bteifeld

Some external specification of color like the US Federal Highway Administration's traffic sign color specs are specified to three decimal places. Could we get floating point specification of L*a*b* color to at least five decimal places?

With apologies, I must withdraw what I said. I need to redo my observations based on looking at the Pantone Color Manager released D65/SRGB numbers.

As of the last released set of L*a*b*-based numbers for pantone fan decks provided through Pantone Color Manager, I can state clearly that the conversion to L*a*b* of the sRGB Affinity data does yield the SAME L*a*b* number that was provided by Pantone. If you are able to get online access to Pantone Connect at the access level where you can get individual L*a*b* numbers- you can also use these to define the Pantone colors for yourself in Affinity. On the general matter of spot colors in design and their interaction with design programs such as those provided by affinity, I would suggest that folks follow the advice of Ed Hagen in the information he provides at www.projectbbcg.guide, where he essentially encourages people to get a decent spectrophotometer, measure the color they want to work with as a spot color, and use the L*a*b* measurement to define the color.

RIP software companies can and do choose to license Pantone decks inclusive of the PMS and FHI color systems. Why has Serif chosen not to license the FHI color system information? And by the way- this is the page for viva magenta from pantone that discloses the L*a*b* for viva magenta: https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year/2023/designer-tools

Thank you. I found them and have installed them. They were under a drop-down identified as "Looking for Windows MSI Installers?".

Thank you for explaining all this. What I just learned is that the downloads are also MSIX versions- there does not seem to be an EXE installer available.

Thank you for your reply. Please tell me where it would be located in the case of the Windows MSIX installer.

I would suggest that you consider the thoughts and ideas in this book to guide future interactions with designers regarding spot/brand color: https://www.projectbbcg.guide/ and then get yourself a color measurement device like an Xrite i1pro2/i1pro3 or a Nix Spectro 2. Be sure that you and designers you work with calibrate and profile their monitors to assure you are seeing the best possible rendition of color. Have your designers always provide L*a*b* specification of color, ideally based on measurement of the sample they want, to assure best accuracy. All these steps will simplify things greatly in assuring that you and designers produce the color you intend.

I would like to know where the pantone libraries are stored under Affinity apps V2. My thanks in advance for what may be possible.

Actually you might be interested in knowing about GretagMacbeth Colorpicker and its lineal descendant, Colorlogic Colorant L. These tools are able to take an ICC profile associated with a given media/print process in combination with a L*a*b* definition of a spot color and produce an optimized ink build which in many(but not all) cases can hit the spot color very well. This makes having the L*a*b* data valuable as long you also have a proper ICC profile.

Thank you for your reply. I think we need to know from Serif what the reality of their licensing arrangement actually is.

I would like to know why Serif is not providing L*a*b*-based specifications for the swatches in each of the Pantone Decks it supplies with the Serif Applications. SRGB is an inferior and inaccurate representation of the swatches in some cases because the SRGB color space profile gamut CANNOT encompass all the swatch colors. Please consider ensuring that all Pantone swatch definitions are specified in L*a*b* as soon as possible. P.S. Providing the Cotton TCX and Paper TPG decks would be helpful.

The most reliable representation of any color in a named color/spot color system is its device independent L*a*b* value. Using an ASE file export from Pantone Color Manager, you can replace any fan deck included in the affinity applications with the L*a*b* representation. It might also ensure that you get a timely update of the pantone color of the year from the Cotton TCX deck if you need that.

PANTONE® USA | Software Download Pantone Color Manager can be downloaded from the link I have supplied. If you have an Xrite spectro like an i1 and/or a license for i1profiler, you can use Pantone Color Manager.

Pantone offers two ways to get correct color values(L*a*b* numbers) for all of their fan decks: Pantone Connect- www.pantone.com/connect Pantone Color Manager- for mac, https://www.pantone.com/media/downloads/software/Pantone_Color_Manager_Mac.zip and for pc- https://www.pantone.com/media/downloads/software/Pantone_Color_Manager_Windows.zip Pantone Color Manager requires that you own an X-Rite color measurement device , or order a license key in order for it to work. Although the website states that it cannot be ordered on the website, you can get a license key by making a phone-based order. The advantage of Pantone Color Manager is that it allows you to export the fan deck L*a*b* color values in a .ASE file, which Affinity applications can import as a palette of spot colors. If you are only trying to get a few spot colors, Pantone Connect can enable that for you. Be warned that L*a*b* color values may become a charged feature in the near future.