Convert CMYK or RGB to Pantone Colors | Illustrator 2024

If you are a brand or packaging designer, chances are there have been a few times when you've needed to convert your CMYK or RGB files to Pantone Colors for printing. Unfortunately, as of October 2023, the Pantone Color Books have been phased out of Adobe Illustrator. Because of this, the color conversion process is no longer as easy as it used to be. Luckily, there are a couple of workarounds for this, and in this Illustrator tutorial, we will look at both approaches so you will have print ready Pantones inside of Adobe Illustrator 2024!
As a bonus, I will also show you how to save your color swatches as well as how to import them to your swatches panel inside of Illustrator.
➡️ Download the Pantone Color Book Library Here
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Hey y'all, I'm Eric. I create in-depth design tutorials centered around entertainment, key art, and brand design. After 15 years in the 9-5 world, I recently transitioned to working for myself full-time and starting a design biz. I've worked for brands like SYFY, NBC, Lifetime, History, Discovery, and Major League Baseball.

[@dazzled790]

I honestly have been looking EVERYWHERE for a way to get the Pantone colours back, thank you so much!! SUPER HELPFUL!!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

@@dazzled790 thanks! I’m so glad you found the video to be helpful!

[@shannonvierra2145]

Thank you so much for this awesome vid! Literally a lifesaver. I forgot about the pantone severance in Adobe and now that it came time to export some cover art for printing, I thought oh no! Glad I came across this!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Thank you Shannon! I’m so glad that you found this video helpful and I greatly appreciate your support!!!

[@victoriageorgieva5067]

Ok I *very* rarely leave YT comments and I hate most tutorials I find online but that tutorial was GOLD!!! I can't thank you enough, you have a new subscriber!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Ah wow, thank you so much! I’m so glad that you found the video helpful and thank you for your comment and sub! I really appreciate it 😊

[@victoriageorgieva5067]

@@EricVasquezDesign I'm a small creator myself (although I use IG the most) so I know how much the follows and likes and comments mean! But also I really wanted to express how absolutely perfectly happy I am with this one! I absolutely never follow anyone through a tutorial here so it's something to comment on. Not to mention how you saved me yesterday when I had to match the Pantones on a packaging and suddenly the trusty Pantone books weren't there 😥

[@Graphicsofmaya]

thank you SO MUCH I am going to try this now

[@yoribokokim]

Thank you for the download link! super helpful !! it's so hard to get back the old version. I start subscribe your channel~

[@EricVasquezDesign]

@@yoribokokim my pleasure! I’m glad you found it helpful. Thanks for the sub!

[@bernettebecker1407]

Oh my goodness, so happy I found your video! LIFESAVER!!!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Thanks so much for the kind words!! I’m glad that the video helped!! 😊

[@mexkilo7]

Thank you for the awesome tip! As a designer/ screen-printer this is a life saver.

[@EricVasquezDesign]

My pleasure! I’m glad the video was helpful for you 😊 Also, screen printing is what made me fall in love with graphic design, so I have always had great appreciation for it! Are you doing screen printing on shirts/apparel? Or what kinds of things do you print on most?

[@silviaperezdeluis4122]

You sir are an absolute genius! Thanks for saving my day.

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Thank you Silvia! I appreciate the kind words, and I’m really glad the video helped! 😊

[@LindseyMeredith-ez7jr]

Thank you so much! just in time to help me with a branding project I need to prep.

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Thank you for checking out the video and leaving a comment! I’m so glad you found it to be helpful! 😊

[@IrisKauffman-s5h]

This helped me big time!! Thank you for making this video! Love It!!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

@@IrisKauffman-s5h my pleasure! I’m glad you found it helpful! 😊

[@dlwynnjr7260]

This worked perfectly!!! Thanks for sharing the video and thanks for the Pantone Color Books Download!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

My pleasure! I’m glad that it worked perfectly and that you found the video to be helpful! 😊

[@IliLugasi]

You are a king! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

No prob! Glad it helped!

[@rodrigosicheroli8456]

TKSS man!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

My pleasure! 😊

[@alicelengereau9277]

Ditto to all the comments below, thank you so much!

[@techbananas]

Thank you Sir, this was really helpful, even for a illustrator noob like myself!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

My pleasure! Glad it was helpful for you!

