How can you use Pantone Color names in Word or other MS Office documents? Sometimes you’re given a specific color using the Pantone color scheme.
Most commonly this happens for a corporate logo. The Ford car company specifies ‘PMS 294C’ for their blue logo.
McDonald’s uses PMS 123C and PMS 485C (yellow and red). How can you translate that PMS code into something Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint understands? Strictly speaking you can’t. Windows and Office don’t directly support Pantone colors.
This Word tutorial explains how to change the font color of text in Word 2011 for Mac (with screenshots and step-by-step instructions). In Word 2011 for Mac, how.
But you can get near matches and we’ll show you how in this article. On-Screen vs. Print Unless you went to art school or paid attention in high school art classes, you probably think colors are simple, Red, Purple, Green etc. Believe me they are a lot more complicated, add computer graphics and they get even more complicated. Microsoft Office lets you specify colors using either (a mix of Red, Green, Blue) or (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) which are color systems for on-screen use.
That works for on-screen use but printing is different. You’ve probably noticed that the color on a printed page is different from what you see on the screen. There can be several reasons for that but mainly because the color is made on screen differently from the ink for the page. Commercial printing is mostly done using CMYK, a mix of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, to make the required color.
Your color printer probably comes with a set of CMYK ink/toner cartridges. On-screen colors are made with RGB – a mix of Red, Green and Blue. They are also the main colors the human eye distinguishes. Is a system of color specification and matching so that printed material have the same colors in different places or times. That’s important for consistency but also legally. Many corporate logos and designs nominate specific Pantone colors and woe upon any company or printer who gets it wrong. Whole print runs have been scrapped and even sides of trucks repainted just because the color wasn’t exactly right.
Pantone in Office You can get an approximate match for a Pantone color (PMS, Pantone Matching System) to use in an Office document. The colors might even look the same to the untrained eye. If you’re getting something commercially printed, consult with the printer and make sure they know that certain colors in your artwork should match with exact Pantone colors. Add Comments to the document with the PMS codes as a reminder. All that said and understood, there are plenty of web sites that have lookup tables for Pantone PMS colors to RGB and even HTML color codes for web pages.
For example Ford logo color ‘PMS 294C’ equivalent is 0, 47, 108 in RGB for Office. The McDonald’s colors are 255,199,44 for PMS 123C and 218,41,28 for PMS 485C (yellow and red). Use the RGB equivalents wherever you need to set a color in Office (font, background etc). Go to the color selector, More Colors, Custom tab as shown above. You can drop $49 to Pantone for their official software which appears to include both RGB and web equivalents. For most people that’s an unnecessary expense. There are many Pantone to RGB color tables on the web.
Try because the colors are visible as well as the codes. Use the web page find (Ctrl + F) to quickly jump to the PMS code you’re looking for.
Well, the Standard Colors can't be modified. That's what makes them standard:-) A couple of suggestions, though. When you choose a custom color, add it to the grid at the bottom of the Color Picker pane by dragging the individual swatch into the matrix. The custom colors are added to the main color dropdown palettes below the Standard Colors under a caption of Recent Colors. Once used during a Word session any custom colors used will remain in the palette for the remainder of the session. Even better IMHO if you use the same colors consistently: Create Paragraph and/or Character Styles that include the color attribute. Please mark HELPFUL or ANSWERED as appropriate to keep list as clean as possible ☺ Regards, Bob J.
If you're referring to Design and Layout of the actual applications and items such as sheet tab color in Excel for example. That is strictly choices that are made by Microsoft (and Software vendors in general). Software Makers in issue like this Don't take user's taste or even eyesight capabilities into consideration. They generally go by what is the perceived style that happens to be in fashion, and if it means less work and smaller program to follow fashion that's great for them. Then us older folks, or folks for that matter that have poor eyesight, have to put up with the fashion choices. When 2011 came out fashion was for bolder richer colors with some depth.
Which was an advantage to us people that had vision problems. There was enough difference (Variation) in colors and shading to tell one thing from another. Today's modern fashion, is light gentle pastels and flatter imagery. For us visually handicapped (impaired) people, we have to look long and more carefully to distinguish one thing from another. Software you don't follow Fashion, you make the software as easy to see and use as possible and you must assume That at least 90% of your customer vision of an object 100 ft away doesn't look as if it's just twenty feet away.
Most People eye that needs glass is things 20 ft away look as if the are 40 or more feet away (Sorry for slight Rant) - Okay now if you referring to Text or Graphics in in content you actually create. Then yes The various Color Pickers are alive and well. When you click on either Background color or Font color and the Color window open up.
Look for the colored circle at bottom left corner with the words more colors. Have various choices or ways to pick color or shaping including Crayon Box which I prefer to use because it has 64 variations in colors. Here is a sample Movie (I am not a Pro so if movie looks jumpy then over look the warts: Disclaimer: The questions, discussions, opinions, replies & answers I create, are solely mine and mine alone, and do not reflect upon my position as a Community Moderator. If my reply has helped, mark accordingly - Helpful or Answer Phillip M. Jones, C.E.T.