Why is spec’d color so off in PS?

T
Posted By
TLL
Apr 15, 2008
Views
275
Replies
5
Status
Closed
OK, I did some quick graphic comps in PS using Pantone Coated 7421C as a fill color. Everyone loved it. Now its time to produce vector graphics and page layouts and the same 7421 in IL and ID is completely different than the PS one.

I’m using CS Design Premium and all the apps color preferences state that I’m "Synchronized", and yes everything is set the same in all of those dialogs. I want the PS 7421, not the lighter, ‘redder’ 7421 that shows up in the IL and ID. This is supposed to be a simple spot PMS color for a logo. And no, I did not spec the original PS color as a spot channel (never used this feature) since I’m not doing separations or anything out of PS – I just know it better than IL or ID and up until now trusted the color as it displayed.

I’m at a loss to understand how I can have a calibrated monitor and three Adobe apps that cannot show the same color the same way at their default "matched" settings…

Enlighten me
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BL
Bob Levine
Apr 15, 2008
Unless it was a duotone or spot channel (and you say it wasn’t) all you used was an RGB or CMYK equivalent. Since Illy and ID used the real spot, it’s no surprise that the colors don’t match.

Bob
T
TLL
Apr 15, 2008
Yeah, that’s what I’ve been told. But to be sooo off? Like 20-30% darker. There should be some kind of warning or something like a * behind all that synchro-color managed poop telling PS users all the extra hoops you need to jump through.

So, if I take those extra steps to make a spot channel. Will that PS 7421 look like the others on-screen?

Inquiring minds want to know
BL
Bob Levine
Apr 15, 2008
Create it as a grayscale and colorize it in InDesign or Illustrator.

There are some Pantones that can be matched very closely with process colors and others that are so far off you’d never know they were supposed to be the same.

Bob
PF
Peter_Figen
Apr 16, 2008
Even though your color settings are synchronized, I’m pretty sure the different apps are NOT using the same Lab definitions for the Pantone colors. That’s what is accounting for your color difference across apps. You simply need to spec the exact same CMYK mix in each app. If you are in fact using real Pantone spots and not four color equivalents, the final offset output will be the same, but probably not your inkjet prints, as they can’t separate out an extra channel.
BL
Bob Levine
Apr 16, 2008
Peter, the problem is that TLL WASN’T using the same colors. Spot in Illy and ID were used but the process equivalent is what was used in Photoshop.

Bob

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