Hey all, I've been using CL, quite successfully for print for over a year now. I must say that CL has been a job/life saver because I generally suck at colors. I'm just curious how other print people utilize this website. I my self will FN+Shift+4 the color square (Mac) and drag it into In design, I drop the colors into individual boxes and then convert via that way. Colors more or less stay the same.

I usually download the .ASE file and import into InDesign's swatch panel.

It imports as RGB, Is there a way that it can be imported CMYK?

None that I'm aware of, needs to be switched manually in InDesign...

Actually, they WILL change. What you’re saying is you do a screen capture and then sample the colours.

First, you already know that in print, you are working in CMYK. When we create colour palettes on COLOURlovers, you are working in RGB.

The second thing is that not all colours convert from RGB to CMYK. The CMYK colour gamut (the number of colours that can be made in CMYK) exists WITHIN the RGB gamut and that there are far more colours that exist outside it. That means that sometimes, you will come across a colour that simply cannot be made in print. The more intense and bright the hue is, the less likely it can be converted properly. That's a general rule of thumb.

The proper way to convert any RGB colour to CMYK is by using the “Convert to Profile” command in PSD or AI.



If you look at this colour palette, none of these colours can be made in CMYK. Even when you convert to profile, it will change. PSD is telling you that these hues cannot be made by ink or paint.



When you convert it properly, it looks like this... It was converted to CMYK and then back to RGB because the uploader I was using can’t handle CMYK files. But you can try it yourself on the first image using Convert to Profile and you will get the exact same results. Drag these samples to your desktop and you'll see what I mean. They are larger than they appear here.

I've used Colourlovers for print as well, and I usually choose colors from the Pantone Process Color book that look like what I'm seeing on screen.