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After reading the answers to my previous questions, How does a monitor display the CMYK color? Is it actually showing the true CMYK color? I'm very much convinced that I need to profile my monitor if I'm choosing colors based upon what my monitor shows as CMYK. Even that wouldn't be ideal. The best way would be is to have the print of color chart from the printer I'm about to print.

I cannot buy those pantom color books. It would be cheaper for me if I could print the required part of color chart from that printer.

So, is there any freely available CMYK color chart that I can order for print?

EDIT: Actually, I found few.

http://customtattoos.net/cmyk.pdf

http://www.barcodegallery.com/v/resources/PMS_Colors.pdf

My main concern is can I trust these? They are pdf's I guess pdfs support CMYK profiles. If some one says, these are ok. Then I'll go a head and print these. If I'll get any other better suggestions. I'll stick with them.

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Is the final product going to be printed by yourself on your own computer, or are you going to have these printed at a printer on a printing press? If the former, you don't need anything specific. Just pick some colors on screen, print, and then tweak your screen to match what you printed. For the latter, you want to get this directly from your commercial printer. – DA01 Feb 23 '12 at 8:36
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I'm not going to print it directly on my printer. I'll have to print it from the press. – claws Feb 23 '12 at 8:53
In that case, I'd talk to your printer. They should have something for you. – DA01 Feb 23 '12 at 8:56

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Your first link, http://customtattoos.net/cmyk.pdf is a CMYK guide. The squares of colour are all CMYK in a logical order, so when printed on press (the author looks to be fine with it being used freely for any purpose) it'll make a decent guide to what you can expect. You could also make your own of course in Illustrator or Indesign, it would be a bit tedious though (and even more tedious in Photoshop).

The second link (which may well be copyrighted material) isn't quite the same thing. It is a Pantone (PMS) "bridge guide". The squares are CMYK, but they are intended to show the closest matches achievable in CMYK to each PMS colour. This can be useful if you need to convert or match PMS "spot" colour based artwork to CMYK.

One answer to the cost of running the job is to have it printed as a run-on (extra pages at the end of a live job), or parts of it in the margins. As Alan mentions, you should have a copy on both coated and uncoated paper.

Is this more hassle and cost than buying a CMYK guide off the shelf? Possibly not.

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up vote 2 down vote

The Catch 22 here is that anything soft, like a PDF, will show you a color on your screen, but you've no way of knowing whether what you print from it will accurately show what "real" CMYK off a press will look like. To make things worse, the appearance of printed on uncoated paper is different from the exact same ink (or combinations of inks) printed on coated stock.

If your budget won't stretch to a set of Pantone swatch books, you might still find a local printer who has an older one they're no longer using (Pantone recommend tossing after a year, to ensure that fading hasn't affected the accuracy of the swatches). They'd still be close enough for all but the most critical work. There's also Galaxy Gauge, whose products are inexpensive and include standard sheets with different CMYK percentages laid out in a grid for easy comparison. They also make graphic rulers and other tools that tend to be harder to find these days.

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I think you misunderstood me. I don't want to just pick colors from that pdf. I want to print that pdf from press and then pick colors from the printed copy based on how it looks on paper. So, I need color chart to order for printing. – claws Feb 23 '12 at 9:02
I think you misunderstood, Alan. You getting a one-off, full-color, job printed on a press using inks (not wax or toner form a laser printer or digital press) would be the only way to be accurate. The cost of such a project would be dramatically greater than investing in a Pantone Swatch Book as Alan suggested. Visit www.pantone.com and purchase a color guide. – Scott Feb 23 '12 at 9:28
He's intending to have it printed on press. And one answer to the cost is to have it printed as a run-on for a live job, or part sof it in the margins. I'll add to my answer. – e100 Feb 23 '12 at 9:38
@e100 That could get him in the ballpark. It would very much depend on how the press was set up for the "main" job that was running at the time. – Alan Gilbertson♦ Feb 23 '12 at 9:59

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