#Pantone color converter how to#
#Pantone color converter free#

In order to grab the PMS number from the color swatch, double click on the color. They have a little dot in the bottom right corner that shows the PMS color you’ll need to print that exact shade. Hover over the Pantone colors at the top of the tab. The newly-created Pantone colors are at the top, with the old RGB colors underneath. Once you’ve selected either “coated” or “uncoated,” hit “OK.” Take a look at the Swatch tab. Since Cory’s design will be printed with water-based ink, he chooses the Pantone Solid Uncoated option from the menu. If you’re printing with water-based ink, you’ll want the Uncoated book. If you’re printing with plastisol, the Pantone Coated book is best for you. Coated books have a glossy finish, while Uncoated books have a matte finish. There are two types of Pantone books: solid coated and solid uncoated. Cory clicks on the grid shape in the menu, which reads “limits the color group to colors in a swatch library.” From that menu, click on “Color Books” and find the Pantone books. This will allow you to edit the color group.Ĭlicking on the wheel brings up a menu called “Recolor Artwork.” From the menu, go to the page with the custom color wheel. At the bottom of the tab, click the wheel in the middle of the bottom toolbar. This highlights all the colors in the swatch.

#Pantone color converter free#

NEED A HAND WITH ADOBE® ILLUSTRATOR? TAKE OUR FREE CLASS STEP 3: MAKE A PANTONE COLORĬory clicks on the folder to the left of the four colors in the “Swatches” tab. The colors are organized, but they’re still not Pantones. The colors from the boxes you created now show up in the “Swatches” panel. Cory doesn’t change anything about the prompt, and chooses to leave the title of this group “Color Group 1.” If you want to give your color group a name (“Jeremy,” for example), go for it.

At the bottom of your “Swatch” panel, click “New Color Group.” This will generate a folder for you to organize your palettes. Highlight the four boxes you created as a color palette. Once the color palettes have been made, head to the right hand panel on the screen.

Cory highlights them and makes a copy to compare and contrast later. These boxes are color palettes that will show the difference between RGB and Pantone colors. Using the eyedropper tool, he fills the boxes with the four colors he’ll be changing to Pantone colors. He then creates three more boxes by holding “Alt” and “Shift” and dragging the box to the right, creating another one. Holding “Shift” and “Option” at the same time, he drags the cursor to make a box. For screen printing, it needs to be a Pantone color.Ĭory hits “M” on his keyboard to draw a box. It currently has a hex code, because it’s an RGB color. The design also contains black, but it doesn’t need to be changed to a Pantone color: black is universal. RELATED: WHAT ARE PANTONE COLORS? STEP 1: MAKE A COLOR PALETTEĬory hops into Adobe® Illustrator and chooses a design with four colors: gold, purple-blue, light pink, and sage green. If your client wants a specific Pantone color, but gives you artwork with colors in a different system (RGB, for example), you’ll need to convert it. There are many systems of organizing color. With the introduction of the Pantone System, you could just look it up and be right on target. If a customer wanted to get a specific color of yellow printed and then repeat it at another shop, there was no guarantee it would match. There are 1,867 colors in the Pantone Matching System, all made from variations of 13 base pigments.īefore that, every printer had their own color standards. The Pantone system uses a specific mixture of pigments to create spot colors, shown in the Pantone books. In 1962, a company called Pantone created and standardized a color mixing system, called the Pantone Color Matching (PMS) System. Why do screen printers use Pantone colors? What even is Pantone?

#Pantone color converter how to#

Golden Press Studio’s Art Director Cory Romeiser shows you how to turn any color into a Pantone color with Adobe® Illustrator in four simple steps.īefore you start to mix a color, it’s helpful to know a little bit about the colors you’ll be producing. If the colors of your artwork don’t match the colors on press, you may have some unhappy clients. Mixing custom colors is a must for many printers, and creating those colors starts with the artwork.