Morgan19

What color settings do you all use for PS? Currently I have:

CMYK-- US Web Coated (SWOP) v2
Adobe-- RGB (1998)

...and I've noticed that in CMYK mode, both CMYK colors from the picker and Pantone colors don't "exist" onscreen as what I chose in the first place. As an example, I cna make a new CMYK document, choose Pantone 354c, fill the document, and when I colodrop it, it comes up as Pantone 339c. Likewise, if I set up a CMYK color as 87,0,19,0 and do a fill, the colordropper picks up 87,0,19,0 but the filled color in the document looks a lot darker than the colorbox color. (Does that make sense?)

I've never noticed this before but I'm trying to match a Pantone color in Quark to an image that'll have part of that color, and I need them to match up. But if I choose the Pantone and it ends up switching to another, I'm afraid there'll be a definite line where the image and Quark color box meet. I know that PS won't "use" the Pantone but rather the CMYK equivalent, but to have it jump to another Pantone entry altogether after filling is slightly worrisome.

Sorry if this was confusing; I hope someone can make sense of it.

m19

Bacardi

The people who tought you to use Quark should have told you these basic facts:

1. You can NEVER and under no circumstances see anything on a monitor but RGB. RGB is a color mode, and in that color mode you have several working spaces, like SRGB and Adobe RGB. CMYK is typical for printers using ink, varying from professional offset printing presses to dekjet printers at home.

2. When Photoshop or any other app has to display CMYK on the monitor, it acts as if, and gives an approximation. The way it converts is by using the LAB color mode.

3. Because of the very limited number of hues that can be made with CMYK, so-called "spot" colors are created. These are pre-mixed inks, or inks that can be mixed from a basic set of ink colors. One of the better known sets is the pantone set. Because these colours serve to expand the CMYK range, there is NO WAY to print them using CMYK. The only way is to choose them in the Pantone Range guide books. It is also very important to choose the book that corresponds with the kind of paper one wishes to use as colours vay a lot on different papers.
So spot colors cannot be used or rendered on deskjet printers.

Pantone also has a book that shows the CMYK color that approximates most the different pantone trumatch colors. Once you have taken a brief look at this, you will never again try to print spot colours with CMYK And the professional printers with whom you work will be happy because for once they get a work that they don't have to change all the way.

If you want to work with professionals: be professional, and know your basics!

Morgan19

I wasn't really looking for a talking-down to...

My only question really was is the color PS is filling (yes, even CMYK) actually the same color I chose in the first place. That's it. I'm aware that CMYK doesn't show up well on-screen. I work with printers and know what they do or don't need. "The people who taught me Quark" have nothing to do with this. I have coated, uncoated, and halftone Pantone books and have made great use of them. Thanks.

Perhaps my question wasn't clear, then; hopefully someone else can answer it without giving me a "duh, you'd know that if you had even the most basic design skills" answer. When I choose certain colors from the picker (note: EVEN a CMYK color in a CMYK document), it'll fill/draw/etc. into the actual document a little off, and I wanted to know what color settings people had, or if anyone else encounters this on a regular basis.

I AM a professional designer, I DO work with professionals, and I simply had one oddity that I'd noticed and wanted a reassurance or answer, not a berating by someone who doesn't know all the info. Honestly, your last line and general tone of the reply was incredibly insulting.

m19