[@Rollrite]

You're a lifesaver, thanks for the library download link!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Glad I could help! 😊

[@stephaniehoffman7875]

Thank you so much! This was extremely helpful and really easy to follow.

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Thanks Stephanie! I’m so glad that you enjoyed the video and found it to be helpful and easy to follow! 😊

[@alirezabehzad5832]

Perfect video perfect tips perfect person

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Thank you so much for the kind words! 🙏

[@ED-tz9im]

Simple, efficace et très bien expliqué ! Merci beaucoup !

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Happy to help!

[@itpedjoakimberndes]

Thank you so much for a very useful video. Easy to understand. Great work, now you got a new follower. =)

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Thanks for checking out the video and for subscribing! I’m glad you found it to be useful!

[@actitudiguana]

Capo de todos los capos!!!! Me salvaste! Gracias por el archivo!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

No hay problema! Me alegro de poder ayudar! 😊

[@ThevVMarcusrsVv]

Great video! Thanks. Liked and subbed 😁

[@EricVasquezDesign]

@@ThevVMarcusrsVv thank you for the kind words and support! 👍

[@CoraCipriani]

You're the best! It worked! Thank you so much!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Glad it was helpful! 😊

[@marionpelz2051]

amazing - you saved me! Thanks so much!!!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Thanks Marion! I’m so glad the video helped! 😊

[@defneozak4383]

This was very helpful. Thanks

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Glad it was helpful!

[@sunnny119]

Thank you very much..soo helpful.🤍

[@EricVasquezDesign]

You’re welcome! I’m so glad that you found it to be helpful! 😊

[@jz3434]

3:06 Start video

[@designpalkii]

clientsaver! thanks a ton!

[@sashafilatova1289]

Thanks for your help!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Glad it helped!

[@Ddiananova]

Amazing, worked like a charm. Thank you!!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

My pleasure! I’m glad you found it to be helpful! 😃

[@razialaydrus1006]

THANK YOU FOR THIS! YOU'RE A STAR!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Thank you! I’m glad you found it to be helpful! 😊

[@bazacoughlan0]

legend, thanks Eric

[@EricVasquezDesign]

@@bazacoughlan0 my pleasure!

[@dada_is]

Hi. Which color profile and color settings I should set on a file to pass it to printing company so that they get that it's pantone?

[@EricVasquezDesign]

I think the best thing to do in this situation would be to connect with the printer or vendor you are working with directly. You could let them know you will be providing them with a file that has been converted to Pantone colors and ask if there is a specific color profile they’d like it to be in.

[@rjstevens-nb7um]

You a real one for this

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Thanks RJ! I appreciate you 👍

[@msotku]

Super and thanks a lot!!!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

My pleasure! Glad it was helpful! 😊

[@JamaicaFlores-vb9bl]

Thank you, you are just lovely.

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Thanks so much for the kind words! I hope you enjoyed the video! 😊

[@chingo318]

thank you very much.

[@EricVasquezDesign]

No prob! I hope it was helpful 😊

[@madeblo]

thank you

[@EricVasquezDesign]

My pleasure!

[@victoriamarques6109]

Thanks so much!!!!!!!!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

My pleasure! 👍

[@valsis]

Thank you for this! Kinda panicked for a second!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Glad you found it helpful! 😊

[@valsis]

@@EricVasquezDesign It was imensely helpful! I dont understand why Adobe phased these out without putting out a replacement.

[@EricVasquezDesign]

@@valsis I agree, although think the replacement Adobe had in mind was integrating the paid Pantone extension. Even so, $10 a month just to access colors feels like a bit much when we already pay a subscription for the apps themselves.

[@valsis]

@@EricVasquezDesign We shouldnt have to pay for something that was already native to the app to begin with. It's the same thing wiht AI Gen... it's locked through a paywall and I find this ridiculous.

[@EricVasquezDesign]

@@valsisyeah, I know what you mean. It’s definitely a pain since we got so used to having it all these years right? I was just happy to find a workaround for the colors. With the AI generative fill doesn’t that come built into Photoshop? Or is there another paid AI feature that they want us to pay for?

[@ANCLuke]

Hero

[@EllyKennedy-g2y]

Hi Eric! Thanks so much for this- Question- my older version 2023 illustrator doesn't seem to have all of the Pantone swatches anyway - Most of the colours chosen in our palette, after using the pantone physical books, aren't included in the Ai swatch books. Would you recommend the Pantone connect in this case?

