selecting pantone from existing CMYK image

[alterna180]

hello all:

i am developing an album cover. the paper is CMYK, the disc will be printed with pantone inks. the paper part is finished, and i have a distinct red color i would like to use as an ink on the disc.

i was unable to find a pantone "process coated" color to match the red i want. i was also unable ti find anything in the "solid coated" swatches. i am not very good with pantone, but from what i understand, "coated" means for printing on glossy surfaces? (not positive on that one)

i WAS able to find a VERY close match in the pantone "solid matte" swatches. does anyone know if this is safe to choose, even though the ink will be printed on a shiny, smooth surface? if i am matching the CMYK with the pantone color (by looking at my monitor) within adobe illustrator, is this a safe method? (because i don't have a way of printing the paper product and then matching w/ a pantone swatchbook.)

tips please! help!

[abertone]

Matching paper to your monitor is not an accurate way to predict the pantone color. You should have pantone libraries within Ilustrator in the windows menu. You can match color more accurately that way. Hope I understood your question correctly.

-ABertone

[lZakl]

Hello alterna180, and welcome wo WW!

First off, if you are using a "Pantone Kit" then you are headed in the right direction. No matter how calibrated your monitor is, you ALWAYS want to have a kit around to see what it will print like on paper. You will want a Pantone kit that gives you the CMYK values also. Some do not offer this. This is going to be the only way to predict the color output before sending your cover to the printers. As for solid matte versus coated, this is so that you can view your colors on gloss versus matte finish. The human eye will percieve these colors to be different, even though their physical propersties are the same. I own a set that contains Coated, Matte Coated, and Uncoated. I use the Pantone Reference Library myself, but the "Ultimate Survival Kit" Google It [google.com] will do you just fine as it gives the CMYK alternitives when you can't print solid color..

But like I said, what you are gong to need in your case, as it's going to print in CMYK, is a kit that tells you whether CMYK replication is even possible for the colors you are looking at. They are a little spendy, but wll worth it to see your colors come out almost exact.

So, get yourself a CMYK compatible kit, DON'T use your monitor, and feed the CMYK values into Illustrator or whatever program you are using. Try to never view Pantone colors on-screen and choose them from there, ALWAYS choose your colors from a kit!

Like I mentioned earlier though, coated vursus uncoated, DOES make a difference perceptually (albeit a minute difference), hence the fact they give you the gloss, matte and uncoted cards in a kit ;0)

-- Zak

[alterna180]

my problem is that i have already selected the CMYK color for the printed (paper) part. i need the pantone color for printing on the CD (plastic) part. essentially, going BACKwards in choosing my pantone, FROM the CMYK already chosen.