: Using the PANTONE official values when converting to CMYK? I'm not a graphic designer and I need some help regarding Pantone colors. Although I work in the design field my main job over the

@Kevin459

I assume you are printing digitally.

Pantone colors are a range of physical inks. They can't be achieved on ordinary digital printers just by selecting the right color in your software.

Many Pantone colors can't be reproduced with CMYK colors or in RGB. That's one of the reasons why they exist. They can even be fluorescent or metallic. To see how a Pantone color actually looks you need to have access to a physical color book with samples.

Although there are many new technologies, most printing devices are still using the four CMYK inks. They physically have four separate containers of ink. In order to truly print Pantone colors, the printer should be able to also use Pantone inks, which must be loaded into the printer.

The CMYK numbers on Pantone's page should be seen as a suggestion to the closest matching CMYK color. In reality it is more complex, since there are many different CMYK profiles for different devices in different regions. Converting from Pantone to CMYK in Adobe's applications might give you another result. There is no correct value.

Now to your case. You say you worked with HEX colors, so your document is probably in RGB. When you say that "the colors changed", do you mean that you saw it change from "good" to "bad" in Illustrator at the print shop or that the physical print differs from what you see on your screen at home? Or maybe you have a physical color book you compare with?

I haven't seen your files or your print, so it's hard to be any more precise. The guy at the print shop should be able to give some advice on how to achieve the colors you want.

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