Topic awaiting preservation: Converting PMS colors to CMYK

If I only have the PMS numbers for particular colors, how do I know or convert those numbers to CMYK so that I can recreate those colors in Photoshop. Here are the numbers if anyone can help me:
187, 2945, 2925

Can anyone help me?

Sorry - I don't have a good memory ... However, I did look on Google (an interesting little web site ... you may have heard of it ???) and came up with two things ...

FIRST ...

Pantone to RGB converter - http://www.aperion.de/pantone2rgb.htm That gave me ...
PMS 2925 == #008ed6 RGB or (R==0 G==142 B==214 )
PMS 2945 == #0054a0 RGB or (R==0 G==84 B==160 )
PMS 187 == #af1e2d RGB or (R==175 G==30 B==45 )

SECOND ...

If you open the color chooser in Photoshop and hit the "Custom" button, you get a pantone chooser. if you type in the pantone number while the window has focus ... bingo ... then go back to picker and there you are ... RGB/HSB/lab/CMYK/#rrggbb ... ripe for the plucking.

CAVEAT EMPTOR ... the Photoshop picker gives RGB values different from those in the converter above !! That's probably due to the fact that it gives you several different Pantone types to choose from, and each is different (even those with the same number) ... you may need the letters which go with the numbers to get an accurate match ... and even that might only be accurate on the display, nbot the printer ... or vice versa ...

Confused ??? ... I certainly am !!!




Bug-free software only exisits in two places
A programmer's mind and a salesman's lips

Thank you for the help. It actually helped me to prove someone wrong. The Pantone color #'s that were given to me by the print shop that did our company card are wrong or the CMYK color #'s they gave me are wrong or both. They just dont match up. Thanks again for all that info, I bookmarked that site, pretty cool.

Unless they were way off, it might be the they got as closed they could get. As the majority (40-60%) of Pantone colors are not reproduceable using CYMK. You can get real close in some case, it's impossiable in others.

You would be best served by a Pantone process tint book and books that list both Spot inks and Process. They will give you the best convertion to CYMK. They are however dependent on the printer using Pantone Process Inks.

I would avoid picking color from a Pantone Books when printing in CYMK. Most Pantone books are only designed for used with Spot color using Pantone inks. If you have to match a pre-existing Pantone Color, match it to a Pantone process guide and/or perform some proof-tests by placeing several colors you think may work and have printer proof it before hand.

J. Stuart J


[This message has been edited by jstuartj (edited 08-21-2003).]

It also has to do with the Print Shop you use. Here at Aerostich we use many different colors, ranging from Pantone to 4 color. The print shops we use are ArrowHead Printing in Superior, WIS, and Neehan Printing in St.Cloud, MN. And they Nail the colors dead on. So it depends greatly on the print company you use. Most high end print shops will be able to get it, and sometimes smaller shops will also just so they can compete. I would suggest looking at other shops, and getting bids not only on their abilities, but things that they speciallize in.