Pms trouble!

Hello,

My wife has given me some PANTONE numbers and wants me to display them on my color-profiled monitor so she can get an idea what they look like. I'm not entirely certain my display can show all PANTONE colors accurately, but I thought I'd give it a try, anyway. But here's the problem:

First, I don't entirely understand the numbers (I've never worked with PANTONE colors before). They are:
PANTONE 19-2311 TC, PANTONE 19-1664 TC, PANTONE 19-4227 TC, PANTONE 15-1515 TC.

I don't know what the 2-digit prefix followed by a dash means. All the PMS numbers I've seen are only 3 or 4 digits, no dash. Also, I don't understand the suffix. "U," "C," "M," these I get, but not "TC." Does the "C" part mean "coated"? Can I just find a solid coated color of the same number?

Secondly, I can't find any of these numbers (even without the prefix and the TC) in the Pantone libraries in Photoshop (CS3).

Any help, suggestions, enlightenment appreciated.

Thanks

Hi Michael,

I don't want to sound harsh but this info you could easily find on the net by using a search engine. It took me just a minute to find these links:
Find Pantone Colors
PANTONE numbering systems explained

Re. the TC, it says:

Color reference numbers in this system contain two digits followed by a dash and four digits with either a TPX or TC suffix. TPX indicates that that the reference was printed on paper, the TC indicates that it’s a dyed cotton reference. Each color also has an alpha name reference as a secondary identifier.

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HTH,

Thank you for the info. In fact, I did search the net, for considerably more than a minute, before asking the question here (my initial search was "understanding PANTONE numbers"), and did not turn up either of these sites (or missed them in the list if they were there).

So my next question is, is it possible to find a good approximation of these colors in PS's libraries? That is, if I strip off the prefix, can I use the 4 digits that are left to find a good match. My understanding is that the PMS numbers work that way: So, 185C and 185U represent the same color, but different formulas, one for coated and one for uncoated papers.

More to the point, since I can't find find these 4-digit numbers in PS's libraries, can I shorten these to 3 digit numbers that represent the same colors? I don't know if the PANTONE system works that way (1511 is the same color as 151, but for a different use?). Probably not, as 3 digits can't be enough to represent all the colors in the system.

Thanks again.

Because Pantone colors are ink on paper, the best you're going to get on a computer display is a rough approximation. If you wife is going to work with Pantone colors frequently, she should invest in a Pantone Reference Swatch Book. It will accurately show what the colors look like, when printed.

<Chas>

Thank you. I've more or less come to the conclusion that I can't even display a rough approximation, as the libraries I have don't seem to have these numbers. BTW, these numbers actually represent dyes on fabric. Possibly even harder to get a good representation on my display. Thanks for all the help, anyway.

Michael Seltzer said:

Thank you. I've more or less come to the conclusion that I can't even display a rough approximation, as the libraries I have don't seem to have these numbers. BTW, these numbers actually represent dyes on fabric. Possibly even harder to get a good representation on my display. Thanks for all the help, anyway.

Click to expand...

Hi Michael,

I'm no expert on Pantone either, but Chas' advice to get a Pantone Reference Swatch Book seem good to me, if the judgement/use is critical. There are always differences between a light emitting device such as a monitor display, and reflected color (under a given type of ambient lighting).

You could try the following link:
www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/colorfinder.aspx, but I don't know if the output patch is somehow colormanaged (to sRGB ?).

The closest approximation I could think of, is by taking a spectrometer (e.g. i1Xtreme) of a fabric sample and take a reading of the actual color, and display that on a colormanaged system. That of course only makes sense if the fabric sample is only available for a short period of time, and it's worth to invest in such equipment.

Bart

Hi Bart,

Thanks for the link. That will do fine for her purposes right now--it's not all that critical. She just wanted to see approximately what the colors look like and doesn't trust her own monitor to get close.