# CMYK Color Breakdown for Laguna Seca Blue



## adam666 (Jul 19, 2010)

I posted this in the M3 thread but figured I would post it here too to hopefully get a quick answer. 

Hey everyone, I have exhausted my search online for the breakdown of the color Laguna Seca Blue. I am doing a custom vehicle wrap on an M3 and the client wants to keep the Laguna Seca Blue as a color in the design, but I cannot find the correct color combination to match it up. I know it is supposed to be under the hood of the vehicle but my customer has a custom carbon fiber hood, and he has searched as well and cannot find the CMYK color breakdown either. I have searched for Laguna Seca Blue, Smurf Blue, and I have been everywhere on google and I am coming up empty. One combination I did find was C82% M39% 0%Y 0%K but it is nowhere near the correct color, it's way too light. Any help anyone could give me would be incredibly appreciated!


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## Pixl (Jul 23, 2010)

Ok, buckle your seat belt... Color science is complex. CMYK although widely used is in fact 'device dependent,' meaning the CMYK values will print differently on each color device. Complicating matters further is whose CMYK are you referring to? Because there are many standards for CMYK. How does the color world work one may ask and it is pretty straight forward. One must specify the color space or the origin of the CMYK values in order for it to work. Better yet, avoid CMYK altogether and find L*a*b values and you may be able to convert those values in the device you want a specific CMYK color from. The way I would solve the problem were I your printmaker, is take my spectrophotometer and measure your paint color. With this instrument I can match the color very closely with a CMYK wide format printer. You could more easily achieve this by getting a BMW brochure that has your paint chip sample in it and have that measured instead of the car. It is so easy, that I would do it for you and send you the colorimetric values. Let me know if you have a paint chip sample, or ask your vehicle wrap vendor if they have a spectro to measure your car's paint. However, don't expect too much from a wide format print vendor dealing in vehicle graphics as they are not really set up for precise color methods. But what you want is doable.


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