Adobe Illustrator - Illustrator colour questions...and powerpoint

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Illustrator colour questions...and powerpoint

John McMullen

2004-02-05, 4:28 pm

I am teaching myself Illustrator in order to re-draw a diagram in PowerPoint
as a vector image, so that we can then scale it and re-use it. So bear in mind
that I'm a newbie here; if there's a simple way to do what I need, that's
great, but I haven't run across it yet. I have 8.0 on a Windows 2K machine,
a reasonable amount of memory (about 512 MB).

The Illustrator version of the drawing should be as close as possible to the
original, including colours. This is where I run into a problem: I have a
colour vision deficiency. I see some colours, but I have enough experience
with this that I don't trust my interpretation for something I have to hand
to my boss.

(Yes, ideally I wouldn't be the one doing it. But I am. So we go from there.)

Is there a no-extra-software way (and I hope a simple way, since it minimizes
my chances to screw up) to identify the colour of an object in PowerPoint and
then replicate that colour in an Illustrator object?

I'm struggling with objects that I think are a manilla colour and even I can
see I haven't replicated it correctly--it looks too orange to me.

I will be looking for answers here--but please email them as well, since
I want to make sure I get all the help I can.

Thanks.

John

steggy

2004-02-05, 5:28 pm

John McMullen wrote:

quote:

>
> I am teaching myself Illustrator in order to re-draw a diagram in PowerPoint
> as a vector image, so that we can then scale it and re-use it. So bear in mind
> that I'm a newbie here; if there's a simple way to do what I need, that's
> great, but I haven't run across it yet. I have 8.0 on a Windows 2K machine,
> a reasonable amount of memory (about 512 MB).
>
> The Illustrator version of the drawing should be as close as possible to the
> original, including colours. This is where I run into a problem: I have a
> colour vision deficiency. I see some colours, but I have enough experience
> with this that I don't trust my interpretation for something I have to hand
> to my boss.
>
> (Yes, ideally I wouldn't be the one doing it. But I am. So we go from there.)
>
> Is there a no-extra-software way (and I hope a simple way, since it minimizes
> my chances to screw up) to identify the colour of an object in PowerPoint and
> then replicate that colour in an Illustrator object?
>
> I'm struggling with objects that I think are a manilla colour and even I can
> see I haven't replicated it correctly--it looks too orange to me.
>
> I will be looking for answers here--but please email them as well, since
> I want to make sure I get all the help I can.
>
> Thanks.
>
> John

I have a colour vison deficiency also:))
It can give problems of course being in graphic design. Lots
of times I had to ask friends if I was on the right track,
but you can overcome it.

PowerPoint is not my cup of tea, though I used it several
times. The colors it offers seem to be randomnly build up in
RGB, I mean: they just give you a load of colors to be
picked by the eye. In the versions I worked with there was
no way to get values.

I cannot check it now, but is it possible to import the
PowerPoint page (or objects) into Photoshop? Maybe there you
can get the RGB or CMYK values using the eye dropper and use
those in Illustrator.

--
steg

Oldylocks

2004-02-05, 6:28 pm

John,

You can copy and paste from PowerPoint into Illustrator. That should
simplify things.
I used to do this daily at work.

When coloring objects in Powerpoint switch over to the More Colors > Custom
color palette, where you can see the RGB code and note the numbers (write em
down).

Then, working in AI's RGB mode, use the RGB dialog box to duplicate the
code.

Also, your Proof setup is gonna mess up what you see in AI, so you'll have
to find the best match. While I normally use a SWOP proof environment, I use
my Adobe Monitor Profile when doing tasks like that.

-Oldylocks

"John McMullen" <jhmcmullen@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:26c9d878.0402051202.14a91dda@posting.google.com...

quote:

> I am teaching myself Illustrator in order to re-draw a diagram in

PowerPoint

quote:

> as a vector image, so that we can then scale it and re-use it. So bear in

mind

quote:

> that I'm a newbie here; if there's a simple way to do what I need, that's
> great, but I haven't run across it yet. I have 8.0 on a Windows 2K

machine,

quote:

> a reasonable amount of memory (about 512 MB).
>
> The Illustrator version of the drawing should be as close as possible to

the

quote:

> original, including colours. This is where I run into a problem: I have a
> colour vision deficiency. I see some colours, but I have enough experience
> with this that I don't trust my interpretation for something I have to

hand

quote:

> to my boss.
>
> (Yes, ideally I wouldn't be the one doing it. But I am. So we go from

there.)

quote:

>
> Is there a no-extra-software way (and I hope a simple way, since it

minimizes

quote:

