Getting Pantone Values for use in Print

Although this tutorial will teach you where and how to find Pantone colour refrences, it won't teach you the best way to configure your monitor to best display colours correctly. Because screen brightness, contrast and colour configuration on a monitor all affect how colours display, what one person will see compared with another and to how something will print all vary quite dramatically.

If you are planning on doing a lot of printing, it is highly recommended that you get your monitor professionally calibrated to display colours correctly. If you don't do a lot of printing then you should print tests first before committing to professional printing.

What you will need:

• Photoshop

1. In this tutorial we will be finding the Pantone value of a blue colour in the MCWare branding. Firstly click on the colour swatch and choose the colour you wish to find the value of. From within the 'color picker' window click on the 'color libraries' button.

2. The chances are that the wrong colour book will be selected when you enter the 'color library' window. To choose another colour book then click on the drop down box and select the correct option. The default Pantone color book is 'Pantone Solid Coated' unless you have been told to use something else specific.

3. Now you have selected the correct 'color book' you will see the Pantone value of the colour you have chosen. Because the Pantone color book contains only a set number of colours, Photoshop will select the colour closest to the one you have chosen. In this case the blue closest to the one in the MCWare brand is Pantone 297 C.