Pantone Plus ?

[Tony McD]

This is a double post....also in the General Software section.

Pantone Plus ?
I have an old Pantone Color guide 1000, and recently ordered the Pantone Plus to cmyk coated and uncoated guide.
The Pantone Plus guide came with Pantone Color Manager software.
I need a palette for use in Corel Draw....and wondering if this software will create this palette, or if there is somewhere to download one?

Thanks,
Tony

 

[rfulford]

Tony,
I hate to say it but I do not think this is the right book for you or our business in general. This book is a process guide for offset printing and not really meant for ink jet printing. As such, I think it will fall short for communicating color since most people will refer to the Pantone Formula Guide or Pantone Bridge Books. Also, the typical inkjet has a much larger gamut than offset. You can set your system up to match a CMYK Process color but most inkjets are capable of so much more. I think you will be more pleased with the results if you work with the Pantone Color Bridge and design in RGB.

PS...I should say however that it is always a good idea to use whichever book your customers use if you want to communicate color without being face to face.

 

[Rodi]

What are you trying to accomplish? Corel licenses the Pantone Library... Are you having issues matching Pantone colors? I know that there are some Pantone colors that have changed in their (to) process build, but you really ought not have any problems.

 

[Tony McD]

I don't have problems with my own printing.
I got this one to help match and get correct colors when ordering out business cards.
It has the cmyk values with each color, but the pantone numbers are different
than the corel palette I've always used, so I was looking for a new palette.

Thought I was getting what I needed....maybe not?

 

[Rodi]

This is such a good question. I wonder this all the time, how close is contract proofing? If I specify Pantone 296 (a very dark blue) and process it, how close to the pantone process build should it be? Then if it is off, who is the culprit? Is my particular printing really that necessary? If it is, I recommend buying a pantone book where you can rip at the perf and send it along. That is expensive, but worth it. So Corel has one process build for a Pantone color, who is to say it is wrong? It sounds so knitpickitty, and it is, but so is looking at color under different lighting.

OK, enough of the tirade, where are you getting your business cards printed? They may be getting by with "pleasing" color and not an exact match, sometimes you get what you pay for. If it is a Pantone color (separate channel) you may have some sort of recouse, but then sending chips works to communicate color.

 

[Tony McD]

I use 3 or 4 different online printers for b-cards.
99% of the time, the colors are right using my cmyk palette.
A couple months ago a customer wanted me to match the background color from his old business card. It was a deep burnt red. I matched it with my pantone book, and let corel do the conversion for me to cmyk. They came in too purple. Ordered them three times before getting the correct color. The final set was done in cmyk and adjusting color on my screen. What I see on my screen is usually pretty close to what I get....so this worked the best. I'm just trying to take the guesswork out of it, so I ordered this new pantone guide.
This was probably the pickiest customer I've ever had over color.
Now that I have found the right cmyk values for his color...I have it for next time.

The worst part is waiting a week for cards to come in, and hoping the color is correct.

 

[signswi]

Tony,
I hate to say it but I do not think this is the right book for you or our business in general. This book is a process guide for offset printing and not really meant for ink jet printing. As such, I think it will fall short for communicating color since most people will refer to the Pantone Formula Guide or Pantone Bridge Books. Also, the typical inkjet has a much larger gamut than offset. You can set your system up to match a CMYK Process color but most inkjets are capable of so much more. I think you will be more pleased with the results if you work with the Pantone Color Bridge and design in RGB.

PS...I should say however that it is always a good idea to use whichever book your customers use if you want to communicate color without being face to face.

Pantone Plus is the new set of extended Pantone swatches, there are Pantone Plus Bridge books, Formula Guides, etc...the difference is a whole crap load of new PMS colors. It'll be standard in no time, you can get the Pantone Plus swatches for Adobe products already online. It adds to and replaces the existing swatch books. They release major updates like this once or twice a decade.

http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/category.aspx?ca=1

 

[rfulford]

I don't have problems with my own printing.
I got this one to help match and get correct colors when ordering out business cards.
It has the cmyk values with each color, but the pantone numbers are different
than the corel palette I've always used, so I was looking for a new palette.

Thought I was getting what I needed....maybe not?

Sorry, in this case, this is probably exactly what you need. Assuming that your online printer has tight process control. Of course, the best answer as always is to check with the printer and see what book they want you to use.

 

[Tony McD]

The printer wants cmyk 4 color process.
If the online printers would send a cmyk chart in their sample kit, it would be easy to pick from their color chart.
I have color charts printed on my machines to "help me" hit the right colors here in my shop on my machines.
I suppose the new palette isn't totally necessary. Can match colors from this new chart, and just use the cmyk values next to that color.
Still would be nice to have a plus palette for corel, as all the numbers are different.