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There are essentially two colors in
the above graphic: |
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How to Pick Spot
Colors |
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In the United States, the most popular
spot color system is the Pantone Matching System (or PMS).
You choose PMS colors from a Pantone Swatchbook. Pantone
Swatchbooks look something like the paint chips you get
from hardware stores: |
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Pantone Swatch Book
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When you pick your colors, they're
always a combination of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.
When you pick a PMS color, you look at through the swatch
book until you see a color you like. Then you use the
number. |
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Picking the green color (PMS 353
U) from the swatch book
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You need to be careful, because the
colors are printed on both uncoated and coated paper.Coated vs uncoated stock will show a color difference even though the same PMS number ink is used.
Make sure you're looking at the type of paper your final
project will be printed on. Uncoated PMS colors will have
a U after the number; coated PMS colors will have a C
after the number. For instance, the green to match the
green in my GolfScapers Logo above might be PMS 353 U.
In your software program, you'd pick the PMS color by
displaying Pantone colors in your color picker or swatches,
then just clicking on the same number that you've chosen
from the Swatch book. |
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Picking PMS colors in Adobe Illustrator
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It's important to choose the colors
from the PMS swatch book, and not from your monitor. Unless
your monitor is very carefully calibrated, the color may
look very different than the actual printed color (we're
back to that RGB vs spot color thing). Trust the Pantone
swatch books. While the printed color can and will vary
from what you see in the swatch book - paper, press operators,
etc. can make a difference in the appearance of an ink
color - it should be close, and it can be corrected on
press to some degree.
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How do I create
spot colors in my document? |
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If you're placing EPS graphics (including
DCS images) into a layout, the color names used in the
graphic will be added to your color list when you place
the graphic. If you can do this early on, it can help
ensure that your color names are consistent.
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How can I ensure that spot
colors from different applications separate together?
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The only thing that matters when
creating color separations is the name of the
color. "PANTONE 241 CV" and "PANTONE
241 CVC" are two different colors. Capitalization
is important, too... "Pantone 241 CV" would
be a third color.
Note that the different applications
use different versions of the PANTONE color names, depending
on which PANTONE libraries they know. If your programs
don't agree, you'll have to change the color names yourself
so that they match.
Be particularly careful about black
in Photoshop duotones and spot color channels... don't
select "PANTONE Process Black CV" from the
custom color list unless you later change the name to
simply "Black". Both PageMaker and QuarkXPress
have "Black" as a permanent color and will
treat "PANTONE Process Black CV" as a separate
spot color.
Also, it really doesn't matter what
the name is. You're welcome to create your graphics
with descriptive names like "Peach" or "Purple"
just so long as you're consistent.
Tip: There's a magazine
that uses a different highlight color each issue. Rather
than always have to edit their logo graphics, etc.,
they have consistently named the spot color "Color".
When they get to press, we simply separate "Black"
and "Color" and mix whichever ink they've
requested this time.
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I changed my mind and want
to substitute PANTONE XXX for PANTONE YYY. |
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Do I have
to edit all my graphics and my file? |
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Probably not, unless you need a composite
color proof to reflect the change. We can simply
separate the colors according to the old names but use
whichever inks you specify on press.
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What if my job
uses just one color (no black ink)? |
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In this case, you might find it easier
to simply set everything up as black. Of course, if you
make a composite color print, you won't see the correct
final color.
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Do I need to print
separations? |
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Yes, most definitely. Printing with
spot color is actually a little more difficult than printing
with process color because the software is so picky about
color names. Check to make certain that each element appears
on the correct separations and that you have only one
separation printing for each ink. We don't need to have
the seperations, You should you them as a guide. |
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