Autumn – the season of spectacular hues and saturated shades. Whether you’re taking a walk in the park or driving past the endless rows of colorful trees, it’s hard to not notice the beauty of the season (even in southern California!).
We’re inspired by the color transition of the leaves amidst a dark, colored sky. And our favorite colors? Warm oranges and dark greens, and a popular color of the season – “Brandy Wine.”
But getting that perfect color takes a little bit of planning and study. We know that many of you may have a popular Pantone spot color in mind, and are looking to find the equivalent CMYK values for your next print run. With that in mind, we’ve gathered a few of our top tips for getting that right palette for your print projects, straight from our quality experts at GotPrint:
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We always recommend that you choose your color from an actual paper chart (such as the Pantone color bridge guide, that shows the equivalent CMYK values) in order to make the best match possible. Just be sure to choose the coated or uncoated guide, depending on the paper you will be printing on. Since paper charts are printed with ink, they are a better indication of the final hue than digital charts.
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When choosing your color values, keep in mind that a CMYK file that puts a solid amount of ink (particularly dark ink) on all four color plates will saturate the paper and offset (an industry term for the unwanted transfer of wet ink from a printed sheet to another surface that comes into contact with the sheet). Although offsetting occurs mostly with uncoated stocks, it’s a good idea to ensure that the maximum amount of ink for your files is 300% or lower.
- Converting your files from Pantone spot colors to CMYK process colors may cause a color shift, due to the fact that spot colors are not supported by CMYK. For this reason, we recommend using CMYK process colors to begin with, and if converting from Pantone spot colors to CMYK, that you make any necessary adjustments to your color after the conversion. It’s a good idea to first check a Pantone to Process swatch book to see what your colors will look like once printed in CMYK.
You can find our complete guide to color, as well as instructions for color mode conversions here.
