Conversion from CMYK to Pantone® code ?

[Pyanepsion]

Hello everyone,

My designer provides me with colours in CMYK values, but it appears that there are big differences in the tints depending on the printing subcontractor.

A video from Affinity explains that the Pantone codes should be used. Yes, but how do you get this Pantone code from CMYK?

Thank you for your explanations.

[Alfred]

Try this tool:

https://www.ginifab.com/feeds/pms/cmyk_to_pantone.php

[thomaso]

The differences of your print providers may vary because of different colour profiles. Once you know / have set the printing colour profile for your document you can compare your chosen Pantone colours with a CMYK equivalent by switching in the Colours Panel burger menu to Sliders > CMYK.

[Pyanepsion]

Both of these methods (one of the countless Internet tools, or choosing directly from the Affinity colour chart [it takes its values on Windows in C:\Program Files\Affinity\Publisher\Resources\Pantone]) may not be suitable, as there are too many choices.

Here is an example with a simple yellow CMYK 1 10 78 0. There must be a simpler and safer method ?

[lacerto]

6 hours ago, Pyanepsion said:

Yes, but how do you get this Pantone code from CMYK?

I do not think that this is generally the way to try to resolve this problem. E.g., CMYK color definitions themselves are profile dependent, and the equivalent spot color ink should also be selected based on media the job is going to be printed on (uncoated or coated stock). There are also factors that can change the appearance of PANTONE inks when printed. If you try the tool mentioned by @Alfred above -- as you already did -- you can see that many CMYK values entered in the tool produce a number of candidates (e.g. M45 Y100 will produce nine), that alone can have significant variance (possibly more than what you now have when printing in CMYK).

To use this method, you should at least use color managed CMYK values (or their sRGB conversions), and proper media library (PANTONE C or U), but if your production space is properly color managed, you should achieve far better results simply by printing in CMYK (and basically what you see, if your own environment is color managed). I would use special inks only in situations where it is important to produce e.g. brand colors that have initially already been defined in PANTONE.

(UPDATE: Apps like Photoshop and CorelDRAW have color managed spot color reverse lookups; if you let us know the CMYK target profile and the CMYK values to be converted, I can lookup the PANTONE inks these apps recommend for the given CMYK colors.)

[Old Bruce]

7 hours ago, Pyanepsion said:

My designer provides me with colours in CMYK values, but it appears that there are big differences in the tints depending on the printing subcontractor.

A video from Affinity explains that the Pantone codes should be used. Yes, but how do you get this Pantone code from CMYK?

I would use the CMYK values and check to see if everyone, both people and equipment, is using the same formats and profiles, from your designer thru yourself on to your printer.

As far as using Pantone you will need to answer these questions; Will the printer be able to use Pantone inks? Will you wind up with more than 4 (Pantone) spot colours? Is the printer going to use Pantone inks or a Pantone to CMYK conversion  which will most likely put you back at your first problem. How much of the problem is due to the paper stock?