Using color charts downloaded from the web

I try to pride myself in being accurate in regards to my renderings of vehicles. Not just the emblems and other details, but also the stock colors offered by the manufacturers for the vehicles originally.
The only source I could come up with was googling color charts posted on the web by researchers, fanatics and other sources.

My question, though, is there any possible way I can obtain/achieve the actual color for my projects? I've noticed, by chance, that some of the color charts, after downloading them, don't aren't rendered spot on, i.e. I just tested my Nova SS in what the chart said was Tuxedo Black, but it showed almost like a dark maroon.

I'm guessing there is no perfect way of doing this, but I've been wrong on most of my guesses. So, I'm hoping someone out there has a solution.:)

ron

Ron - These color charts will give you the correct Hue but you will need to adjust the saturation and values as needed.

For Tuxedo Black specifically, THE PITTSBURGH & WEST VIRGINIA RAILWAY CO. used it as one of their colours, and have a colour conversion in the PDF document here

Thanks Gary!

Keith,
Are you saying that if I can import a chart in PDF format into Xara 12, I can use the eyedropper and it will give me an accurate color?

ron

Not quite where I was going, but it may work. What I was more referring to was that this page shows RGB etc. conversions. or that's the way I'm reading it ... probably wrongly.

Thanks Keith! I really appreciate your input!

Cheers,
ron

Hi Ron, I believe the problem is being caused by the colour source images you're using.

Although you posted the chart as a png it looks like the original was a jpg or other lossy image format.

It's hard to show in the forum so I'll try doing a video that may explain it better.

Back shortly...

It's hard to see so watch in full screen:

One of the needest things in Xara is a prof. ColourManagement like in Adobe or Corel or Serif's products.
The only way to get the right colours (not to view in Xara) for rgb/web output and for printing are rferences. For printing I use some Colour-Rference-Books with printing values to get the right colours in ex. for professional offset printing.
For bitmaps and for the www is the rgb space o.k. Remember there are browser they cann't handle colourmamangement. Otherwise not everybody has an calibrated enviroment. For CD (Coorporate Design)-Colours i use the hex-tables to choose my colours.

The „Simulate print colours”-Preview in XDP is a bad joke. The only way to control the Colour-Output (nearly the result you can get from the print shop) is via Adobe Acrobat Pro and a calibrate monitor.

@ the developers: pls. intergrate a functional Colour-Managemant in XDP! I wish it from my first experience with Xara on. Pls. see attached what I mean.

Servus from Germany, Ernie

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

It's hard to see so watch in full screen:

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THANKS SO MUCH ERIC!!!!!

That was really helpful. As everyone knows, I'm quite thick and need clear explanations to understand the mechanics of computers and software.
You're a pal to go to all that trouble.
ron

Ernie,
Thanks for your reply.
I just recently had a need to duplicate a color in RGB format but couldn't use Xara to do it, as Xara displays ONLY percentages rather than whole numbers. MS Word displays only whole numbers.
Why can't the developers for Xara provide both?
I use a little program called IconEdit which provides both, so why can't my favorite art program do so?
WHY????

There's a setting in Options to display colors as percentages or numbers.

It does need to be color-model aware. So when I use CMYK, it should display as percentages, but any of the RGB models should display as 0-255. It's been requested before.

Hi Ron,
You ca do it in Xara in the Option-Tab-Units.

I made a small video for You.
http://www.franta-net.de/ice_video_20160717-210941.mp4

if the stickers are still on your car there may be a standard 5 digit color code listed there. Those are more or less government based coding for paints.
IF you can find that and have it translated somehow to Hex coding you should be in business. Of course that would be your cars original paint color without all of the clear coats added afterward.