Illustrators "Recolor Artwork" feature for converting RGB/CMYK to Pantone.

[Dottonedan]

A lot of us Illustrator users will now be using the “Recolor Artwork” feature for converting RGB or CMYK color art files into pantone or custom spot colors.

There is nothing wrong with this if you are creating your own art and control what colors you use. Even when a customer sends in artwork and it needs converted to spot colors, the recolor artwork took is a quick fix. It can get convoluted if you happen to have a lot of various shades of color (and multiple main colors) but for the more simple stuff, it’s pretty easy and a good answer to your conversion problem. There are other methods and what one you use really is based on the complexity of the art. As it pertains to MATCHING colors as closely as possible, Recolor artwork is not the best method.



It’s best to hold up a pantone swatch book and manually or visually choose a color that matches closest to the original RGB artwork. RGB is where it’s at. This is what the customer had been looking at. Vibrant, rich colors. The Recolor Artwork engine  references color conversion from RGB (to CMYK) since Adobe Illustrator is assuming that most prints are going to be printed on paper in CMYK.  (THIS is where it gets flawed) with deeper color. It’s best to always try to match using a pantone swatch book while holding up to the screen next to the artwork.



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https://youtu.be/H-vDFltb0YA

[Sbrem]

I don't have time to dig in right now, but if I have to hold up a PMS swatch book to the monitor to pick the color, why might I use the recolor tool? Why not just assign the color from the swatch book? Just earlier I had a file that was black, white, and two shades of green. So, I clicked on one of the greens, and chose the Recolor Artwork tool, and saw nothing obvious. Oddly enough, I could find the RGB, CMYK and Hex numbers, but no PMS numbers from the branding guide, how odd. I'll check out the youtube video later...

Steve

[Dottonedan]

I don't have time to dig in right now, but if I have to hold up a PMS swatch book to the monitor to pick the color, why might I use the recolor tool? Why not just assign the color from the swatch book? Just earlier I had a file that was black, white, and two shades of green. So, I clicked on one of the greens, and chose the Recolor Artwork tool, and saw nothing obvious. Oddly enough, I could find the RGB, CMYK and Hex numbers, but no PMS numbers from the branding guide, how odd. I'll check out the youtube video later...

Steve

You wouldn’t.  That’s the thing. First suggested choice is to use the physical pantone swatch book. Some people just go with the recolor artwork tool and trust that. Here, I’m pointing out that it’s ok for a lot of things, but don’t trust it. The best way is to compare the visual of the on screen image, and use the pantone book swatches. Not the ones in the program.


This came to mind to make a vid on it due to a contract customer (who had a customer) that was a “graphics artist”. Initially, she didn’t even call out Pantones colors. Then, after paying for a sample, they then wanted to be sure we match certain pantone colors (brought on more so by the ASI contract customer) who also didn’t know much about color matches and what we can and cannot do. So she had her gal, pick Pantones using artwork recolor, and the blue called out was way off from the graphic artist’s colors provided. So I went into explaining that...and they doubted me, and paid for another sample...and then wanted it changed back to the original color I had picked. Well, there ya go. Why didn’t you jsut say you didn’t know about color picking and just let me do my job. LOL.


Don’t just fully reply on and trust the Recolor Artwork feature is all.