The built in Apple color picker has a Pantone color picker built in! Go to the 150-Line (Pantone) from the swatches pallet tab. At least on Tiger... So you can use it in ANY application that uses the Apple color picker... TextEdit, Pages, MS Word, etc. It's a bit limited, but these applications don't really print spot colors anyway, with the exception of Pages (which I haven't tried).
And any application that can actually print a spot color, i.e., QuarkXPress, InDesign, Illustrator, etc., already has spot color library built in. Even Photoshop has it.
Other applications, such as MS Word, can't print spot colors and therefore something like this is only good for getting the approximate RGB simulation of the spot color. So it could be useful for getting the same look as a Pantone color, without actually using a spot color. But you could also just mix one by eye, since you are not really printing with a spot color. But as I pointed out, OS X already has this feature built in.
Many people are unclear as to what a spot color actually is, and when to use them or not use them... It's a premixed ink that is not made up from CMYK, and prints as its own plate, so an orange spot color is orange ink, and not yellow and magenta mixed ... and a four color job (CMYK) would not have any spot colors, even if you are using the same color as a spot color (it would be separated) but a 2 color job (black and PMS 185 red for instance) would. Got it? Good! :)
Version:
OS X already has this built in.
Feedback Type: Commentary
Contributed by: DavidRavenMoon Tuesday, August 29 2006 @ 09:17 AM PDT
Product Platform: MacOSX
Used Product For: Have Not Tried
Recommend Product: NO
Comments
OS X already has this built in. - rubaiyat
Where exactly in the Color Picker do you get the Pantone list?I looked in Tiger and found the ability to open color swatch files but what format are they and where do I locate them?
Also if Pages does spot colors, that is news to me. Again where and how?
I can create my own colors and probably with patience could recreate the Pantone set in CMYK/RGB/HSB, but what would make them work as spot colors in an cocoa app? Then how would I share them? Where are they stored?
Tuesday, November 07 2006 @ 09:41 AM PST
OS X already has this built in. - claidheamdanns
I too (using Tiger) have been unable to locate this mythical Pantone swatch library that you are referring to. I would love to know where it is.I speak as a 23 year veteran of the printing industry.
Friday, July 27 2007 @ 05:47 PM PDT
OS X already has this built in. - barney ntd
This isn't true. Yes, OS X can use swatch lists, and yes, the basic Pantone colour list is available in the correct format (though it's not included by default). But Spot Picker allows you to embed genuine spot colours in pdf output from many cocoa apps. For example, you can use Pantone metallics in omnigraffle, then either export to pdf and send it to a print shop, or drag to InDesign and do a colour separation: the colours will work correctly.Reply to This
Tuesday, August 29 2006 @ 10:57 AM PDT