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Thanks for your question! It sounds like the Pantone colors you are using aren’t in the Ai swatch books? I would try to install the color library first to see if you can find a match as it’s an amalgamation of all Pantone books from every previous version of Illustrator. There is also another tool called Logo Express Swatch which does a pretty bang up job of converting colors and finding matching Pantones. I will have a video about this soon!

[@555IMPULSE555]

Where are you getting these colors like PANTONE+ Solid Coated-V3 or PANTONE(R) F+H paper TPX-New Colors? Because I have never seen these on Illustrator

[@EricVasquezDesign]

These are in the master color book file that I showed in the video and linked in the description.

[@555IMPULSE555]

@@EricVasquezDesign Yes, but where did you get all these? Because I have downloaded an old version of Illustrator, but there was only 5 variations of PANTONE and all of them were basic... So I would like to know if these v3 and etc. are official or only created by someone using eyedropper tool?

[@PraneetJain-du5tl]

goat

[@hanniyuki5304]

🥳

[@AngelinaRoman-tr1me]

I can't find the swatches folder in the applications, is there another way?

[@EricVasquezDesign]

Once you are in the Applications folder you have to go to Adobe Illustrator and choose the ‘Presets’ folder. From there you can go to en US > Swatches > Color Books. Hope this helps!

[@malcolmrodrigues4317]

Where can I find the V3 version? I don't see this in the colour books.

[@servantofchrist381]

How do I get an older version of illustrator and do that?

[@EricVasquezDesign]

You can download older versions of Adobe Illustrator using the main Creative Cloud App. If you just need the Pantone Color Books and want to skip downloading an older version of Illustrator you can grab the library using the link in the description of the video. Hope this helps!

[@servantofchrist381]

@EricVasquezDesign it worked...thank you so much. Bless you in Jesus name.

[@jacobroddy5049]

Is Pantone TCX universal now? I'm used to Coated and Uncoated.

[@EricVasquezDesign]

@@jacobroddy5049 Pantone TCX is mainly used in the fashion industry where they will use cotton swatches for fabrics. Most print jobs are still using the coated and uncoated systems we are used to. Hope this helps!

[@eevagirl]

Hello, when I choose the 27.0 version it gives me the following (threatening?) message: Installing this version of Illustrator will disable the auto-update setting for this app to prevent overwriting with a new version in the future. Should I continue? Thanks for your help!

[@EricVasquezDesign]

This sounds like it may be a setting or preference issue where auto update is turned off to avoid overwriting older versions of Illustrator. If you install the 27.0 version, you should be able to re-enable the auto update setting in the CC app, or you can do a manual update later on. Hope this helps!

[@eevagirl]

@@EricVasquezDesign Ok thank you 🙏 Just needed some direction. Will check my settings (:

[@fancypants2007]

Illustrator 27.0 is the oldest version of Illustrator I can download from Creative Cloud, and it has only five Pantone color books. How did you get 24 Pantone color books?

[@EricVasquezDesign]

To get more of the Pantone Books you have to go back further to CS2 - CS3, which you can still download through Adobe as long as you have a valid license. I believe the link I provided should have all of them.

[@LissaEwing-pv4ud]

Can you convert RGB/CMYK using the free/basic version?

[@EricVasquezDesign]

I haven’t trier this with the free/basic version, but as long as it lets you add your own swatches and color books through the application folder then I believe it will work.

[@kamiegarczynski8426]

Is this just for mac or does it work the same way on a PC?

[@EricVasquezDesign]

I believe it will work on a PC as the extension should be the same since it’s still Adobe Illustrator, but the location of the folders where you need to save the color book file may be different because of the OS.

[@kamiegarczynski8426]

@@EricVasquezDesign ok thanks

[@unitedrealtygroupofficial]

how do we find pantone in photoshop? its completely gone now. like what???

[@EricVasquezDesign]

I know! It’s unfortunate that Adobe phased the Pantone books out in all of the apps. The process looks a little bit different in PS but can still be done in a similar way where you will need to load color books from an old version.

[@renekjaep]

Can someone here mail the pantone folder to me?

[@Gharaibeh]

thank you mister and fuck adobe

[@EricVasquezDesign]

You're welcome!

[@MrFFP-wc3ev]

thanks!!!!👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@EricVasquezDesign]

You're welcome! Happy to help!

[@STUDIO-wt9xj]

You are a king! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!