Hex or RGB to Pantone

[Rik]

Does anyone know how to convert Hex values or RGB values in Xara, to Pantone numbers?

I've never had to look at this before.
But, now, having designed a logo, I assume that I will need to provide Pantone colour numbers etc...

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

[gwpriester]

The best way to do this is to buy a Pantone swatch book and use the actual printed Pantone colors to make your choice. (See here for an explanation http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/color...ntonebooks.htm). Pantone spot colors are especially mixed ink formulas that can be used by any printer in the world to mix a specific color. And if you select a color from the swatch book or fan book that comes close to your screen color then you have a combination that will look the same on the web as in print.

Pantone swatch books are not cheap, however. But picking a color on the screen is very inaccurate.

[mwenz]

Back up a second.

How will the client (whether it is yourself or another) going to have work printed? Offset or digitally (digital presses generally use CMYK), on locally connect printers--what type of local printers?

What are the color numbers? Can you provide just a drawing with boxes filled with the colors?

[mwenz]

BTW, there are several charts on-line. One such is here:
http://www.labelpartners.com/pantone_coated_table.html

But take them with a grain of salt. I think you would find that some will actually produce the same (or similar/close enough) result as using AI, ID, or what not to check the conversion value/ink name. But more are off. Which is why a sample file of the color(s) used would be good.

[Rik]

This really is a case of, "I don't know what I don't know."
That's why I'm trying to get advice from you Xperts.

As requested, I have attached a pic, where you can see that I've tried to do work on this.

My question would be; are my Pantone colour numbers correct.
This is according to stuff I've been able to find on the Internet.

Thanks so far, Mike and Gary.
Any and all advice would be appreciated.

EDIT: Thanks a lot for that link Mike. That's the sort of thing I was trying to find.
Having attached a pic, I hope you can check for me if my work on the Pantone numbers is correct or not?

EDIT Again: Going by the link you gave in Post #4, I checked the Red and I can see that Pantone 1795 is not correct.

[mwenz]

Sorry. I was actually requesting an Xara file. But no worries.

This is where a swatch book would pay off as Gary mentions. If you are going to use any design application--especially a non-color managed application like Xara products--a swatch book is a must. Not only for Pantone colors (or whatever solid color model) but also for CMYK values. Pantone books are spendy. There are good alternatives for the CMYK swatch books. In both cases, one ought to pick up color swatch books for both coated and uncoated paper.

And there are assumptions that need answered. For instance, you live in the UK. Assumptions like:

1. Your customer also lives in the UK.
2. This logo will end up printed in the UK.
3. This logo will be output professionally and on local, non-color-managed printers (like consumer-level office printers).

Let's pick on #2. This means that likely the color profile used for print-ready art in the form of PDFs will be using a FOGRA profile. But which one? It does make a difference for the CMYK values--and RGB values when printed using consumer printers and web-use PDFs. Fun stuff, huh?

I didn't take the time to cross-reference the RGB/Hex values. I can, but the FOGRA or other output intent is really needed. As well, whether this is even going to be printed using Pantone colors anyway.

Here is a screen shot attached. The middle column is actually correct *if* your CMYK numbers are correct. I suspect they are not. The screen shot is from inside XDP--a non-color managed software.

Mike

[Rik]

Another question.

If I put in the Hex values into PhotoShop, then I get different RGB values.
So, is Xara's %, different to Photoshop RGB values?

e.g. # 2e2e2e
Xara gives: R: 18% G: 18% B: 18%
PhotoShop: R: 46 G: 46 B:46

And the CMYK values are different in PhotoShop as well.

EDIT: Thanks for the reply Mike. I need a Pantone Swatch and a CMYK Swatch.
OK. Is there one swatch that would do that or will I need to purchase two?

[mwenz]

Change Xara to use 0-255 values instead of percentages.

Also, concerning xara's inability to display pantone colors accurately when the pantone is outside displayable rgb (what the monitor uses) values...some of the pantones used here cannot be accurately displayed in rgb. This is why that middle column looks wrong onscreen and in the resultant PDF. If Xara used LAB values it would display pretty accurately. One has to trust the output and check the PDF in acrobat.

[mwenz]

BTW, setting the units to 0-255 mucks up using CMYK numbers for anyone following along in this thread.

Xara, among other things, needs to allow this setting per color model (aside from adding LAB as a color model and using it for Pantone use)...

[mwenz]

...EDIT: Thanks for the reply Mike. I need a Pantone Swatch and a CMYK Swatch.
OK. Is there one swatch that would do that or will I need to purchase two?

For CMYK books (both coated and uncoated) I typically recommend (and I use) Tintbooks' CMYK books:
http://www.tintbooks.com

For the Pantone colors, there are many, many to choose from because there are many, many Pantone color swatches available. They are spendy, go to Pantone's web site.

Pantone also sells a software, Pantone Color Manager. While you can look up Pantones by color number and it includes every Pantone swatch, one cannot look up by RGB, HEX nor CMYK. It can display those numbers, however. I have attached a screen shot for the middle column's red color.

Your red has CMYK values of 0, 95.7, 100, 0
The Pantone shown in the screen shot has values of 0, 96, 100, 0

Mike