Is there a way to extract the pantone colors from a scanned image?

Question

I have this scanned image from a magazine that I have scanned myself, from this image I want to obtain certain colors, and I want them to be from a Pantone pallet, is there a way to do this? To be more clear I want to do something that this tool does: http://www.pantone.com/pages/products/product.aspx?pid=1032

Is there any kind software for this purpose ?

Answer 1

For total accuracy, you would have to use actual Pantone color swatches, as e100 says. If the magazine is more than a year or two old, then that level of accuracy becomes a bit academic because the original colors will have changed due to fading.

You can get "in the ballpark" fairly easily, though, with Photoshop.

• Open the scanned document in Photoshop.

• Sample the color you are interested in. (Be sure to set the sample size to 5x5 or greater, because you're probably sampling a scan of a CMYK screen. The largest sample size you can get away with is best.)

• Open the color swatch for editing in the Color Picker.

• Click on "Color Libraries" in the dialog. Color library (color book) swatches will replace the usual HSB color picker. The default is Pantone+ Solid Coated, but you can switch to any of the other color books.

Answer 2

No, I don't believe there is. Apart from anything else, the scan is an RGB abstraction of the actual printed colour.

What you would normally do is compare the original printed item with Pantone's own printed Colour Guides, and find a match by eye.

Additionally, if you are talking about a regular magazine page, I don't think the Pantone device would necessarily help in this situation, as magazine print will normally be CMYK process, i.e. made up of overlaid dots, rather than a solid colour, which I think the Pantone device is designed for.

A signature colour on the cover might well be a spot colour, though.