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Dylan332149342n6i
Participant
November 2, 2023
Answered

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

  • November 2, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 156353 views

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.

    Correct answer Ton Frederiks

    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.


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

    4 replies

    A
    amy_1699
    Participant
    February 10, 2025

    Pantone presets were removed from Illustrator’s Color Books due to licensing changes. While you can import Pantone swatches as .ASE files, they won’t appear under Swatch Libraries > Color Books by default.

    Alternative Solutions:

    ✅ Use Pantone Connect Plugin: Install the Pantone Connect extension from Adobe Exchange to access updated Pantone colors.
    ✅ Manually Convert CMYK to Pantone: Use Pantone’s online converter or Adobe Color to find the closest match.
    ✅ Revert to an Older Illustrator Version: Open an older version, export Pantone swatches, and import them into your current Illustrator as an .ASE or .ACO file.

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 15, 2024

    Soon it may be no longer possible to download a version that supports Type1 fonts and has the old Pantone libraries.  Adobe only provides installers for the current apps and the previous major version of each

      S
      saddy_4123
      Participant
      November 20, 2024

      There's no versions older than 28 available for download anymore, it seems. How can I still put my colors in Pantone? I don't have an older version, because I've just started to use Illustrator.

        Monika Gause
        Community Expert
        Monika GauseCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        November 20, 2024

        You can subscribe to Pantone Connect.

        Or you can buy a printed swatches book- if you want to work professionally with Pantone spot inks, you'll need that anyway - and then just set up spot colors. Talk to the printer before (!) production.

         

        It's not advisable to download Pantone libraries that are offered on the web for free download. Pantone has changed the definitions of some colors.

        Ton Frederiks
        Community Expert
        Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        November 2, 2023

        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
          buegelfrei
          Participant
          November 20, 2023

          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)

            J
            Judy27832538a7h1
            Participant
            September 28, 2025

            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
            Community Expert
            Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            November 2, 2023

            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.

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