PM-what?! CMYK VERSUS PANTONE.

Color is very important in the world of design. It speaks to who you are, what you are trying to accomplish...it is a first impression. And we all know how important those can be in the dog-eat-dog corporate environment. Consistanlty using the correct color is crucial to maintaining a company's brand. And much more involved than most people think.

When we start talking color, many of our clients begin to look panicked. What is this crazy language we speak?! Have no fear. We work hard to make sure our clients understand enough to make any printing or design decisions to keep your brand secure. But you don't have to become an expert...that's what we're here for. And we love color!

Here's a bit of helpful information to assist in future printing decisions~

CMYK Color Printing (Also called ‘process colors’ – and used with digital printing)
Color is produced on your choice of printed material (paper, vinyl, cardboard, fabric and so on……..) by mixing four separate ink colors:

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CMYK).

Using this method can mean that when printing many copies of the same artwork, as is common with business cards and other forms of stationary, some areas of color may not appear completely consistent. Consistency is affected by ink density, temperature, paper quality, and when using CMYK the color can differ between printing companies. Generally though the differences are very small.

If it’s a cmyk color print you have commissioned with your printing firm (very popular now as this is the method digital printing uses, and digital printing is very competitively priced and allows short runs) you can view the colors in a PDF document of your final print layout design (the design that we provide you with)- you must print the design out in ‘best’ quality from your office printing machine to view the colors.

If you do this you will find that the print run should be pretty close to these as your office printer will print out using the CMYK printing method……however we can’t guarantee they will be exactly the same as paper type and the laminating process (commonly used with business cards). And gloss paper can change the shade slightly on printed colors, as well as the heat at the time of print and so on.

Pantone Color Printing
(Also described as ‘spot color printing’)
If you wish to ensure that your logo design or graphic design color will print exactly the same on every single printed copy you can specify what is called a ‘spot color.’ They are also guaranteed to look the same no matter which firm prints them.

There are a few spot color systems available, but the industry standard is the Pantone Matching System. Each Pantone color has a code – for example PANTONE DS 221 – 8U is a pale blue color. Colors can be selected from swatch books that display these colors and list the codes for each one. You can also view these books on a computer screen, but beware! When looking at a pantone color on a computer monitor it can look different from when printed and different depending on which monitor you are looking at. Only by viewing a ‘swatch book’ can you see the actual color as it will print.

Another factor to bear in mind is that ink will look different if it’s printed on a matte paper as opposed to glossy paper. Often printers will have a ‘glossy swatch book’ and a ‘matte swatch book’ showing your chosen pantone color on each type of paper; some printers will have further swatches available such as your color in ‘metallic’.

You cannot view Pantone colors by printing a design file from your own office printer as an office printer only prints in cmyk – therefore if you wanted Pantone printing, the only way to select the colors is to go into a printing shop and look at their Pantone color books.

So Which Is Best?

PANTONE PROs
- Specific colors which are consistent no matter who prints them.
- Vibrancy of color that you can’t get with CMYK.

PANTONE CONs
- Will need to view swatch books in the flesh to get true color visual.
- You will not be able to have a low cost short run or digital printing service; meaning you will have to have larger printing runs that you may actually want or need if you are small business.

CMYK PROs
- Low cost printing in multiple (limitless) colors because you can opt for digital printing.
- To be able to order from a low cost digital print provider. These tend to offer lower cost printing services and of course digital printing allows short runs for small orders.

CMYK CONs
- Lack of color vibrancy … some colors can be a tad dull compared to what Pantone can offer.
- Cannot guarantee exact consistency of colors.

Hopefully this will help you make a decision about your printing! Contact Davis Graphic Design for additional support.