/export the PANTONE swatches they want.

However, here's what I'm trying to achieve:

- I have a CMYK color that I want to change to a PANTONE color. It used to be that if you wanted to do this, you would click the color, then go to Swatch Libraries > Color Books > PANTONE (Solid Coated), and that would then give you the PANTONE color that resembled your CMYK color the closest.

- The key appears to be that the PANTONEs HAVE to be dropped into the Color Books, which I've yet to figure out how to do. I have no problem importing the PANTONES in as color swatches, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to import them into the "Color Books" panel so that I can select it.

If anyone can help with this, it would be greatly appreciated. Not sure if there's a way to actually import the swatches (aka Save the swatched as a .ASE file)....or if there's another way to convert your CMYK color to the closest matching PANTONE color.

Thanks everyone.

[Ton Frederiks]

I suppose you found how to install the color books from a previous version.

In Illustrator you can fill a rectangle with the CMYK color you want.

Go to Recolor Artwork and select the colorbook you want the similar spot from and hit enter.

In Photoshop you need to make your CMYK color the foreground color, click the Foreground swatch and choose Color Libraries to get the closest spot color.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

Just in case you still need to install the color books:

Edit: The 27.0 version is no longer available, use the Photoshop 22.2 instead.

You can have multiple versions of Illustrator installed.

There is still one version that you can download that has the libraries.

Install an older version of Illustrator: 2023 (27.0), this is the last version that has the old Pantone Color books.

In the Creative Cloud app select Apps > All Apps > Illustrator > click the 3 dots …  next to the Open button >  click Other Versions and select 27.0

Go the Illustrator 2023 Application folder > Presets > (your language folder) > Swatches > Color Books > and make a copy of PANTONE+ Solid Coated.acb and PANTONE+ Solid Uncoated.acb 

Keep them in a safe place and copy them to the same location in the Illustrator 2024 application folder.

If you have a Photoshop license, you can install Photoshop 22.2.

Then, open Photoshop 2021 Application folder > Presets > Color Books and you will find the PANTONE color books, so copy it to Illustrator's Color Books folder.

[buegelfrei]

Alternatively, if you have Time Machine backups (or similar), navigate back to an earlier version of Illustrator and restore your Pantone .ACB files from there. Going back to May 2022 and Illustrator 2022, I found Pastels and Neons (Coated and Uncoated), Metallics Coated, Premium Metallics Coated, and Color Bridge (Coated and Uncoated) in addition to the Solid guides that I came here to recover. (It looks like they whittled away at the selection of PMS books incrementally in the months that followed with only CMYK books and Metallic remaining by the final itteration of AI 2023.)

Here's the file path, adapted from @Ton Frederiks' helpful post:

Illustrator 20xx Application folder > Presets > (your language folder) > Swatches > Color Books > (PANTONE + .acb files)

[Judy27832538a7h1]

I just tried it, copied the libraries and Illustrator opened saying the Panetone libraries are not available, as if they saw them and didn't load them.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

But did you try to open the library using the Swatches panel > Color Books?

[Judy27832538a7h1]

Brilliant!!! It worked!!

[Ton Frederiks]

Good to hear that.

[jaimek99410139]

Hello, I've tried this but I do not have a Photoshop folder like I do for InDesign & Illustrator. I downloaded PS 22.2 in an effort to get the Pantone colors back. Am I missing something?

[buegelfrei]

Have you looked around inside the Photoshop 2021 folder shown in your screenshot? Dig around. You are looking for folders with names like "Swatches", "Color Books" and/or "Color Swatches". 

[jaimek99410139]

I feel like an idiot! I didn't realize those were file folders. I've been searching for this for so long now my eyes have gone cross. This worked for me, thank you! I sure hope nyone else looking for this finds the post before PS 22.2 isn't available!

[Ton Frederiks]

There should be a Presets folder containing a Color Books folder.

[jaimek99410139]

I have copied the PMS colors to the Illustrator folder but they are not there within the app. I've closed and reopened and this is what I got.

[Ton Frederiks]

You should copy the .acb files (which are the color books), not the .aco (which are Photoshop Swatches files).

[jaimek99410139]

Thank you! I did not see that was the filetype I copied. No wonder it worked for InDesign and not Illustrator, I grabbed the wrong ones to place into the Illustrator folder. Thank you for your help with this!

[Ton Frederiks]

Good to hear that helped.

[KREATIUM 3]

thank you, your tip help me!

[ElizaJ8]

Hi, I am new to illustrator & need some help. I downloaded the 27.0 version to get the Pantone swatches but I am having difficulties with the 2nd part of the instructions on how to get the color swatches saved & uploaded into the newer version of Illustrator. Where do I find the application folder to complete the above? I am using a PC. Thanks so much for your help!

[Monika Gause]

Here you'll find the locations of settings files: https://www.vektorgarten.de/illustrator-settings.html

[Ryan35951904suk9]

Worked perfectly. Thanks, Ton!

[Ton Frederiks]

Good to hear that helped.

[LynnDWELA]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! This was a life saver. : )

[Jagadeesh K]

PERFECT ANSWER,  THANK YOU.....!!!

[JNP&G]

When I tried to download the 27.0 version, it tells me it will have to delete the current version if I do so. 

[Ton Frederiks]

I have the 28.7 version. I have. in the CC app Auto-update off.

I click the 3 dots and select Other versions and can select 27.0

It does not mention for deletion of other versions.

Which version do you have installed?