As said earlier, the pantone color system is a standardized color reproduction system which allows people to determine the color of an ink by just matching it with pantone color swatches without having to contact a partner or client when performing printing operations. It is also important to understand that graphic designers will employ the pantone color chart to create graphics and web contents. You can use the pantone color chart by matching pantone color samples with swatches using computer software following these steps listed below.
1. Open the image which you are trying to determine the colors in a program which has the pantone color palette. Note that programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Corel draw use the pantone color chart for drawing and painting. If the program has more than one color set available, it is important to make sure that the pantone color charts are selected.
![Corel Draw Pantone Color Palette Corel Draw Pantone Color Palette](http://product.corel.com/help/CorelDRAW/540223850/Main/EN/Documentation/images/CorelDRAW-loc-color-pantone-solid-coated.jpg)
I bit the bullet and upgraded from my ole CorelDraw x3 to x8. I found the Roland spot color palette in x8 but don't know what to do with it. Can I design in corel using pantone colors (as Butch suggested) and export. Goto top icon above your side palette and left click - palette - open, in file types choose Adobe Illustrator palette *.ai from drop down list and open. This can be saved as a Corel pallette cpl. I seem to remember going to the Pantone site and downloading a Pantone solid to cmyk palette which was eps and having to change file extension to ai for it to work, but that was sometime ago and things may have changed.
2. Click on the eye dropper in the tool menu.
3. Drag it over to the image in question.
4. Click on the specific color with the eye dropper. At this point, the pantone color which matches the color is expected to appear to appear in the color palette and note the number written next to it.
5. For off screen system, the pantone color cards could be downloaded from the internet.
6. Search through the chart and find the color you are searching for.
7. Hold the color chart up to the color and identify the different shades of the color.
8. Pick the different shade matching the object and check the pantone color number for future use.