I have been working with print material for quite some time. This time I was designing a logo for a friend. It all started from here…
The original draft was created in PS. Did not think much, I just opened an RGB setting document and designed away… Friend loved the design at first sight…I moved forward, going on the biz card design…Another approval…
Upon the success of the process, I thought it was time to put the final logo into Vector, so opened the Illustrator I went…
There came the tragic, the blue I used in the PS turned into purplish blue… Everything looks out of order…Quickly turned the PS file into CMYK setting… Same ugly purple blue…Help!
In order to save some time, I called couple of my top notch design friends, asking advises on how to recreate this bright blue into CMYK setting… Not much help, they told me unless you use Pantone color, there would be no way to get some bright blue like this…
I researched and researched… Sent the friend a bunch of different blues for her to choose, nope, she was not happy with any of them…
Casually while we were talking, my friend told me she has a printer she has been using over the years, and she could discuss with him see if he can match the blue she wants. Eventually, she sent his information to me so I can speak with him…
By the time I got hold of the printer, he just simply told me: send me the Pantone color numbers and I will match that…
I was stunned… I was told that Pantone were commercially used, they are costly and most of the small printer/online printing don’t have such service. That is some interesting to hear…
Then it was the time to research how to get the correct Pantone color for the blue I wanted…
- Open desired the file in PS in RGB mode
- Use the color picker to find the blue, go to swatch and find the corresponding Pantone number from the pallet.
- In Illustrator, Open
following feature: Window -> Swatch Libraries -> Color Books -> Pick a Pantone Category -> Search the number you got from step 2 and add to Swatch. - Open the design in the same workspace, apply the new color to the design.
- When you look at the screen, it might not look like the blue you are looking for. Now, a miracle will happen if you save it in pdf 🙂