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Martin Boekers
05-14-2012, 2:03 PM
What is the easiest what to find out a CMYK color is to the closest Pantone?

Is there a converter out there that you plug in the CMYK values and it gives you
the closest eqivalent?

Thanks!

Marty

Scott Shepherd
05-14-2012, 2:28 PM
What is the easiest what to find out a CMYK color is to the closest Pantone?

Is there a converter out there that you plug in the CMYK values and it gives you
the closest eqivalent?

Thanks!

Marty

Sure, in Illustrator, click on "Scripts" and open the CMYK to Pantone script :p

And yes, there really is one and it works well. If you have some colors you need, post them and I'll run it for you. How about that Corel, huh? (hehehehe)

Mike Null
05-14-2012, 2:43 PM
Martin

Buy a Pantone swatch book. It is the only way you can achieve Pantone colors using a cmyk or rgb palette. Even then you will have to tweak them to match what your printer outputs.

The Pantone book will give you the rgb and cmyk formulas.

Martin Boekers
05-14-2012, 3:32 PM
Pantone book are $200+ for the little I use them I can't justify it. (this is the first time I needed to)


I have illustrator, I just didn't load it on the new computers, maybe now I will :)

Laser guys don't use this, it probably is available in Corel just not aware of it,
Shoot I probably only use 5%-10% of Corel's, PS, AI and most any other graphics capabilities.

I am surprized that there isn't a conversion tool that you can plug in values and it gives you
the closest Pantone value. Then it's up to the graphic house to make the product match.

Scott Shepherd
05-14-2012, 3:42 PM
http://www.wundes.com/JS4AI/

Look for the CMYK to Pantone script if you do install Illustrator. It's about 1/2 way down.

Mark Sipes
05-14-2012, 4:14 PM
I have a set of Pantone Tables in my Corel under fixed palettes.... Corel 9

Mike Null
05-14-2012, 4:18 PM
That changes the settings on your pc but your printer will not output matches based on that. You'll have to run a number of samples before you get a match. Pantone colors cannot be plugged into a printer--you have to do all the work--been there-done that. That's the reason for the swatches. I've had mine for several years and two or three times a year I glad I bought it.

You need to shop around for the book.

Martin Boekers
05-14-2012, 5:25 PM
That changes the settings on your pc but your printer will not output matches based on that. You'll have to run a number of samples before you get a match. Pantone colors cannot be plugged into a printer--you have to do all the work--been there-done that. That's the reason for the swatches. I've had mine for several years and two or three times a year I glad I bought it.

You need to shop around for the book.

I'm not doing the printing, its going to a vendor. I stay away from PMS matching!
The client sent a CMYK file and the vendor wanted Pantone (that way there is a
bench mark) Plus it's difficult to match a Pantone from a monitor when there is no
hard copy to match. I have a Pantone book at home from about 5 years ago, they recommend
to get a new book every year are so. :)

I fiddled around and think I found a way to eyedropper it and get a Pantone eqivelant as spot
colors. Time will tell.........

Michael Hunter
05-14-2012, 6:46 PM
Sure, in Illustrator, click on "Scripts" and open the CMYK to Pantone script :p

And yes, there really is one and it works well. If you have some colors you need, post them and I'll run it for you. How about that Corel, huh? (hehehehe)


So Illustrator needs scripts and Corel does it directly huh!

The older versions of Corel under "palettes" gave the Pantone selection with the CMYK and RGB equivalents beside it which was really convenient.
X6 is not so good, but you can still get the equivalents quite easily if you need them - just keep the colour selected and swap between the different colouring modes.

Scott Shepherd
05-14-2012, 8:02 PM
So Illustrator needs scripts and Corel does it directly huh!

The older versions of Corel under "palettes" gave the Pantone selection with the CMYK and RGB equivalents beside it which was really convenient.
X6 is not so good, but you can still get the equivalents quite easily if you need them - just keep the colour selected and swap between the different colouring modes.

You might want to read his post before you get all froggy. He didn't say from Pantone to CMYK, he said from CMYK to Pantone. Call me when Corel does that.

All of them have pantone palettes. You can download all the Pantone palettes directly from Pantone for Corel and Illustrator. However, what he's trying to do is to lift a color off of a file and determine what Pantone color it is from a CMYK value.

Yes, I accept your apology :p

I can select a pantone color in Corel or Illustrator and have it tell me the CMYK values. That's easy. The other way around. Not so much, which is what he's trying to do.

Marty, just post the colors and I'll check it for you to see how close you were.

Michael Hunter
05-15-2012, 4:56 AM
I just threw in the mud pie because of the separate "mine is better than yours" thread which is running.

I fail to see Martin's problem though.
If you have an RGB or CMYK colour on the screen in Corel, just select it and choose the Pantone palette : it will automatically show the nearest named Pantone colour.


PS I'm assuming that Martin is using Corel, since he says he isn't using Ilustrator at the moment.

Scott Shepherd
05-15-2012, 8:28 AM
I fail to see Martin's problem though.
If you have an RGB or CMYK colour on the screen in Corel, just select it and choose the Pantone palette : it will automatically show the nearest named Pantone colour.


I tried the method you mentioned and it comes up very different than anything else I try. With the script, it shows how close a perfect match it is by degrees. So it may say it's within 3 degrees of being the right match, or it may say it's 19 degrees (no pantone color close to the CMYK value). I suspect the script is doing it based on math and selecting the closest swatch, but it looks like Corel does something different because it's a very different match from anything else I see. I'm not sure where it's getting it's matches from, but it's different than most things I see elsewhere.