And you can send that file to other people who need to use those colors, they can easily upload those swatches into their Adobe applications.Īnd that is really powerful: instead of creating extensive brand guides (which are very often very, very flawed), a best practice is that brand owners create those ASE files, one per specific output type (coated, uncoated and this both for process and spot colors, plus web/sRGB, …), and make these available to everyone involved in the production of any kind of output that shows that precious brand color. If you have grouped them, you can export the entire group. You might not have noticed it, but you can export color swatches that you have created for a specific project, product, client. That might be the underlying reason for the breakup: a discussion about license fees…īut let’s look at how you can secure your brand colors after this breakup, even with less hassle and fewer errors than before! Adobe has something compelling in their applications, something that is underused and undervalued: color swatch exchanges via ASE-files. Pantone is a commercial company, so they want to make money with their colors, by selling color guides and licenses for digital libraries. ![]() But, the Pantone color guides are often used as a tool to choose a particular color for a design, which eventually will be printed with only process colors. The Pantone colors used in a design can be printed as a separate ink (in that case, they are spot colors). Pantone is a collection of colors, which first became available as printed samples (the color guides) and later as digital collections, with digital values in applications like Adobe Illustrator. That way, you really know what it will look like (in case you aren’t aware of it: printed color guides are not perfect, the deviation from the digital value might be higher than you would like). ![]() based on a measurement of a physical sample. There are multiple libraries for spot colors, and you can even create your own, e.g. Spot colors are often used in packaging: if you look at the print control bars on the package, you can see which colors are used. For every spot color, there will be a printing plate, they will be included as a separate ‘plate’ in the print-ready PDF. A spot color is a color that will be printed with a specific ink, it will not be printed with the standard print colors, the ‘process colors’ (CMYK, or in case of an extended color gamut, maybe CMYKOGV). I have the impression that some people think they are interchangeable, they are not. ASE files.įirst, we have to make something very clear: spot colors do not equal Pantone colors, and Pantone colors do not equal spot colors. ![]() IMPORTANT UPDATE (): if you care about brand colors and want to be independent from Pantone libraries, check the new Project BBCG – a Better Brand Color Guide! A free framework for rock-solid brand color definitions, more print-safe CMYK conversions and easy brand color exchange: using. But there is no need for that, there is a much better way to safeguard the precious brand colors! Here is how brand owners and designers should deal with the Adobe–Pantone breakup.ĬONTENTS: Spot color does not equal Pantone color | ASE files to the rescue! | But my secret brand color! | ASE: The easy way | ASE: The color geek way | Some examples | Why is this important? Which has made many people nervous, even very nervous. ![]() Later this year, these libraries will no longer be included in the updates of these Adobe applications. Designers, brand owners, and the like have heavily relied on the Pantone libraries in Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop.
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