Process Color Manual, 24,000 CMYK Combinations for Design, Prepress, and Printing (Spiral-bound)

~ Pat Rogondino (Author), (Author) "Several factors should be taken into consideration before starting a four-color project: How is the product being printed, and how many colors can be used?..." (more)
Key Phrases: process color manual, color swatches, printed color, Magenta Overall, Cyan Overall, Yellow Overall (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Today graphic design is done almost exclusively on screen, where colors look different than when they are printed. To help designers and the people who work with them address this critical disparity, authors Michael and Pat Rogondino have completely revised and expanded their standard manual, Computer Color (0-87701-739-5). A boon for all designers, production people, artists, and printers, Process Color Manual provides an astounding 24,000 colors that match from computer display to printed page. The standard-issue Pantone color books, by comparison, can cost as much as $175 and offer only 3000 colors!

Also included with the book is a handy cardboard mask, white on one side and black on the other, that allows the user to isolate a specific block of color. This sturdy color guide partly came about due to demand from the people who have sworn by the previous edition: Chronicle Books designers. For accuracy, accessability, value, and sheer volume, Process Color Manual is indispensible to everyone who works with graphics and colors.

About the Author

Pat Rogondino is an artist who does production and illustration. Michael Rogondino is a graphic designer who has taught book design at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 256 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; 2nd edition (June 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811827577
• ISBN-13: 978-0811827577
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #92,875 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #10 in	Books > Arts & Photography > Design & Decorative Arts > Graphic Design > Graphic Arts > Use of Color
  #25 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Graphic Design > Printing

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a color atlas without a color index, November 4, 2001

By	drollere (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews

this is a stupendous compendium of reflective color variations, presented as specific combinations of the printer's four process inks -- cyan, yellow, magenta and black. the book moves systematically across the halftone screen variations of single inks (from most saturated to near white), then two, three, and four color mixtures. two color mixstures are shown as a grid of swatches spread across two facing pages, 5% increments across the column color, and 10% increments in the rows. mixtures of three or four colors are shown stepwise across several pages.

i'm a painter, not a printer, but i find this guide easily as valuable as much more expensive color atlases (from munsell or the swedish ncs) as a way to analyze a specific color in terms of hue balance (as a mixture of the three subtractive primary colors CYM) and reduced saturation (increased black, or screen value below 100%). this is all i need to mix a close match using whatever paints i have available.

the major drawback is that although the swatches are systematically organized, there is no index or page lookup table to guide you to a specific color mixture -- each page is headed simply "two (three, four) color mixture". if you know you want an orangish color (equal parts magenta and yellow), but aren't sure how bright or dull the orange should be, there is no way to find the relevant color pages adding cyan and/or black except by leafing through the book one page at a time. that's 260 pages, folks!

the introduction to subtractive color mixing, computer color programs and good printing practice is concise and accurate. an extremely reliable and useful, if inconvenient, reference.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is awesome..., December 10, 2001

By	J. Grimmett - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I wish I knew about this book sooner. It is cheaper than getting a pantone cmyk book, and just as useful...if not more. I just got back from a proof check with a printer, and there were no surprises. It is always by myside now as I tackle numerous cmyk print projects.

I only wish there was an index of some sort. I ended up creating my own color index database on my palm handheld to save time when looking for a specific mix within the book.

Anyway...this book is way better than blindly picking colors on your computer screen and hoping for the best.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 24,000 Colors!, August 24, 2000

By	John VanCleaf (North Brunswick, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

As any graphic designer working on a computer knows, the color you see on your monitor is not the color you get when your job is printed. This manual has 24,000 color printed swatches that you can assign to your work and feel confident you'll get what you expect in print. What I find really cool is, there are 12 pages of 2 color combos. Great for smaller type and art work. All in all, a must have in our art dept here at Rutgers, a lot less expensive than other color systems with a lot more color to choose from.