When it’s important that your print is absolutely perfect, you might begin to research the best way to achieve that perfect print. From the process to the paper, your choices affect your results.
To achieve a high-quality print, you may consider using Pantone colors. While it’s possible and often the best choice to print with Pantone colors, that won’t always be the case. Here’s everything you need to know about printing with Pantone colors.
The Pantone Matching System (PMS), introduced in the 1960s, is a standardized color reproduction system. It includes thousands of unique, pre-mixed ink colors, each identified by a specific Pantone number. The PMS gives a reference number to each of these colors, effectively creating a universal language for color. This allows designers and printers to match their work to the exact color, regardless of location or printer. It even takes into account whether the paper is coated or uncoated to ensure the color is accurate.
Printing with Pantone colors typically involves the spot color process. Each Pantone ink is pre-mixed and printed as a solid area, rather than simulating colors by overlapping CMYK dots.
CMYK, like the PMS, is a palette used as the basis to print many more colors. The CMYK palette uses just four colors — cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K) — which give it its name. Typically used in inkjet printers, CMYK is the standard for millions of printers worldwide.
Besides the starting palette, CMYK printing has several differences from Pantone color printing. One of the biggest is the printing process. While Pantone colors must be printed with spot colors, CMYK uses process color printing. Also known as the CMYK process, this involves combining dots of all four colors to produce thousands of colors and shades.
Metallic and fluorescent Pantone colors are possible, too, but require special spot inks. Because of the inks required, these colors can’t be achieved with standard process CMYK printing alone.
In general, Pantone colors are best to use when you need to print highly accurate colors. Pantone’s system includes many colors that can’t be reproduced accurately using CMYK inks. This makes it possible to print a wider variety of vivid, saturated and specialty colors. This makes it a more reliable and accurate method.
Specifically, you should use Pantone colors if:
You should also use Pantone colors if you want to maintain color consistency between coated and uncoated paper stocks. Pantone assigns different ink formulations for each substrate, helping achieve closer visual matches, though some variation may still occur.
Pantone printing requires more time and effort, but printing in bulk can make it more cost-effective. It’s about finding the right balance between quality and resource management.
Process printing with CMYK colors is perfect for intricate designs that use several colors. This is because process printing can more efficiently print different colors without having to change the printing plate. CMYK can also print fantastic photos thanks to its ability to easily print various colors.
Since CMYK has a smaller color gamut than Pantone, many Pantone colors can’t be reproduced exactly using CMYK. Some vibrant or specialty Pantone shades may be unavailable in process printing.
If you decide it’d still be beneficial to print with CMYK colors, there are several software tools you can use to convert CMYK to Pantone colors.
When you convert Pantone colors to CMYK, you have the opposite problem. It’s possible that some of your Pantone colors won’t have a direct match in the CMYK gamut since this gamut is smaller. This means your colors may change very slightly to the best possible match in the CMYK gamut.
If you need your colors to be more accurate, you could convert to CMYKOGV instead. This adds orange (O), green (G) and violet (V) to the palette and allows for a wider range of colors. However, this will increase the print costs, too.
There are software tools that can convert your Pantone colors to CMYK.
Learn more about printing with Pantone colors with these answers to FAQs:
Coated paper has different properties from uncoated paper. Colors printed on coated paper look brighter and sharper, while colors on uncoated paper look softer.
Pantone assigns the same number to a color, but appends ‘C’ for coated paper and ‘U’ for uncoated paper. The ink formulations are tailored for each substrate, so the appearance may vary slightly between coated and uncoated stocks.
You don’t need to pay licensing fees just to print with Pantone colors. Licensing applies only if you use Pantone digital libraries or reproduce Pantone color guides and tools in your products. Standard printing with Pantone inks doesn’t require special licensing.
Pantone provides strong recommendations for printers and designers to use its color-matching systems and guides to ensure consistency and quality.
It’s a good idea to update your Pantone books regularly. Pantone periodically revises its color range and formulations to improve accuracy and add new options. Using outdated guides may result in color mismatches or obsolete color references.
Whether you use Pantone colors, CMYK or any other palette, color management tools can improve matching accuracy. This helps you print colors that more closely reflect your design.
For printing jobs where it’s important to have the exact color you need, Pantone colors can help. But there are other ways you can ensure your Pantone color printer is accurate and consistent.
FUJIFILM Business Innovation Division’s ColorPath Color Management Software is designed to help you get the best possible prints. By ensuring your printer’s colors are aligned with your color targets, ColorPath Sync allows you to consistently get your desired colors and make more from your printing.
To find out more about how Fujifilm can help you use Pantone colors or an alternative to print accurately, get in touch with us today.