Dumb Illustrator Question
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- unknown
Under the window dropdown in the Swatch libraries, there are 3 sets of Pantone swatches.
Pantone Coated
Pantone Process
Pantone UncoatedAre these the same as in those really expensive books? And if so what is the point of buying the books if all the colors are built into Illustrator?
--End of stupid question *
- Noyz3190
yes those are the same as the books. but the point of the books is to see the what the colors actually look like printed in real life. everybody's monitor is calibrated different from the next man's, so the book is the only way to be precise.
- mayo0
and the books also give you something to show the client what the real color you are using. even if you printed out a sample for them, like your monitor, the printer's calibration could be off too.
- boog0
Pantone colors are actually becoming rather worthless in my experience.
Many print companies are moving over to Indigo/digital 4 color presses. No spot colors, no special inks.. just CMYK.
A lot of the bigger clients are actually demanding 4 color, and no Pantone spot stuff, since it costs a lot more to print with Pantone inks. British Airways, for example, abandoned their trademark blue on most of their promotional stuff for this reason.
- andy0
sorry to contradict you boog,
but1. spot colours allow precise co-ordination, and are more accurate to reproduce over various projects, printers, countries etc.
2. Some pantone colours are simply not reproducable in CMYK.
In particular mettallics and some reds/oranges.3. The perceived savings are only in some cases, a two colour pantone print run only requires 2 printing plates compared to 4 printing plates for the same in CMYK. Start-up times can be longer in cmyk, with increased registration problems (= waste)...
4. Any printer that wants to run your spot colours in CMYK is either: a. lazy b. in a rush (he can squeeze it in between other cmyk jobs) c. incompetent
5. true that most digital printers work only in cmyk, but traditional printing with computer-to-film or computer-to-plate offers similiar prices with far higher quality.
6. Black and white photography is only reproducable in my opinion in 2 / 3 or 4 pantone blacks.
ciao,
- boog0
andy, I don't think you're contradicting me, because I know everything you've said is spot on.
I dunno if it's a UK thing, but it's my experience that many print shops are going over to full digital, which means the loss of spot colour.
A cpl of the big London ad agencies have even got their own digital presses inhouse now so they can run out the smaller-run promo items by themselves. This has hit regular printers in London quite a bit.
The print shop I work for from time to time has gone to all digital, and spot is out the window. If anyone needs spots or Pantone (hardly anyone does now since they'd rather pay £1000 for crap than £1200 for excellence) it's just shipped out to another printer.
All opinions welcomed.
- andy0
yep, i hear what your saying boog.
starting to hit the market here also (north italy) but ultimately i have to believe in (read yell and scream in meetings) that quality pays. some smaller printruns and quick turnover jobs benefit from digital but i think it's confusing the market. especially since clients are not getting if you work in digital as photography, pre-press, plates, or printing ...they just have this impression that it saves them money - but in my experience they end up with a product that doesn't live up to their expectations.sigh.
some printers are handling it all responsably though, eg. Navaweb. in milan
- hydroseven40
naw, not a dumb question. one thing you can do is hit a bookstore. in the graphic design section there are some books that are all about pantones. some great things. don't trust your monitor. i just checked out some pantones on a different computer and they looked dull and shitty. i would search around, maybe put up a post for someone looking to sell their old set of pantones cheap. unless you want to drop 30-60 bucks for each set. crazy
- unknown0
digital printing is only usable for relatively small runs, branding will (or should at least) always have a set pantone colour and cmyk breakdown.
- unknown0
coated / uncoated, shows how the ink looks printed on coated/uncoated stock.
As for price it doesn't necessarily affect it that much, I just sent a 16pg booklet to print (10,000 run) and it cost us an extra £60 to have a fifth colour rather than make do with a four colour breakdown of it.