Dave wrote us,
How do you change a Pantone color name in InDesign? We’re trying to change the name and it’s locked.
It’s pretty simple. After you create the Pantone swatch, change the Color Mode dropdown menu from “Pantone [whatever]” to CMYK. You can leave the Color Type set at Spot. Once it’s in CMYK mode, the field is unlocked, and you can rename it.
Updated Jan. 5, 2023
This article was last modified on January 5, 2023
This article was first published on September 21, 2006
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I notice in InDesign that I cannot remove a pantone color from the swatch pallete. It won’t let me trash it or change it? How can I fix this?
Anne-Marie, (vers. 3.0.1) I exported to .inx and reopened and then everything worked the way it was supposed to. I was able to click on all unsed colors and delete them without incident. Hopefully this will solve Dave’s problem as well. Thanks for the suggestion! Much appreciated.
Marc, which version of ID?
If you have nothing in your layout, and you choose Select All Unused (swatches), what’s supposed to happen is that all the swatches highlight except for the ones in brackets (Paper, e.g.). If some additional non-bracketed colors are unhighlighted, that usually means a style (object, paragraph, character) requires them.
But you’re saying the colors *are* highlighting. Sounds like a bit of document corruption. Did you try exporting to .inx and reopening?
I too have the same problem as Dave. Just to make sure the color swatches I was trying to Delete weren’t contained in a linked object, I deleted everything from all layers of all pages so that the document was totally blank. But what happens when I try to delete the swatches, the icon for the trash is grayed out and unselectable. Additionally, when I choose the “Select all unused” from the drop down menu in the Swatch dialog box, it selcts all of these swatches that I can’t delete. I can send you this blank file containing all the swatches that won’t delete if you like. Thanks for the help!
Dave … if the PMS spot is used in a placed image, ID won’t let you delete it or rename it for obvious reasons. However it will let you change the Color Type (from Spot to Process). The Color Mode — the second dropdown menu in the Swatch Options dialog box — is normally “locked” into CMYK for PMS spot colors in linked images.
So I’m not sure what you mean when you say you were able to change the Mode to CMYK. It should already be that, if the color is used in a placed graphic. (Which I’m assuming, since you can’t delete it.)
If the PMS spot color exists only in native ID objects or text, the Color Mode will be the Pantone library name you originally chose from the dropdown, and can be changed to any other swatch library or CMYK or RGB etc. that’s available from the same dropdown menu. If you change it to CMYK, RGB or Lab, you can drag the color sliders to change the mix and you can rename the color. That’s what I was referring to in the post.
Also, you can delete these kind of Pantone spot colors (only used in native objects) … you’ll get a prompt asking which Swatch you want to use in its place, or an offer to convert it to an Unnamed Swatch.
HOWEVER … if you created the spot Pantone color in ID, then later placed an image using that same color, the rules for incoming spots “trumps” those for native-only. That is, you can no longer change the Color Mode from one Pantone library to another. It’s locked into CMYK mode. You can not change the name of the color or its mix. The Color Type, though, can be still be changed from Spot to Process.
Does this help you solve your/your colleagues’ mystery?
Strange, but when I double click on a PMS colour in the palette, I can change the mode to CMYK, but I cant change the mix or the name. Also I am unable to delete PMS colour from my palette, I can duplicate and delete, but I cant delte the original. All my colleagues have the same problem with CS@ and CS
It’s stupid, I want to apply a CMYK color and have to go for RGB.. BAH! F… this! Back to Quark
E-Dogg, it is not your imagination; that’s how it works.
One thing you could do is shift-click all the Pantone colors you want and click Add, that’ll add them all at once to your Swatches palette.
Is it just my imagination or does InDesign NOT work with color libraries as PS and IL do (That wouldn’t make much sense, now WOULD it?). Is my copy corrupt or can you NOT just have the entire PMS library of your choice OPEN at your disposal as you can within IL and PS? Do you REALLY have to create a single new swatch, then pick your color and repeat ad nauseum? SURELY that can’t be right…
If you want change pantone colour in colour pallet. JJast double click the pantone colour. you can get swatch options. go to colour mode choose CMYK. now swatch name displayed in top. you can change colour name. Eg.. spot UV, Dye cut etc…
edgar: the lock means that the colour is in the embeded image (e.g. logo).
Help…
How can I change/delete a swatch when it is locked?
Edgar, I don’t recall any way to globally search and replace colors in QuarkXPress. Rather, you’d do it in InDesign the same way as in QX: Just redefine the color swatch to the new color. Or you can delete the currently-used color swatch and when it asks what to replace it with, choose the new swatch.
how can you change a color globaly; instead of selecting each object or dragging the swathes. is there a way to select same color in the entire document, like in illustrater & quark
This is actually the methodology we use in my office when it comes to quickly picking out a color based on cmyk values. Thierry’s one smart cookie!
Clicking the Color Libraries button in the Photoshop Color Picker dialog box will give a very approximate guess for the PMS we’re looking for — at that point, i I’m able to zero in on the color I want from my swatch book in my hand.
Anne-Marie, I agree with you. It is just a quick and easy tip and it is more usefull when you want to find a Pantone corresponding to a given combination of CMYK inks than to really choose the best color for a job. I am so convinced of this that I made a special CMYK swatchbook for my trainees (we have a 4-colors press in our training center). It is intended to help them for color correction work or when they have to choose a color.
Thierry, that’s a great solution! InDesign doesn’t have the Pantone libraries available in its own color picker (accessible via a double-click on the Fill/Stroke icon).
But I also agree with Tim … the best way to choose a printing color is to use a printed swatch book. In Tina’s situation, you should compare a printed swatch of the CMYK color the boss wants (from a CMYK swatch book like TruMatch or from a sample in an actual printed piece) to the Pantone solid color swatch book.
The Pantone “spot to process” books are not as useful here because you really need a “process to spot” one.
An easy way to find a Pantone corresponding to a CMYK color is to click on the foreground color icon in the tools palette of Photoshop, to type the values of cyan, magenta, yellow and black and then to click on the button “color libraries” (I am not sure about this name. It is called “bibliothèques de couleurs” in my french version of Photoshop) and finally choose the right color library (Pantone solid coated, Pantone solid to process coated EURO if you are in Europe or in a country using Eurostandard CMYK inks..). It is very simple but I don’t know if a similar operation is possible in InDesign).
Perhaps the easiest way is to use a Pantone book, then you can actually see the colours for real rather than using an onscreen version which will never be 100% correct.
Is there any easy way to go from a CMYK colour to its closest Pantone? My boss often chooses CMYK but the printer wants a Pantone for printing endpapers.
There’s an important lesson here: Just because you’re using Pantone (or any non-process ink set) colors, you don’t have to use the libraries. The fact that a color is specified with a library vs. CMYK or RGB doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that the color look reasonably good on screen and that it have a name that you and your printer can agree on.