Default Illustrator Swatches Coated & Uncoated CMYK Process System Guide

Im a graphic designer for festivals, but I decided to purchase this set to help me with redecorating and repainting my home! They’ve worked great! I knew I wanted to do some sponging on my walls in my office and I’d be toying with a whole bunch of colors, so instead of going to the hardware store and getting one of each of the paint chips, I was able to use these cards to go back and forth and back and forth. And then I took my card to the paint section of the store and they made my paint to match! And on top of that — I also know the CMYK value of the paint on my walls! Any and every designer should have a pack of these— they’re great!

The only reason that this product has received critical reviews, is because the buyer didn't fully understand what they were getting. This product is not a replacement for the proprietary Pantone Swatches. This product contains the default color swatches in Illustrator and Photoshop with 11 tint variations of that color swatch (100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5). With this product you will see 54 colors, with 11 tints/shades. What I really like is you can see it on glossy (UV coated) or on matte. It is excellent for quickly seeing how these color will print.

I create product labels and banners for my business. Printers and screens are basically RGB and the colors don't always come back from the printing company the way I expected. Since the businesses I use request CMYK, with this swatch I'm able to tweak all the colors I use to what I really want to see in print.

Agree with the other negative reviews, once I have it in my hand trying to use it for what I really needed. There are only 110 hues (real CMYK combinations) :( That's surprisingly few if you consider the whole spectrum, and the number of grays and beiges included. For example, there are approximately 8 cards you might classify as "red," so if you're trying to match a red hue that doesn't fit one of those 8 reds, you're out of luck. And that's being generous on the color range; some of those are more pink or orange, so there are really like 3 true variations on red. On top of that, the "1210 shades" really are just shades: they're a halftone tint that doesn't really give you any new color information regarding the print look itself, it just shows you what less of that color will look like on the page. In contrast, the Pantone CMYK or Bridge books give you thousands of distinct ink mixes with different CMYK values, which is an entirely different world if you want to try to match something and understand the result of a little more black, or a little less yellow. It's definitely a great value, and that's why I'm choosing 2 instead of 1 stars: you can get a good idea of what various basic colors will look like printed, and maybe you can fudge and average between two close colors to get something in the middle. For my needs however, it looks like I'll have to invest in the Pantone bridge book, with thousands of real hue and color mix variations. Since there are few 1- or 2- star reviews on this, I brought it down a bit to highlight these discrepancies—but if what you want is to have a variety of hues and start to build your instincts for how CMYK will vary from screen to print, this is a good basic start, and you certainly shouldn't spend more if you don't need it. However, if you're doing real print work often, the Pantone guides are the standard for a reason. I just wish I could borrow them from the library for the 1 or 2 times per year I really need them...

Great product for those who can't afford the more expensive Pantone color pallets, but I do wish that it had more color. It would be great if they had an alternate version that had the different tints and tones of the colors instead of just opacity levels but it is a great concept and for your basic color pallet this is a great starting point to ensure that the color you want is the color you get. I also like how compact it is. I like that I can toss it in my laptop bag to take with me on appointments or working out of the office and still have the reference guide at my side.

I liked this product enough. It wasn't as full of diverse colors like I expected but instead a few swatches in different levels of brightness. I like that the color codes are included but I was admittedly looking for something a little more budget-Pantone and this fell short of the mark. Be it high expectations but this just didn't really do it for me. The quality is great and as stated, the color codes are handy - especially for people that work in digital format. If you're looking for very basic default colors this will fit your needs perfectly. If you're looking for budget Pantone, just save up and get a Pantone book.

It supplies exactly what’s described, which makes it perfect. Note: I noticed some people complained about it not being PMS colors, it’s not suppose to be; that is a completely different world of color matching. If you’re looking for PMS, you’d have to buy PMS swatch books.

I absolutely *love* this! This would have saved me sooooo many headaches, tears and obligatory curses at the copier gods, Xerox & Canon, from me, my coworkers and the various 'graphic designer' students the local art college (I know that you were taught about CMYK - just saying). I love that it's sma