apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Hi. I thought I'd try this with an inspiration photo I have.

I got a palette just fine.

I'd love to get a screen shot of it to show you, but I don't remember how to do that.

I got lost at the colour conversion part.
My results for one of the colours came up:
Cyan: 0.348
Magenta: 0.043
Yellow: 0.0
Black: 0.639

Is this the info I take to the paint store?
Thanks.

Here's how you do a screen shot:

1. Find the Print Screen key on your computer. This is not necessarily a no-brainer -- on my laptop, it's a secondary function on a key I never use, and finding it was the toughest part of the task. But it usually hangs out somewhere in the upper left.

2. Line up your image in the middle of the screen and hit the Print Screen key.

3. Open your graphics software. Do CTRL-V or whatever you do to paste. You now have an image you can resize, crop, or print. If this doesn't work, you can also paste Print Screen captures into Word. You may need to open some or all of the drawing toolbars first (I never do this, but the boss' wife recently enlightened me).

The assorted numbers on these palettes are for coding Web sites, so they're not the same kind of numbers that are used to mix paint. You'd ordinarily match paint colors directly from the swatches, but who knows how accurately they'll print on your home equipment? What I'd do at that point is use physical paint chips and just match them by eye to what you see on your screen.

upper left = upper right

Maybe that's why I couldn't find it.

Thank you, thank you, Wende! I've known for years that I could capture a screen image with 'print screen', and I've been pressing it forever - all to no avail! I had NO IDEA that I could 'paste' that seemingly non-existant image. I just did it into Word now with your instructions, and it looks so beautiful. Gosh.... how was I supposed to know something SO SIMPLE? Thanks for finally solving this mystery for me.

So, so cool!

Alana, the hexadecimal (web colours) results you converted gave you a CMYK value: cyan magenta yellow and black. These values can be mixed to give you a close approximation of what you see on your screen (I say "approximate", because displays use a three colour system of red, blue and green). A good paint shop can use these values to match something closely. But as Wende mentioned, using paint swatches is always recommended.

So for your example, it would be:
Cyan: 35%
Magenta: 43%
Yellow: 0%
Black: 64%

Thanks everyone!

I'm saving these instructions.