How to use Pantone Connect to find closest PMS match.

[Chrome Gadget]

I'm a prepress designer who works with premade artwork and who sometimes needs to find out what the closest PMS color in a piece of artwork is. Since Adobe got rid of the Pantone color books, I can no longer do that, as far as I can tell anyway. Using Pantone Connect I can pick a PMS color to apply to the art but I don't know how to find the closest PMS match for a color that is already in the artwork.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

The [physical] Pantone color books are still available. I believe you are referring to the Swatch libraries. 

I would open the image in Photoshop, eyedrop the color, and while in the color panel, change to Color Libraries. You will see the closest Pantone solid color. (Note: you may have to load the Pantone libraries from a previous version of Photoshop.)

[Chrome Gadget]

Tried loading a backup file into Photoshop and Illustrator but the newer versions don't like the filetype, uunfortunately. Just going to have to revert back to previous versions. Definitely appreciate the quick response though. Thanks man.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

What went wrong?

Try this:

Install (or go to if still installed) an older version of Illustrator like 2022 (CC app > Apps > All Apps > Illustrator > click the 3 dots … > Other Versions)

Go the Illustrator 2022 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 2023 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.

[Imaginerie]

Don't quote me on this because I don't have Pantone connect anymore, but it seems there is a matching system behind the paywall - on their website - where you can enter the HSL values and it returns the PMS swatch. It used to be free for everyone (I used it a lot) but I have been told that it's now part of the Adobe connect package.
Nothing integrated with illustrator as far as I know. It used to be called the Pantone X-ref tool.

Would this kind of thing help?
https://codebeautify.org/hex-to-pantone-converter
I understand it's not a very reliable answer 😁

[Imaginerie]

Sorry, it seems I have have beem mis-informed:

https://www.pantone.com/customer-service/help-center/pantone-color-system-x-ref-tool

[Lukas Engqvist]

Unfortunately the recolour artwork limited to a library is not available even with the pantone connect plug-in. The Pantone Connect app/website/plugin is behind the paywall to get cross refferences, so there is not way to convert except colour by colour, or using and older version of the software. The other problem is that Pantone can change their pigments and colour definitions so using an older software/method may not give the same resulr as if there was a new way to do this. It does increase our workload if this is one of the tasks we had… I feel your pain (and know that is not much of an answer).
Let's hope Pantone realises their mistake and let Adobe Users access their books in a better way. 

[Ton Frederiks]

If you just install the color book files from an older version, you can use them with recolor artwork.

[Lukas Engqvist]

I did not get that to work, how old version are you talking about to get the colour books to work? If there was an Ai, Pdf or EPS file with pantone colours it can be used as a library.

[Ton Frederiks]

As above posted:

Install (or go to if still installed) an older version of Illustrator like 2022 (CC app > Apps > All Apps > Illustrator > click the 3 dots … > Other Versions)

Go the Illustrator 2022 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 2023 application folder.

After that in Recolor Artwork choose Limit to Library from the Color Reduction Options.

[gomindstorm]

THANK YOU FOR CREATING THIS POST!! I live with my PANTONE Color Bridge Fan Book. I have been SUPER FRUSTRATED without having my PANTONE COLOR BRIDGE swatcths in the newest version of Illustartor! I have been searching for a solution for months! Wish Pantone and Adobe would resolve their differences like adults! Thanks again. 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

It will work, as shown below in AI 27.1.1:

[Imaginerie]

Also, not holding my breath for you, but this is how you contact Pantone for feature requests
support@pantone.com
Also the technical support here (for UK/EMEA, check for your country)
https://www.pantone.com/uk/en/contact-us

And if you're really cross 😁
01233 225450

[Chrome Gadget]

Appreciate all the responses to this for sure. Yeah it does seem the cross referencing function is behind a paywall, unfortunately. Best thing I found, for now, is to just revert back to an older version of Illustrator. Ver. 27.0 to be specific still has the Pantone color book and PMS numbers I need. 

[Ton Frederiks]

And don't forget to make a copy of the .acb files for use in current and future application.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

>>Best thing I found, for now, is to just revert back to an older version of Illustrator.

OR load the Swatch libraries into the new version as @Ton Frederiks has described a few times in this thread.

[eddie.atwood@iconex.com]

You can find the closest PMS match using Photoshop. Just find the process color values and then go to Photoshop and open the Color Palette and enter the values. Then click on the swatch that it generates. That will bring up the Color Picker Palette and then click on Color Libraries and boom, there's your PMS color. Hope this helps.