What are Pantone colours and how are they used in print?
Pantone is a company that is globally recognised amongst designers and printers as the leading source of colour expertise. In 1963 Pantone revolutionised the printing industry with the introduction of the pantone colour matching system. This system was put in place to identify exact colours and shades, allowing designers to create print ready files in accurate colours.
Chroma, like most printers, use the Pantone colour matching system. This allows us to perfect the colour matching in all work we do. Using pantone colours means we can work with the colours in line with your brand guidelines. Giving you reassurance that we are working to your brand colours as close as possible.
How to find Pantone colours
Pantone colours come in a range of different swatches. This is because different materials can affect the finished look or feel of a particular pantone colour. The swatches come in an uncoated and coated (silk and gloss) option. Inks print and dry differently on different paper finishes. A silk or gloss material is smoother and less porous than an uncoated sheet which allows the ink to dry at a higher oxedisation rate rather than being absorbed into a porous paper. This is why the same pantone colour will look slightly different across different substrates.
It is recommended that you replace a Pantone colour swatch every 12-18 months for complete colour accuracy as colours in the swatches will fade over time.
How many Pantone colours are there?
There are currently 1,867 unique Pantone ‘spot’ colours, with more colours and shades being developed and added for new editions. Most pantone colours can be made up proportions of “standard” base colours including Yellow, Warm Red, Rubine Red, Rhodamine Red, Purple, Violet, Process Blue, Reflex Blue, Green, Black and Transparent White (clear), Yellow 012, Orange 021, Blue 072 and Red 032.
Using pantone to print in CMYK
All Pantone colours can be used for design and printing. Pantone colour matching means that print technology can identify all colours used in digitally created artwork and replicate this colour when printed with inks.
All Pantone spot colours have a corresponding CMYK make-up which consists of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks. These inks are printed to develop different colours and shades to closely replicate the corresponding spot colour. Software will identify this CMYK colour make-up information to use the right proportions of each colour to match the Pantone colour used in the original digital design.
The process of achieving the colour match of a Pantone colour can range dependent on printing technology and equipment.
In traditional lithographic print, printers require an operator to map the plates highly accurately on press to achieve the correct CMYK make-up to match the Pantone colour.
In the digital print process software either pre-press or on press reads the code from the print ready file sent directly to the printer and creates the CMYK make-up. At Chroma we print using both inkjet and digital offset (HP Indigo) technology.
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