determining pantone color from an existing CMYK image 1

[alterna180]

hello all:

i am laying out a CD package. i designed the paper folder in PS, in
CMYK. the disc is going to be printed with pantone inks. i have a specific red color i used in the CMYK paper part, which i want to use as an ink on the disc. what is the best way to find the pantone color to match that red color i need? i printed a color-laser proof, but i don't think that is reliable to match w/ a pantone swatchbook. (not to mention, i ONLY have "solid chips uncoated" swatchbook.

i tried to find the matching color by comparing in illustrator, and the only reasonable match was in the pantone "solid matte" swatch palette. it is my understanding that "matte" would be for matte paper, and "coated" is for a glossy surface? (not positive on that one) would it be bad to select from "solid matte" if the ink will be printed on a plastic surface? i dont know what else to do at this point.

any suggestions?

 

[yoderman94]

When your in PS you can choose a color then go to the color picker, then custom. It should give you the panotone equivelent. Or you can look at the cmyk values and cross ref them with a process to spot swatch book. But the first would prob be easier.



Yoderman94.com

 

[jmgalvin]

In Photoshop CMTK you must use the Pantone Solid to Process library to match the Pantone Solids in Illustrator or Indesign.

The easy way to do the check is to create a new blank PS doc. Select a Pantone solid as the fill and save as tiff. Then start a new Illustrator (and/or InDesign) and draw a box and fill with the same Pantone solid. Now place the PS tiff, The color differecne will be seen by the eye. and the cmyk values will not match.

No go back to PS and use the Pantones Solid to Process swatches - use the same number as the Solid (the numbers are the same in both solid & solid to process - only the name suffix chabges). Till that, place in the ILL doc and you will see that it matches the color in the box you drew previously in the ILL doc. The cmyk values will now match.

To maintain fidelity, especialy when text is involved, it helps to create the PS doc at a high resolution. 600 dpi or more is nice. 1200 is nicer, especially with small fine text.