> my chances to screw up) to identify the colour of an object in PowerPoint

and

quote:

> then replicate that colour in an Illustrator object?
>
> I'm struggling with objects that I think are a manilla colour and even I

can

quote:

> see I haven't replicated it correctly--it looks too orange to me.
>
> I will be looking for answers here--but please email them as well, since
> I want to make sure I get all the help I can.
>
> Thanks.
>
> John

DavidJ01

2004-02-05, 7:28 pm

John,

I read your post and recalled an episode I saw a while ago on TechTV. They reviewed a utility which might be of use to you, and if I recall, it seemed to get a fairly decent review. I haven't used it so I'm not vouching for it, but I thought I'd track it down for you. Also, I have no idea if it contains any "spyware" so I would suggest running Ad-Aware and/or Spybot on it if you do choose to try it. Link and description is pasted below....

David...

http://www.nattyware.com/pixie.html

Here's what their web site says:

Quote Mode On:
"Pixie is an easy-to-use, fast and tiny utility designed especially to fit the needs of Webmasters and Designers. Its a colour picker that includes a mouse tracker. Run it, simply point to a colour and it will tell you the hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV values of that colour. You can then use these values to reproduce the selected colour in your favorite programs. Pixie will also show the current x y position of your mouse pointer. Its the only tool you'll need for working with colours"
Quote Mode Off:

"John McMullen" <jhmcmullen@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:26c9d878.0402051202.14a91dda@posting.google.com...
> I am teaching myself Illustrator in order to re-draw a diagram in PowerPoint
> as a vector image, so that we can then scale it and re-use it. So bear in mind
> that I'm a newbie here; if there's a simple way to do what I need, that's
> great, but I haven't run across it yet. I have 8.0 on a Windows 2K machine,
> a reasonable amount of memory (about 512 MB).
>
> The Illustrator version of the drawing should be as close as possible to the
> original, including colours. This is where I run into a problem: I have a
> colour vision deficiency. I see some colours, but I have enough experience
> with this that I don't trust my interpretation for something I have to hand
> to my boss.
>
> (Yes, ideally I wouldn't be the one doing it. But I am. So we go from there.)
>
> Is there a no-extra-software way (and I hope a simple way, since it minimizes
> my chances to screw up) to identify the colour of an object in PowerPoint and
> then replicate that colour in an Illustrator object?
>
> I'm struggling with objects that I think are a manilla colour and even I can
> see I haven't replicated it correctly--it looks too orange to me.
>
> I will be looking for answers here--but please email them as well, since
> I want to make sure I get all the help I can.
>
> Thanks.
>
> John

Oldylocks

2004-02-05, 7:28 pm

Also, if you're working with a graph or a chart in PowerPoint, in order to
use the custom colors you've created, I believe you have to ungroup the
chart...it will no longer be editable as a chart, but hey.

In case you don't know how to ungroup things in PP, you can right-click on
the chart and it's found in the menu there.

-Oldy

"John McMullen" <jhmcmullen@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:26c9d878.0402051202.14a91dda@posting.google.com...
> I am teaching myself Illustrator in order to re-draw a diagram in
PowerPoint
> as a vector image, so that we can then scale it and re-use it. So bear in
mind
> that I'm a newbie here; if there's a simple way to do what I need, that's
> great, but I haven't run across it yet. I have 8.0 on a Windows 2K
machine,
> a reasonable amount of memory (about 512 MB).
>
> The Illustrator version of the drawing should be as close as possible to
the
> original, including colours. This is where I run into a problem: I have a
> colour vision deficiency. I see some colours, but I have enough experience
> with this that I don't trust my interpretation for something I have to
hand
> to my boss.
>
> (Yes, ideally I wouldn't be the one doing it. But I am. So we go from
there.)
>
> Is there a no-extra-software way (and I hope a simple way, since it
minimizes
> my chances to screw up) to identify the colour of an object in PowerPoint
and
> then replicate that colour in an Illustrator object?
>
> I'm struggling with objects that I think are a manilla colour and even I
can
> see I haven't replicated it correctly--it looks too orange to me.
>
> I will be looking for answers here--but please email them as well, since
> I want to make sure I get all the help I can.
>
> Thanks.
>
> John

John McMullen

2004-02-10, 5:29 pm

Thanks for all your help gang.

Hard to believe, but the idea of just pasting the material from Powerpoint
into Illustrator had not occurred to me. Nada thought there. Using that
I was able to copy the colours correctly and then filter them to CYMK.

I appreciate it.

John