Expert: Glen Demers - 12/10/2008

Question
Hello Glen! :) I am the Art Director for a small book packager in TX. I'm used
to working with Pantone colors, but now an artist has sent me her "wish list"
of Pantone colors for a particular book, and I don't recognize the format.
Instead of the usual "C" or "U" ending, the numbers are things like "14-0445"
or "16-6138." I've tried searching online for some sort of conversion (she
tells me she's looking at the following book: "The Pantone Book of Color,
Over 1000 Color Standards," published by Abrams in 1990.) I need to
translate those numbers into PMS colors that Photoshop will recognize; I tried
typing one in, but Photoshop doesn't know what to do with it! Can you help
me?

Answer
Hi Erica,

I did a quick search for the colors on Pantone.com to see what book they are from and the bad news is they're from the "Home + Fashion" color book.

Pantone offers free downloads for most of their paper color systems but does charge for more specialty ones such as  their Paints + Interiors and Home + Fashion color libraries.

Pantone offers their color libraries for download. Go to:
http://www.pantone.com/goefree
Select the library you want and look for the Digital Library download link.

It may be time for the artist to purchase a new color book specific to printing as the 18 year old book she's using may have faded or yellowed color swatches.

Hope this helps,
Glen Demers
Adobe Certified Expert, Photoshop 7
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

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