It's really tempting to add color from one of the many interactive sources or color pickers. Kuler is a great tool for creating color palettes for a project but the values are RBG through the extensions version in InDesign. Swatches can be converted to CMYK but the fidelity depends on your monitor calibration.
The
Kuler site does give HSV, RGB, CMYK, LAB, and HEX Color builds. But again, depending on your monitor's calibration that may or may not be an accurate color representation.
When creating a color swatch you can and should choose from the
Pantone color books as it is one of the few ways to guarantee color consistency from screen to page. The Pantone color books in InDesign are extensive and depending on your project you should choose Process Coated or UnCoated. Of course without a Pantone swatch book you are still just stabbing in the dark.
The first image above shows a swatch created from the Process Coated Color book and the next two show a swatch from the Solid Coated Color book. You must convert spot colors to process colors because any spot color placed in your document will generate an additional color separation (see below).
While a spot color may be desirable, picking swatch colors in this way can be an unwelcome surprise when you look at the separation preview.
The icons that designate whether a color is RGB, CMYK, or SPOT are quite clear (RGB at the top, CMYK in the middel and SPOT at the bottom). A SPOT can be generated from either the RGB or CMYK color space. To change a swatch from Spot to process (CMYK) you simply double click on the swatch to change the swatch options.
So while color palettes can be started in Kuler or can even be based on a photo, for consistency, they should be changed to Pantone colors to mitigate the disappointment caused by color mismatches.
