Chip CMYK Database: Useful or Not?. Discuss Chip CMYK Database: Useful or Not?, on ChipTalk.net the place to go for your Poker chips and gambling tips. Read it in Poker Chip Labeling.
I've been lucky enough that some other members here at Chip Talk have been able to help me out with CMKY colour values for the various types of NEXGEN chips. This got me thinking, if everybody were to pool their resources to make a database of the different chip CMYK values so others in the future can access the information more freely. What do others think? I know that I would of found it useful when creating my label designs and I'm willing to put it all together but just need information.
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Check out the GENERATION NEXNexgen chip gallery HERE.
Even though I'm new here I think that is a fantastic idea. It would also be helpful if you stored a picture of the chip (for visual reference) along with the color values for all the colors on the chip.
Those are not CMYK values. Those are RGB values for pixels of light on a computer monitor.
Converting those colors to CMYK colors for printing is not going to be a simple process, since printed colors differ from colors we see onscreen.
A database of information about what CMYK (process ink color combinations) come closest to the actual colors of chips could be very useful -- since people could use it to inform their color palettes when designing chips. But I don't know what the best method is for achieving this. Colorimetry is a very advanced science, requires expensive equipment, and even then the results when printing CMYK colors on various printers depend on the equipment.
However, another approach is to create a palette of CMYK colors, and let people use it to select colors that THEY think are compatible with their chips. Even then, you would probably need to send the palette document to your actual chip inlay manufacturer to be output on their device before you could be sure if the colors you get really match.
Recent custom ASMs have gotten some very good results in matching ink colors to chip colors. Perhaps it would be better to ask some of those designers what colors they used.
But the RRGGBB values you list on your image above are definitely NOT the way to go.
[Edit: I see your PDFs do list CMYK colors. But how did you arrive at these? By trial and error and "eye"? It's not clear what your approach was. Granted, the values you arrived at may be good enough. But I'd want to know more about how you arrived at them -- hoping it was not by scanning chips and then using a PhotoShop eyedropper, for example.]
Thanks for the explanation. I was just trying to help but didn't know the scope of the problem, all the listed information above I received from other members who kindly helped me out with a simple request so don't punish them for my misgivings.
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Check out the GENERATION NEXNexgen chip gallery HERE.
[Edit: I see your PDFs do list CMYK colors. But how did you arrive at these? By trial and error and "eye"? It's not clear what your approach was. Granted, the values you arrived at may be good enough. But I'd want to know more about how you arrived at them -- hoping it was not by scanning chips and then using a PhotoShop eyedropper, for example.]
Actually, those are the proper CMYK values that were provided in the links under the photo that Blake posted. I'm not sure where they originated (like if they actually came from the manufacturer or from a label company), but I found them by doing a search on CT a while back. I used these same color breakdowns when I designed labels for trutan a few months ago and they were as close a match as you can expect when trying to match paper to another media or material.
As far as the database is concerned, yes, that would be very handy at times.
a more precise match would be to use the Pantone color codes.
I disagree with that. Pantone is just a proprietary color matching system and won't do a bit of good unless all printers/chip makers/etc use it. For that matter, Pantone colors simply translate into appropriate CMYK values.
CMYK is perfectly accurate - the issue lies with the calibration of all systems involved. As wij mentioned, colorimetry is a complex science. Even if someone were to have access to the equipment and could get the exact CMYK values from the chips, unless the printer being used is perfectly calibrated as well, what you see is not going to be precisely what you get.
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