Pantone Connect colors to Illustrator?

[Russell25132749ykhe]

Trying to convert a Pantone CMYK document to solid Pantone colors for distribution to a manufacturer. Is there a way to bring the colors in Pantone Connect over to Illustrator in Pantone?  The only option I see is via the inkdropper tool which converts the Pantone to CMYK in Illustrator...  

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Do you have a license for Pantone Connect? In that case it should be easy. If you don't have a license, then it's not possible.

You can create a spot color and name it the way you need. Then communicate with the printing service. Keeo in mind that the Pantone ink might be represented differently on screen than it looks in reality.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Depends on what you mean by Pantone CMYK colours. Pantone created a set of colours that are purely CMYK-based. These are indicated by a code like: Pantone P 154-8 C. If you are using those, they do not have a direct Solid ink counterpart.

If this is not the case for you, please explain further what Pantone colour swatch you are  trying to reproduce.

[Russell25132749ykhe]

Thanks,
Yes I originally worked off of a Pantone CMYK C fan deck. Manufacturer asked for everything to be converted to a solid Pantone for proofing and build. I need to convert my CMYK values to the nearest Pantone solid. As you know the CMYK color library inside illustrator is pretty complete but when you go to a soild deck, the colors are not as complete and I found most all of my target colors were not in illustrator. For example 4290C is the nearest color to the color chosen for the CMYK color 173-8C.

I can bring up and see 4290 in Pantone connect but I only see the inkdropper as a means to change the color on the document on the illustrator side, using this function applies the color as Adobe CMYK. My question is, can I apply the color selection from connect to illustrator in Pantone solid color and how do I go about doing so?

Cheers!

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Accepted solution]

When you select a swatch in Pantone Connect, hover near the top right of that chip and you will see dots. Pull down there and you should have an Add to Swatches command. This saves the spot colour to your Swatches as Spot Colour properly defined as Lab.

btw: I personally think 4278 is a closer match to 173-8  😉