[Dthind]

So the printer says I have to use PM299 as a color (light blue). How to I match this color in Photoshop ?

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Blah...Blah...Blah 'Ginger'

[Sumaleth]

Theoretically there are these charts you can get which let you convert between print and digital color methods. We had one where I used to work, I think it was pretty costly too.

But in reality it never worked for us. Although we were doing things digitally -for print-, we were doing them -for video-. I don't know if that was the reason it didn't work, but we certainly never got an accurate match to the "corperate colors" when we used that chart.

So we ultimately just went for the eye-balling method. We'd ask for a print copy of whatever it was we were trying to match, and then eye-ball the digital color that was as close to that as we could get.

Much better results. Don't know if it helps you though.

Row.

[Rinaldo]

If PM299 is something like a Pantone colour (sure it's not PMS299?). you pick it from your colour swatches in you application. most should have a range of swatches for the different colour matching systems. the idea is that you look at a swatch in a printed swatch book, you look at the number that colour has. get that same numbered colour from your swatches in your application.
It also depends on how many colours your job is. if it's a 4 colour job then you'll most probably need to talk to your printer about spot to process colour conversions. all printers have different methods of dealing with this so it's hard to tell.
if it's only a few colours you're dealing with, you use the Pantone or simmilar colour as a spot colour and the printer will mix it up according to the exact formulas that pantone set out and it will come out the same as the swatch you original saw in your swatch book. this method is used all the time in printing. especialy for big comapnies who need/want the exact colours for their logos. sometimes they will even use spot colours as well as CMYK to get the exact match (if you convert spot to process it's never %100 accurate). making it a 5 or 6 colour job.

So basicaly you don't trust your screen becase it's going to be wrong unless you ahve some serious colour managment going on.

to match stuff that you can't really define with a colour swatch (like a photo or Illustration as compared to a background of solid colour or graphic element) you need to do some eye-balling as Suma put it.

but the best person to ask this stuff if your printer. they have all the answers



[This message has been edited by Rinaldo (edited March 30, 2001).]

[Dthind]

Sumaleth
Rinaldo,

THANKS ALOT for the information. I found that the printer uses different print processes 4, 6 and 8 color, based on the job. I am currently working on an 11x17 (inch) brochure, and I had never worked with CMYK conversions in a print process, so this has been the learning experience for me.

I printed him samples of the colors and brought them to him. I took some screen shots Photoshop so he could match them with his book. He was even confused by the Photoshop stuff.







Side note - Thanks Giant Hamster for the hosting !

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Blah...Blah...Blah 'Ginger'

[This message has been edited by Dthind (edited March 31, 2001).]