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by acomms 1323 days ago
I don't understand - in lieu of paying for a Pantone subscription, isn't the next best option to use RGB and just separately log what the final printed spot Pantone will be? Maybe I misunderstand why you dislike the hex equivalents chart.
2 comments
mceachen 1323 days ago
People saying “just convert to RGB” are kinda missing the point. RGB can’t be used for printing-typically you’ll send CMYK separations.

Unfortunately, the color gamut of CMYK is quite limited. If you have a print job that requires a very specific color, say, for your logo, it can be cheaper to order a black and spot color print run. If the color is out of gamut, you have to provide a spot color.

That spot color, at least in the US, was always specified in PANTONE.

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dangerface 1323 days ago
RGB is used for describing the colour of light if you are a web developer like me you will never need anything else. CMYK is used for printed colours that reflect light and as such there isn't a direct correlation between them.

For example RGB blue #0000ff is so bright it can not be printed, if you tried it would look a lot darker blue than the screen shows. This issue with printed colours looking different from screen space colours is that printed colours will also look different depending on the surface they are printed onto and a variety of other variable.

Your work around is fine for me as I work in RGB and would really only need the Pantone when im printing once every 5 years? If you are a print designer then you will be using the colours all day every day and having to switch or a reference that isn't exact results in expensive printing mistakes.

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