Tint Boxes

[10sacer]

Is there a tool, action or plugin that will allow you to take a built color and have it make separate boxes of user defined builds to make a tint scale?

For example - i have a build that is 50C, 40M, 30Y, 20K (this is just an example of numbers) - it doesn't match exactly what the customer has provided and there is not a Pantone that is close enough.

So I draw a 1x1 box in Illustrator and it has this build - what I want is a series of boxes next to it that is a decreasing or increasing series of values based on the original build. So the next box could be 50,40,30,29 and the next box would be 50,40,30,28 and so on. And each build would be labeled.

I can obviously do this manually, but would be great if there was a digital way to achieve this.

 

[marcsitkin]

In Illustrator there is a window that is called color guide. You can set a base color and it will generate a set of tints.

 

[qmr55]

Can you elaborate on this? This would be VERY helpful for test prints.

Thank you!

Press Shift+F3 and check it out. Do some tinkering with it. Read this!

 

[signswi]

In InDesign you can create tint swatches, which are highly useful. Say you have Pantone 640c and you do the whole design monochrome in tints...but at the end the client decides they want the whole thing in tints of Pantone 646c.

Add 646c to your swatch, delete 640c, when prompted for replacement choose 646c and BLAM, automagically all your tint swatches update to tints of 646c throughout your swatch and layout.

 

[10sacer]

I think I need to explain this better.

I have a set color I have to match.

none of the Pantione swatches i print are acceptable - some are close - but I need it to match.

So lets say PMS 542 is the closest match - what I want to be able to do automatically is to change the color to CMYK and start with the original CMYK build and have a series of 1x1 squares get generated that will gradually alter the build in predetermined increments for each color. I then need to print out these swatches and see if any of these non-standard colors are close enough.

I can do it all by hand in Illustrator - but I figured somewhere is a tool to do this for me.

 

[signswi]

If you have a semi-decent RIP there's probably this functionality built into it for exactly this purpose...

You can make a good 100+ alternate swatches in Illustrator by hand in maybe 60 seconds though so I'm not sure why you'd need a tool. Wouldn't be too hard to write an action to do it either.

 

[Gino]

It's called CATZper.

You input your so-called target color and this will give you 100 or so color variations in all directions. If none of these meet your requirements, pick the color closet and do it again coming up with another 100 or so colors. You eventually will find a match. This is a true time-saver. Also, by printing it out on your chosen printer will give you a perfect reproduction without any shifting of colors, because you performed it directly. Takes all the guess work out of the picture. [pun intended]

 

[10sacer]

Thank you Gino

 

[10sacer]

If you have a semi-decent RIP there's probably this functionality built into it for exactly this purpose...

You can make a good 100+ alternate swatches in Illustrator by hand in maybe 60 seconds though so I'm not sure why you'd need a tool. Wouldn't be too hard to write an action to do it either.

How would you do this with an action or by hand in 60 seconds since you have to manually type in color percentages in the color box to make the changes?

 

[signswi]

I guess you're a slow typer? Tab switches fields...

 

[J Hill Designs]

I still cant see making 100 different swatches in 1 min....

 

[Gene@mpls]

Press Shift+F3 and check it out. Do some tinkering with it. Read this!

Thanks for this! I am not very good with AI (learning what I need to, as
I need to do it ) is there an easy way to put those tints onto the work
surface to print them- I poked around and couldn't see a way. Thanks Gene