Tuesday, June 25, 2013

How To Change CMYK To Pantone In Illustrator

Illustrator screen shot of recolor artwork
There's a few reasons for changing CMYK colors to Pantone. Sometimes you are given a color and need to know the Pantone equivalent or you want to make a tint of a color without losing opacity.

You select the object that you want to change.
Go to Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork
Illustrator screen shot of recolor artwork
Click on the box underneath the check mark for None in the photo. This limits the color groups to colors in the color swatch library.

Color Books > Pantone solid uncoated. You can choose any Pantone library you like, I prefer solid uncoated.
Illustrator screen shot of recolor artwork
 Click OK
Illustrator screen shot of swatch panel
You can now find the Pantone color in your Swatches panel.

To make a tint of the color, move the slider underneath the color bar (small triangle) or change the percentage.
3 rectangles that use negative space to resemble steps
Now you have a simple tint and if this is being sent off to a printer, it would be a one color job.

You also change the tinted areas back to CMYK for home printing by selecting the image and going to

Edit > Edit Colors > Convert to CMYK.

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