Hi, this is Anne with Graphic Design How To, and today we're going to talk about Pantone
colors: what they are, how to use them, and how to make a non-Pantone color into a Pantone
color.
First, a quick definition of Pantone colors and why they came to exist.
They're sort of a standard bunch of colors that Pantone, the company, created to solve
a problem.
And that problem was that a designer would choose a color for their project, and they
would send it off to a printer, the printer would print it but when the designer got it
back, they said, "Well, that's not the exact color I wanted."
So Pantone came up with a system.
They made a bunch of Pantone books full of different colors, and the designer can now
choose, let's say, red 125.
When they send that off to the printer and get something back, they can compare it to
this book and make sure that PMS 125 in the Pantone book matches what they received from
the printer and the printer also usually has a book, and they calibrate their machines
to match the color in the Pantone book.
And so Pantones are really useful because colors look different on different screens.
So when I design on my Mac, the colors that I use on my Mac are different than when I'm
seeing on a PC and even on a different Mac will look different.
And this also goes for a printer.
So if I print that document to a color printer, and then I print it to a different color printer,
those will not match.
A lot of times, Pantone color is just a standard color that everyone can agree that this PMS
number is the same across the board.
Pantone color books are actually really really expensive.
I do not own one myself, but my agency has some PMS color books.
If you're curious to know how much the PMS color books are, I left a link in the description.
It actually fluctuates quite a bit, so you can just take a look at that link.
The Pantone color system helps everyone agree on what a color is supposed to look like.
And it can be proven, because all the color books are the same.
Now if you own one of these color books, you're going to want to keep it in a really dark
place when you're not using it, because over time, those colors will fade if they're left
around in the light, and then your Pantone colors will no longer be true Pantones, and
you'll have to replace your book.
So how do you actually get Pantone colors into your artwork on the computer?
Well, a long time ago, Adobe saw the need to include the Pantone color books inside
their graphic design software.
So you don't have to do anything special to use the colors.
You just have to know how to get to them.
And I'm going to show you that next.
Okay, so the first thing we're going to do in Illustrator - I've got this little graphic
up here, and I want to take this blue color and change it to a Pantone color.
First, make sure your swatches panel is open.
You can go to Window > Swatches if you're not seeing it and then just click this little
button up here, and go to Open Swatch Library>Color Books.
And then it really depends which Pantone book you want to use.
But the one I always use is Pantone Solid Coated.
This depends on what kind of stock you're going to print on, but almost everything we
print at my job is like magazines and stuff like that, so it'll be solid coded.
And here are all of the Pantone colors in that color book.
So I'm going to View these as a list.
And now I can see the names of them.
And I think instead of this blue, I'm going to go ahead and change it to Pantone 1505.
And as you can see, it added Pantone 1505 over here in my swatches palette, and it's
as easy as that.
If your client's colors are, let's say, Pantone 125, you can just type it right here in the
search bar and it'll come up.
Okay, let's move on to Photoshop.
Photoshop handles Pantone colors a little differently than the other programs.
You can choose whatever color you want in your swatches palette, and then you'll need
to actually come over here and double click it.
And then we can go to Color Libraries.
I've already got Pantone Solid Coated up, but you can just choose that.
And now I'm going to choose...let's do this Pantone 191.
We'll say OK.
So I've got this part selected with my one tool, and I'll just hit Option Delete to fill
it.
And same thing over here, Option Delete to fill that.
And that's how you use Pantone colors in Photoshop.
Now moving on to InDesign.
I've got an ebook open right now and I'm just going to click on this background color.
In InDesign, you will also go into your swatches palette.
If that's not open, you can go to Window>Color and then Swatches and open it there.
Here you can just go to the flyout and go to New Color Swatch.
And then under Color Mode, you can go ahead and choose your Pantone Solid Coated.
And this will give you all of the same colors.
So we'll change this to....and that's not going to work.
Maybe a dark maroon, and say OK, and so you can see that it changed it and added the Pantone
swatch to your swatches palette.
So that's how to use it in all three of the main graphic design programs.
If you want to convert the colors on your screen to Pantone colors, the best way is
to actually just get a book and try to match that color with your screen.
But if you want to just do it quickly, Illustrator does have a feature that allows you to try
to match a certain non-Pantone with a Pantone color.
It's not going to be a perfect match.
So you always want to compare it to book later, but it'll be a good start.
So I'll show you how to do that now.
Okay, now I've got this Same graphic that I had before.
I'm using just CMYK swatches for this right now, but I want Illustrator to convert them
all to PMS colors.
So I'm going to select all - CMD A. And then we'll come right up here to the Recolor Artwork.
And from here, just click on this grid.
And now we can do Color Books and PMS Solid Coated and say OK.
So now Illustrator has figured out which Pantone colors are the best match for what we had.
And I'm just going to undo to show you what it was before.
So I'm redoing and undoing – it is a little bit different.
And if you want to get the best match, you really want to go with a Color Book here,
but this is a quick way to do it just on the fly.
I hope this video has really helped you learn what Pantone colors are and why they're useful
for graphic designers.
And if you like this video, please click on the Like button and I'll see you next Thursday
for another graphic design video.
Thank you!!!