Is there an accurate way to convert AutoCAD colours to CMYK??
Some crackpot client has specified certain colours he wants me to use for some printed material.
Before I tell him "it can't be done", any help from the STW massif would be gratefully received.
What does AutoCAD work in? RGB?
Can't you open AutoCAD work in Illustrator? I think you can. Then go to
file > document colour mode > CMYK
^^ wot binners said..
Nah. He's not supplied the work, just specified colours: 176, 84, 192 etc. I can convert them to their respective RGB recipes, but then converting them to CMYK makes them go "all wrong" technically speaking.
Hmm.
I would convert in Photoshop or Illustrator, but it isn't an exact science, especially when dealing with black.
Would something like [url= http://www.javascripter.net/faq/rgb2cmyk.htm ]this[/url] help?
Thurman - that thing you asked, in your original post. Is it actually a proper thing? I had no understanding of it whatsoever. Then again, I have little understanding of any forms of technology, I just use stuff and hope it doesnt break.
How complex is it? Can you open it in Illustrator and re-assign the correct CMYK values?
Can you open it in Illustrator and re-assign the correct CMYK values?
He's not supplied the work, just specified colours: 176, 84, 192 etc.
Google comes up with this
http://www.isctex.com/acadcolors.php
Which gives you RGB equivalents which can be converted to CMYK.
Probably a start...
Sorry - nothing like accurate enough. Converting 176 (which is a strong, bright blue) to RGB then CMYK gives it a 68% black value. Which just makes it go very dark grey when printed.
So he wants you to convert RGB to CMYK and have it represent accurately although he doesn't have the details of the CMYK equivalents?
Have you tried explaining that RGB and CMYK are entirely different colour spaces and RGB can make colours that are out of gamut for CMYK? (Ie, unachievable).
Have you tried explaining that RGB and CMYK are entirely different colour spaces and RGB
Many, many times. To almost *every* client ever.
Then he has to accept this then, yes?
I have had clients asking me to print to match to emulsion paint colour references.
😕
Surely the best you could possibly do is suggest you will make a manual change of all values to represent what is, in your opinion, the best match?
Hmm, according to my link, Autocad 176 is R0 G0 B104.
Using the colour picker in PhotoShop that translates as C100 M98 Y21 K30 which prints as a strong navy blue. But mastiles_fanylion is right, customer education is the way forward.
What I've done before, when forced into this particular corner, is to make 3 CMYK mixes of each RGB colour specified, then asked them to make a choice.
WOW! Things have moved on since I did my qualification in art and graphic design!
Do any designers know how to use a pen or a brush freehand these days?
What a luddite I am!
Do any designers know how to use a pen or a brush freehand these days?
I've heard rumours of these mystical things... 😉
Autocad has 'True Colours' TaB,
you could tell client to pick colours in that tab and read out RGB data from there- might work....
also, in the colour selection dialogue, hovering over colours reads out RGB values on the right...
Do any designers know how to use a pen or a brush freehand these days?
Why would you want to do that if you're just going to have to scan it in and trace over to remove errors and noise, when you could originate electronically in the first place ? 😉
Do any designers know how to use a pen or a brush freehand these days?
Yes I do thanks - I am quite confident I could pick up a Rotring, set square, CS10 board, scalpel, ruler and magic tape then set up fully separated colour artwork, all marked up correctly for a repro house to do Cromalins and posi film splits for the printers.
But as there are no repro house any more, nor printers that make plates from film, it would be a pointless exercise.
🙂
(It is a shame though - I used to love those days, taking a day to do something that can be done in minutes now)
Christ how old are you m_f?! Always pictured you as early 30's but if you were that experienced then you must be a good 10 years older than that. 🙂
Do any designers know how to use a pen or a brush freehand these days?
I'm a little wizz with the crayons 😉
Aaaaaaaah - I've gone all misty eyed for my old Rotrings
I've still got my old Rotrings tucked away in a cupboard somewhere!...
...and a contant reminder of the paste-up days with little flat-spot on the end of my finger where I whipped the end off with a scalpel when rushing! Luckily no blood got on the artwork!!
Muffin-man - I have the exact same scar. Wear it with pride 🙂
Christ how old are you m_f?! Always pictured you as early 30's but if you were that experienced then you must be a good 10 years older than that.
43 I think 😕 Don't look it though. I look 53.
I was one of the last few going from college into a world without computers - it was about a year or so in a commercial environment before I used one.
a world without computers?!
😯 does. not. compute. 😯
I'm in your age-range Mastiles. We were right at that cross-over point. When I was at Uni we had Macs but if we used them the course tutors would just automatically fail you, while making generally derogatory and disparaging remarks about everything this brave new world represented.
We, on the other hand saw the limitless potential for digital design being espoused by the likes of Neville Brody.
Guess who was right 🙂
Tell you what though, I do some tutoring at York College (2nd and 3rd year graphics degree students) and the quality of work/dedication from the majority of them is appalling. And they all have this 'must get on the computer' mentality and it is very difficult to get them to pick up a pencil and sketch out IDEAS.
My old course tutors favourite quote
"yes, yes.... but what's the CONCEPT!!!!!!"
He also used to say
"As graphic designers you are the very epitome of the slacker generation"
Guilty as charged m'lud
The ones now are - I am there giving my time FOR FREE, and they **** around on their mobiles and wander in and out.
Shameful really, but it's their lookout.
When I was at Uni we had Macs but if we used them the course tutors would just automatically fail you, while making generally derogatory and disparaging remarks about everything this brave new world represented.
Brilliant! 😀
I was just at that cross-over point at Uni: When I got there, there was one Mac tucked away in a side room. By the time Ieft, all the First-years had their own Workstations.
I was taught the old-fashioned way too: letterpress, illustration, photography, CRTronics, Chromalins, Letraset, hand-skills etc etc ... A Mac was just another 'tool'.
Anyhoo. I digress. Thanks for all the advice.
I'm getting a semi-on at the thought of Letraset and Rotring pens.
I really don't miss darkroom work - I used to spend hours on end without seeing daylight!
I once fell asleep in the darkroom after a big night out. I just used the assumption that anyone would have to knock before they came in and curled into a ball on the floor.
4 hours later...
A Mac was just another 'tool'.
A Mac [s]was [/s] [b]IS[/b] just another 'tool'.
A Mac [s]was[/s] [b]IS[/b] just another 'tool'.
That's what I meant 🙂 It was regarded as such back then, and so should it still be.
I wish the students nowadays would see that though.
Just last week I had a student complain that the sketch she did looked rubbish when she redrew it on the computer.
And these days their idea of developing an idea is changing the colour of type and putting it in a different face.
At a evening I went to in Edinburgh a few years ago, showing 111 years of designs for GF Smith, the speaker mistakenly (?) said "Adobe and Macs are now ruining design" instead of "Adobe and Macs are now running design". Oh how people laughed. 😐
Tis true though - all I ever see from the students I spend time with is an expectation that the computer will do it for them.