Ask Ninja 06: Spot vs 4C
Ninja August 31st, 2007
Q: Do you know how to change a Pantone spot colour to CMYK in Adobe Illustrator?
A: Yes, I do. Huh, that was an easy question. Just kidding. ~___^ Here are the steps:
So you’ve chosen your spot colors. For this example, I picked PMS 550, PMS 3395, PMS 344, PMS 374, + PMS 389. Open your Swatches Palette (Window > Swatches) to view all the colors.
Click on the arrow in the upper right corner to bring up an additional drop down menu. Scroll + highlight the option “Select All Unused.”
Click on the trash can icon in the lower right of the palette. Whew, feels nice + tidy, huh? Now only the used colors are shown. In this case, they’re all Pantone colors.
Double-click on the name of the color in the Swatches Palette. A Swatch Options box will appear. Change the Color Mode from “Book Color” to “CMYK.” And change the Color Type from “Spot Color” to “Process Color.”
Continue down the list of colors + do the same.
After you’ve converted your colors to 4C (4-color process or CMYK), you’ll notice that the lil’ spot/dot next to the color’s name is gone. In it’s place is a small grey box. This means that you’ve succesffully converted your spot colors to 4-color process.
To revert back to your Pantone colors, simply double-click on the color in your Swatches Palette + change the settings back to the original settings. The small dot will reappear, indicating that they are now spot colors again.
Good luck,
Ninja
Got any more burning questions? Feel free to email me at ninja [at] ninjavspenguin [dot] com. Penguin is also available to answer questions, too! He can be reached at penguin [at] ninjavspenguin [dot] com. =)
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