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K
KenWK
Inspiring
November 1, 2022
Question

Missing Pantone Swatch Problem

  • November 1, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 2256 views

Before the rotary oscillator becomes covered in defecation, I'm trying to get a "preview" (for lack of a better term) of what's going to happen when a Pantone swatch that is no longer available is used in an Illustrator or Photoshop file that is already placed in InDesign.

 

In Illustrator CS6 I created a file using a swatch from a couple of the color books currently NOT showing in Illustrator 2023. But, opening the CS AI file in Illustrator 2023 and placing in InDesign 2023 works fine.

 

Is it possible that nothing is going to happen until the end of November and/or is there something else I can do to simulate the problem?

 

Thanks,

Ken

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3 replies

chrisg11235813
chrisg11235813
Participating Frequently
November 1, 2022

It shouldn't actually matter how Photoshop has the PANTONE spot colour represented, when illustrator / inDesign has the colour book loaded, it will work. In fact if the Pantone is wrongly coloured in photoshop, the colour is automatically changed in illustrator to match the colour in the colour book library, so links should not be affected.  I think (?!)

rob day
Community Expert
rob dayCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 1, 2022

In fact if the Pantone is wrongly coloured in photoshop, the colour is automatically changed in illustrator to match

 

You can install the same Pantone .acb books in all 3 apps. You just want make sure they are the Lab defined versions. Prior to CS6 the InDesign and Illustrator .acb files were CMYK defined.

rob day
Community Expert
rob dayCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 1, 2022

Is it possible that nothing is going to happen until the end of November and/or is there something else I can do to simulate the problem?

 

Hi @KenWK , I think all you have to do is save the Pantone .acb files from CC2022 or earlier and install them in same CC2023 folders. It‘s not clear at all whether that would somehow be a violation of your Adobe EULA, but I think the apps will continue to let you use .acb swatch libraries—it’s just Pantone .acbs won’t automatically be installed. If the plan is to remove .acb support from the Adobe apps, that would be a real problem.

 

The reports of existing Pantone Spot Channels showing as Black in the 2023 version of Photoshopis not new. If I pull the Pantone .acb files from my CC2020 version of Photoshop, I get Black replacing the Spot Channel Color, you’ve always need the .acb files to be installed inorder to get the Pantone color. To get the correct Pantone Lab Color back. its just a matter of reinstalling or installing the .acb files and reselecting the Library color.

 

With the .acb files installed:

 

 

 

The .acb files removed and restart PS:

 

 

    K
    KenWKAuthor
    Inspiring
    November 4, 2022

    So, I knew about the black/gray thing, what I was wondering about mainly was if there was any warning without having to continually be staring at / proofing  colors, and the answer seems to be "yes"!

     

    In Photoshop, when opening a file that uses a color for which the color is NOT loaded in Photoshop it gives a message. In InDesign when placing a Photoshop file using a color whose color book is NOT loaded in InDesign, you also get a message.

     

    "As advertised," not having the color book loaded for colors used in an existing InDesign file, that file opens fine, because the swatch information is right in the InDesign file. However, when a color is already in InDesign and the color book is NOT loaded, a message still gets displayed when placing a file, though it DID show the color correctly on-screen and did seem to export to PDF correctly. This might be a small bug Adobe will fix later.

     

    It also seemed that Illustrator files keep complete swatch information like InDesign files. In Illustrator, when opening an AI file that uses a color whose color book is NOT loaded in Illustrator, the file opened OK. Likewise when placing an Illustrator file using a color whose color book is NOT loaded in InDesign, I got no message and things seemed to export to PDF correctly. 

     

    My most important take-away is that everything seems give a warning when the color book is missing or the swatch information isn't already in the file.

     

    Thanks, everyone, for chiming in and feel free to continue to if I've said anything confusing or inaccurate.

    rob day
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 4, 2022

    Seems like simply installing the .acb files in the new version is a simple solution. If you don’t want to install the .acb files or use Pantone Connect, I posted another option here:

     

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/changes-to-pantone-color-books/m-p/13311503#M500112

     

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPress
    Legend
    November 1, 2022

    Some have reported that missing swatches go black, which is absolutely notokay on Adobe's end; there should be a more graceful default behavior.

     

    Simply converting missing swatches to CMYK equivalents and naming them in any allowable fashion — not sure if renaming with a P color number would be allowed at this dance-of-elephants level, for example — would be the graceful fallback. And, really, all most designers would need to continue printing with Pantone inks.

     

      K
      KenWKAuthor
      Inspiring
      November 1, 2022

      I did see things would "black or gray" but was hoping, maybe, for some sort of warning that a swatch is missing.

       

      Again, any way to force the problem to see what things look like?

       

      Thanks again!

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