Choosing a specific Pantone

[Wayne Gilbert]

How do I choose a specific Pantone in Flexi 10? There MUST be an easier way than to navigate through all the Pantones until I get to my needed Pantone number...

 

[RG]

There is no easier way in Flexi 11. Corel sure makes it easy.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

There is.

Go to the bottom of the flexi screen. Right click the swatch and click add new. Then go to the design central and open the color library. Select the new swatch you made and add all the pantone colors you want to it. Then all the pantones are now at the bottom of your screen. If you want to be able to scroll faster detach the swatch from the bottom of the screen and it will open it's own window with a scroll bar for easy finding. Hope this helps. Other then this I don't think there is an easier way.

 

[Wayne Gilbert]

There is no easier way in Flexi 11. Corel sure makes it easy.

Yes, Corel rules. Takes literally one second to choose a new Pantone. Even Illustrator is clumsy choosing Spots. I am not impressed with Flexi.

 

[Wayne Gilbert]

I'll try that - thanks

There is.

Go to the bottom of the flexi screen. Right click the swatch and click add new. Then go to the design central and open the color library. Select the new swatch you made and add all the pantone colors you want to it. Then all the pantones are now at the bottom of your screen. If you want to be able to scroll faster detach the swatch from the bottom of the screen and it will open it's own window with a scroll bar for easy finding. Hope this helps. Other then this I don't think there is an easier way.

I'll try that - thanks. Still not anywhere as easy as Corel, but better than nothing.

 

[Wayne Gilbert]

Tried - no cigar

There is.

Go to the bottom of the flexi screen. Right click the swatch and click add new. Then go to the design central and open the color library. Select the new swatch you made and add all the pantone colors you want to it. Then all the pantones are now at the bottom of your screen. If you want to be able to scroll faster detach the swatch from the bottom of the screen and it will open it's own window with a scroll bar for easy finding. Hope this helps. Other then this I don't think there is an easier way.

So, I tried your method you suggest - no cigar. I am using Flexi 10. Are you using Flexi 11? There is no "new" (only "New Table") and no "Color library" in "Design Central" in Flexi 10 - only "Color Mixer" as a seperate roll-up. Also, do you still have to navigate to your desired Pantone with your method? If so, how does this solve our Pantone dilema?

 

[Ponto]

All colors that you can use from your selected color tables can be viewed in the Fill / Stroke Editor.......quite fast to scroll through the "Fill" tab to select and change a current value........

JP

 

[Wayne Gilbert]

Tried that also - NOT "quite fast to scroll through"

All colors that you can use from your selected color tables can be viewed in the Fill / Stroke Editor.......quite fast to scroll through the "Fill" tab to select and change a current value........

JP

You still have to navigate through all the Pantones (sorted by color, not exactly numerical order). What a PAIN Flexi is (at least compared to Corel). There has GOT to be a way to find and apply specific Pantones or other Spots...

 

[vid]

LOL --- so now I know there are 4 of us that find choosing a Pantone color in Flexi is a chore. I thought it was just our shop of two designers and a production manager that were the only ones that struggled with that. Both the other designer and I are new to Flexi. We're just short of a year under our belt of working experience with the software. The production manager has 12 years of Flexi, but he doesn't care about PMS colors in the file. He just wants vector art and call-outs to get his work done.

As such, for fast access to PMS colors that we use for routine tasks (i.e: specific sign programs), we have PDF templates with swatches that we import into Flexi. It's stored in a shared location. We'll bring that in and then sample the colors with the eyedropper tool. I know, I know, we could build a swatch table for that, but we haven't gotten around to it. For anything that's not typical, I have a PDF file with swatch boxes on my desktop. I'll open it in Illustrator and quickly change one or more of those swatches to a PMS color of my choosing. I'll save it and then import that file into Flexi to sample the color. It's a work around that I find infinitely less frustrating than scrolling in Flexi. Perhaps something like that might be a work around for you.

On a side note:

Yes, Corel rules. Takes literally one second to choose a new Pantone. Even Illustrator is clumsy choosing Spots. I am not impressed with Flexi.

I'll admit that Illustrator clumsy choosing spots. It typically takes me 1.0001 seconds to chose a new Pantone. So in that respect, I'll concede that Corel is a far and away a superior design suite. ....buuuuuuuuut, I have fat fingers and I have to look at the number pad to type the selection in the find field of the swatch menu. Someone more nimble that I might be able to sway my opinion though.
​

Now, if someone could tell me how I can import type from Illustrator and have it not come in as curves, I'll buy them a pizza!

 

[Wayne Gilbert]

Better than nothing...

LOL --- so now I know there are 4 of us that find choosing a Pantone color in Flexi is a chore. I thought it was just our shop of two designers and a production manager that were the only ones that struggled with that. Both the other designer and I are new to Flexi. We're just short of a year under our belt of working experience with the software. The production manager has 12 years of Flexi, but he doesn't care about PMS colors in the file. He just wants vector art and call-outs to get his work done.

As such, for fast access to PMS colors that we use for routine tasks (i.e: specific sign programs), we have PDF templates with swatches that we import into Flexi. It's stored in a shared location. We'll bring that in and then sample the colors with the eyedropper tool. I know, I know, we could build a swatch table for that, but we haven't gotten around to it. For anything that's not typical, I have a PDF file with swatch boxes on my desktop. I'll open it in Illustrator and quickly change one or more of those swatches to a PMS color of my choosing. I'll save it and then import that file into Flexi to sample the color. It's a work around that I find infinitely less frustrating than scrolling in Flexi. Perhaps something like that might be a work around for you.

