Webtools

Tips for using the Internet Color System Palette from PANTONE® ColorDrive™ Working with the PICS ColorDrive palettes The PANTONE Internet Color System (PICS) palette works just like any other palette within ColorDrive. It is located under the Library menu in ColorDrive along with the other Pantone Libraries, and is the same color system as in Pantone's ColorWeb product. Having the PICS colors accessible from ColorDrive is very useful, because it provides a way for users to use ColorWeb colors in applications that can't access the system Color Picker. You can export the PICS palette to your applications just like any other ColorDrive library. You can also use ColorDrive to find matches between the PICS colors and other PANTONE Colors. It is important to note that, since many applications add black in their color algorithms, Pantone has provided the palettes in CMY format (with K=0 for all colors) instead of RGB. Workflow Strategies Since the colors within PICS have been optimized for use in the creation of Web backgrounds, text, buttons, and objects, you should avoid performing any color management on them. When you export the PICS palette from ColorDrive: 1. Open the Matching Options dialog and disable the monitor and printer profiles. 2. Export the PICS palette to your applications. Follow the instructions in the ColorDrive manual to import the palette into your application. 3. Follow the instructions below regarding how to prevent the colors from dithering when you are using them in your various applications. Workflows are dependent on which applications are used to create the web graphic elements, and which HTML authoring programs are used. Most web designers use traditional graphic design applications to create their web page backgrounds, buttons and objects. Many of these graphic design applications cannot save files in either GIF or JPEG format, so designers need to sometimes use a special workflow, which is described below. In general, where non-dithering graphics (corporate logos, large areas of color, buttons, etc.) are preferred, web graphic elements should be saved in GIF format (JPEG format is usually reserved for images). Graphics using the PICS colors should always be saved using the GIF file format. Here are some general tips for saving to GIF format: 1. When saving GIF graphics, if a choice is offered, the Exact or System palette options should be selected, with 256 colors. You should also make sure that dithering is not enabled. This will ensure that you will use colors in the file that won't dither. 2. When saving as a GIF file from Adobe Photoshop™, you will need to download the GIF89a plug-in for Photoshop from Adobe's Web site, as described below. 3. When saving as a GIF file from Adobe Illustrator™, you will need to download the GIF89a plug-in for Illustrator from Adobe's We…