: CMYK to PANTONE differences between Illustrator and Photoshop I'm trying to find a way to match CMYK color to the closest PANTONE solid color. In Illustrator I use the "Recolor Artwork" dialog,

@Tiffany317

This is one of those bizarre problems, the answer to which is important, but fairly non-obvious.

Your best CMYK<>Pantone match is obtained not from the application, but using the Pantone Color Bridge book (not the software version in your applications). Truly. But I know we all like to do it in software, so here are the gotchas for AI and ID:

In Illustrator, the default Spot Color display is "Use CMYK values from manufacturer's process books." You'd think that would be cool, but it's not. In the Swatches panel flyout menu, select "Spot Colors" and change this to "Use LAB values specified by manufacturer." The color appearance on screen will be noticeably different, but will give you a much better match.

In InDesign, it's similar, but in a different place: From the Swatches panel flyout, select "Ink Manager" and turn on the "Use Standard Lab Values for Spots" checkbox.

Many a designer has been driven to drink or looking for bridges to jump off because their spot colors in PS, ID and AI all looked different. So I offer this in the spirit of preserving good peace of mind among colleagues everywhere... :-)

Vote Up Vote Down

@Michele215

Photoshop and Illustrator, despite both being from Adobe, are completely different applications. Variations are inevitable in most any situation. As to why they are different is a question only Adobe can (and will probably never) answer.

Your best best in this case is to use the conversion you like more, verify all colors with Pantone swatch books, and custom color swatches and styles to ensure alignment of colors across files and applications.

Vote Up Vote Down