Topic awaiting preservation: Colour Charts (Page 1 of 1)

Hiyas again, just a question regarding colour charts/swatches.

I want to get myself a chart that contains CMYK values that i would use for creating files for print. So some sort of swatch, im not sure exactly what pantone colours are but i did see a chart which had pantone spot colours and how they came out when printed as CMYK and it was very different.

So if anyone could recommend a chart and perhaps where to get one (im in Australia) that would be great. Also is there anything to watch outfor when buying a swatch? i've heard they are pretty expensive.

Well my guess is the simplest to find would be Pantone guides.

My advice is you realy need two; a Spot color guide and a Process (4-color) Picker. From Pantones site would choose the following.

A Process Guide that allows you to choose from 3000 process combonations, my guess is that they are in 10% incruments.
http://www.pantone.com/products/products.asp?idSubArea=0&idArea=1&idProduct=308

Pantone to process Solid Guide, The best deal is their solid to process guide, that way you get a guide to pantone solid inks with there CYMK values.
http://www.pantone.com/products/products.asp?idSubArea=0&idArea=1&idProduct=304

"Solid to Process" guide kills two birds with one stone, I will some most of the Pantone Solid colors and mixes to match their solid or (Spot inks). You however my want a Full process guide as the "Solid to Process" guide only shows the formulas to match there solid inks. I am not sure how complete the solid guide is compaired to there other solid guides but it should be more then adaquate. My guess it's only missing the Metalics and Day Glow swatchs which can't be reproduced in CYMK.

Ideally it's great to have both coated and uncoated guides. (Coated and uncoated are referances to the paper stock)

If I had to choose one, I would go with a uncoated as it is more likely the more common use. Color should reproduce close enough on coated stock, perhaps only slightly heavy or darker.

I use a process guide from a company called Trumatch. Several of my printers recommended this guide to me, so much so we made it the standard process color picker for our creative and prepress departments. Adobe Products and Quark also support Trumatch in the color picker which is a plus.

http://www.trumatch.com/

I am unsure what inks are common in Australia, you may find that TOYO are used instead of Pantone, In that case you many find their spot color picker may produce better results.

http://www.toyoink.com/products/colorfinder.asp

It's very had to tell if a guide is good or not, you can only try it and see how the results print. Some may work better for one printer the another in other instances a different guide may be more effective. The best process guide is one that is recommended by your printer. Some printers are large enought that they may have even produced their own process guides.

The only thing you can realy look out for is when buying an older or if previously used book, if it's faded or the ink samples have degraded. Even so, unless it is very old or someone left them out in bright light for extended periods of time I doubt the average person could notice a differance and they are just guides the chances of the printer hitting the color exactly as displayed in the guide is slim. Just keep your guides in a Black Bag when not in use and I have done so for over 5 years and haven't noticed any major change.

Another Idea: I came across Gernot Hoffmann's site the other day looking for something else, but noticed his CMYK swatch book a 17 page PDF. This would work great if you are commonly outputing to the same digital press, inkjet, output device. One could have the guide printed on the specfic printer and paper you plan to use for output. It would give you a very accurate guide tailor made to suit your output. Note: There is lots of other cool "Color Geek" info there as well.

http://www.fho-emden.de/~hoffmann/howww41a.html

J. Stuart J.


[This message has been edited by jstuartj (edited 09-24-2003).]

Yeh good point that last note i was considering that...

Thanks for the info, i guess my best bet is maybe to buy the same ones my printers are using.. definately arent the cheapest books in the world. I design a card that was very blue on my monitor and on crappy desktop printer, so i thought it would look generally blue on the printout, i wasnt too concerned with accuracy - but the bloody thing came out purple =/ Glad i got a proof anyhow..