Color is needed to bring out the beauty of a logo and design job. A good choice of color and color combination is necessary for creating an iconic and relevant design. Color have their meanings and the message behind the color could be positive or negative. In Adobe Illustrator we have three major color mode: CMYK, Pantone and RGB.
In setting up a document, you chose the color mode you will work with. I usually use CMYK ( this is the color mode you chose if you also want to work with Pantone).
CMYK
It stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. It is the color mode for print work. The quality and variation of the print depends on the level of ink, the printing machine and the type of paper used for printing
To see these colors, launch your Illustrator, the go to Window > Color (F6). A window appears
If I want to see one of the colors of the CMYK, it is quite simple. Create a shape ( I created a square shape). Select the Eye Dropper Tool (I) to sample any color from the CMYK Spectrum as seen in the color mode
This is my result after sampling a random color. Yours might be different from mine. Don't worry, we can change the result any time.
To convert it to any CMYK colors such as cyan, yellow, magenta and black, go to the slider in the color mode dialog box (F6). Slide every color to 0. Leave one color at 100. I left my Y (yellow ) at 100 which resulted in yellow color. If I slide every color to 0 and leave M at 100, I will get a Magenta
My shape color changes to yellow
With this method, you can create custom colors for your logo design adjusting the different sliders to get your color preferences.
PANTONE
Pantone is needed for special print and purposes. They always print accurately since the color have predetermined color value and ink. They however do not offer flexibility of creating your own color. To use the Panthone, go to Window > Swatch Libraries > Color Books > Pantone Solid Uncoated
Pantone colors are not color combination unlike CMYK. They have special ink for each color.
RGB
They are rarely used. They are mostly used for screen display and web. Do not use the color mode for print work since they are designed to work according to the brightness of the screen .To use the RGB color mode, change the color mode to RGB while setting up a new document.
The RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue
They work the same way as CMYK. You can use slider to adjust the value to get a Red, Green or Blue. Unlike the CMYK where the values end at 100, the values in RGB ends at 255
You can create color variation by using the sliders
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