Matching PANTONE colors in ColorPicker
Matching PANTONE colors in ColorPicker
- Subject: Matching PANTONE colors in ColorPicker
- From: Marco Ugolini <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 00:31:42 -0700
Title: Matching PANTONE colors in ColorPicker
I am trying to work out the most accurate procedure possible to create CMYK palettes of PANTONE color equivalents using GretagMacbeth's ColorPicker in conjunction with a profiled printer (in my case, my own Epson 2200). My goal is to get the best possible matches possible among all the colors in the printer's profile working with CMYK files exclusively.
My goal is to find a way to provide designers with custom CMYK palettes that they can use in Illustrator or InDesign to achieve better PANTONE matches on a profiled printer in their studio than the ones they are currently getting.
I start by creating a palette of PANTONE colors in ColorPicker (an arbitrary number of 21 in my case, just to have a group of colors to play with), measured directly from my PANTONE swatchbook with my EyeOne Pro spectrophotometer. I name each sample, then save the palette (File -> Save As).
The next step is less clear-cut, but here is what I do: After the samples are measured and named in ColorPicker I open the ICC profile for US Web Coated SWOP v2, since this profile represents the most common CMYK standard in North America. My ColorPicker preferences are the ones strongly suggested by GretagMacbeth in the application's help file: LogoSync CMM, Delta E 2000 distance formula, and last but not least, an Absolute Colorimetric rendering intent.
I have to confess that if I use the AbsCol intent I get very lousy matches on my inkjet: the hues are often wrong, and the samples are overall too light. If I switch to RelCol, the results improve, specially the hues. And with Perceptual some of the colors present their best matches.
If I create a file with patches built from the standard Illustrator CMYK equivalents for my 21 PANTONE colors, put those together with patches derived from the values I measured in ColorPicker, and then print the file to my profiled printer and paper, the results are not exactly striking. The patches derived from my measurements do not appear much better than those from Illustrator's palette, at least not enough to wow anyone, specially if I try to use this as a promotional tool.
Is this the best I can achieve? Does anyone have any advice from personal experience with these same tools? I respectfully ask that you please limit your replies to what can be done to improve my use of ColorPicker. I am already very aware that very good PANTONE matches can be achieved with several RIPs on the market (Best, GMG), but here I am only interested in what can be done using ColorPicker to match PANTONE colors in a standardized CMYK environment in Illustrator or InDesign on a profiled printer, and most importantly WITHOUT a RIP.
Thanks in advance to anyone who will be so kind as to provide advice.
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Marco Ugolini
Mill Valley, CA
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