Can we talk about the stupid simple trick I found for color matching a brand?

I was stuck trying to match a client's old logo from a grainy PDF for like 2 hours, and then I just dropped the image into a design tool and used the eye dropper tool on a white part of the page to neutralize the tint first. Suddenly all the colors lined up perfect with their original hex codes. Anybody got other quick fixes for pulling colors from bad source files?

2 comments

2 Comments

alicebarnes15d ago

That trick works because the paper itself has a color cast that throws off the eyedropper. The white balance trick is one I use all the time, but something else that helps is grabbing a sample from a part of the image that should be black or dark gray. If you get that value and compare it to pure black, you can see exactly how much yellow or blue the paper is adding. Then you can manually subtract that from every color you pick. Another thing is to zoom way in and take multiple samples across the same area, because those old PDFs have compression artifacts that mess with individual pixels. I'll average out three or four readings before I settle on a hex code. Also keep in mind that some printers shift colors intentionally, so the file you have might not even match what the final print looked like fresh off the press.

the_viola14d ago

Great advice @alicebarnes, I've definitely spent way too long squinting at a blown-up PDF like I'm trying to read a ransom note. My eyeballs probably have their own color cast at this point from all the staring.