On a side note:

I'll admit that Illustrator clumsy choosing spots. It typically takes me 1.0001 seconds to chose a new Pantone. So in that respect, I'll concede that Corel is a far and away a superior design suite. ....buuuuuuuuut, I have fat fingers and I have to look at the number pad to type the selection in the find field of the swatch menu. Someone more nimble that I might be able to sway my opinion though.
​

Now, if someone could tell me how I can import type from Illustrator and have it not come in as curves, I'll buy them a pizza!

___

OK. Thanks. Your workaround is better than navigating through over a thousand Pantones. Could you upload your Pantone PDFs that you use for your workaround? That would be very helpful...

 

[Wayne Gilbert]

Importing text fro Illustrator into Flexi

For "Vid"

You can import text from Illustrator into Flexi by copying text from Illustrator to clipboard (Windows), then paste special > unfromatted text OR choose text tool in Flexi and paste. Unfortunately, the type will be unformatted (defaults to Arial). Not what you are looking for, I'm sure - so hold the anchovies and hold the pizza.

I'm still trying to figure out why the company I work at uses Flexi. I am NOT impressed with Flexi, whatsoever.

Can anyone think of any advantages of Flexi?

 

[Kwiksigns]

For "Vid"

Can anyone think of any advantages of Flexi?

It's node editing tools make vector editing/creating really fast. I can turn something into a vector and delete/add nodes, lines & curves extremely fast in flexi.

 

[signcrafters london]

I'm still using the lowly Flexi 8.5, but my Fill/Stroke editor lists Pantone colors numerically. The swatch table doesn't, but F/S editor does.

 

[Wayne Gilbert]

Node editing in Flexi

It's node editing tools make vector editing/creating really fast. I can turn something into a vector and delete/add nodes, lines & curves extremely fast in flexi.

Yes, but have you ever tried node editing in Corel? BLOWS AWAY Flexi for ease and quickness...

 

[Wayne Gilbert]

Better than the swatch table

I'm still using the lowly Flexi 8.5, but my Fill/Stroke editor lists Pantone colors numerically. The swatch table doesn't, but F/S editor does.

I've tried the Fill/Stroke editor and it is better than the swatch table, but you STILL have to navigate through the Pantones to find the specific Pantone you want to use.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

LOL --- so now I know there are 4 of us that find choosing a Pantone color in Flexi is a chore. I thought it was just our shop of two designers and a production manager that were the only ones that struggled with that. Both the other designer and I are new to Flexi. We're just short of a year under our belt of working experience with the software. The production manager has 12 years of Flexi, but he doesn't care about PMS colors in the file. He just wants vector art and call-outs to get his work done.

As such, for fast access to PMS colors that we use for routine tasks (i.e: specific sign programs), we have PDF templates with swatches that we import into Flexi. It's stored in a shared location. We'll bring that in and then sample the colors with the eyedropper tool. I know, I know, we could build a swatch table for that, but we haven't gotten around to it. For anything that's not typical, I have a PDF file with swatch boxes on my desktop. I'll open it in Illustrator and quickly change one or more of those swatches to a PMS color of my choosing. I'll save it and then import that file into Flexi to sample the color. It's a work around that I find infinitely less frustrating than scrolling in Flexi. Perhaps something like that might be a work around for you.

On a side note:

I'll admit that Illustrator clumsy choosing spots. It typically takes me 1.0001 seconds to chose a new Pantone. So in that respect, I'll concede that Corel is a far and away a superior design suite. ....buuuuuuuuut, I have fat fingers and I have to look at the number pad to type the selection in the find field of the swatch menu. Someone more nimble that I might be able to sway my opinion though.
​

Now, if someone could tell me how I can import type from Illustrator and have it not come in as curves, I'll buy them a pizza!

So why not just build a swatch table with all the colors in it. It takes like two seconds.

 

[eahicks]

So why not just build a swatch table with all the colors in it. It takes like two seconds.

Why would you build a table with all the colors when there already is a table with all the colors in it?

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Why would you build a table with all the colors when there already is a table with all the colors in it?

There is a Pantone Library. But it's not a swatch table at the bottom of your screen yet. If you make another swatch table and add the pantone library to it. All the pantone colors will appear on the bottom of your screen. So you could select object and just select color on the bottom to change it. I don't see how it can get easier then this. Never used anything but illustrator and flexi though. In my opinion I like flexis way better then illustrator.

 

[TonyC]

With the Pantone pallet open, you can click on the "name" tab at the top of the chart and it will sort the colors by numerical value.

I do this first thing when opening flexi every morning and it stays in the chosen order all day.

 

[Wayne Gilbert]

Pantone NAVIGATION, NOT ACCESS;finding specific Pantones & applying such to object(s)

Several of you are missing my point of this thread. Sure Flexi lists all the Pantones, but you still have to navigate through the library to get to the one you desire.

Yes, changing sort order to "name" is the best it is going to get in Flexi.

In CorelDRAW, you simply double-click the fill icon, choose the "palette" tab (defaulting to Pantone solid coated), type in the desired Pantone number, and hit OK. Applies that specific Pantone to your object(s). Takes 1-2 seconds to find and apply a Pantone. Flexi (and Illustrator) definitely need to add this feature to their applications. It's back to Corel ("Illustrator on Steroids") for me...

Thanks for trying, Everyone!