About PANTONE Colors Seen on PC Monitors
In conclusion, printed colors will not match the PANTONE colors you see on your PC monitor. This time, we will explain the special color specifications for printing, and the points to note about PANTONE and DIC. We hope this will be helpful for those planning to order printed materials.
What is PANTONE?
PANTONE is the name of a globally used color system and color matching system. A color matching system refers to standards and methods for consistently identifying and reproducing specific colors.
PANTONE was developed in 1963 by PANTONE Inc., an American color communication company.
The main feature of PANTONE is that each color is assigned a unique number (PANTONE color code). The PANTONE color code, represented by a combination of numbers and letters, clearly identifies specific colors. By using this color code, designers and printers can achieve consistent color reproduction across different devices and printing processes.
PANTONE offers various products to cater to different uses. PANTONE color guides and color books are tools for referencing specific colors and serve as standards for color matching.
Common Misconceptions
As mentioned at the beginning, you should not trust the PANTONE or DIC colors displayed on your PC monitor during Illustrator work. We especially want designers and data creators to be aware of this.
When creating data for printing with special color specifications, you can select the color in Illustrator by selecting the object with the selection tool, then choosing "Open Swatch Library" → "Color Books" → "PANTONE XXX" in sequence, and selecting your preferred color.
This part is correct. There is no problem at all.
The problem starts here. Designers' mistaken perception is that they are set on the PANTONE colors as seen on their PC monitor. They mistakenly believe that "the printed material will come out in this color." This is the point where misunderstandings occur.
As a result, when they see the delivered printed material, they think, "Huh? The color is different from the monitor."
This is for two reasons.
The first reason is that the color of monitors varies by manufacturer. (Especially if you have changed the color settings on your monitor.) Even with the same data, the color will look different on Mac and Windows.
The second reason is that printing companies create colors based on officially sold color sample books from PANTONE, not on PC monitors.
For these reasons, the PANTONE colors set on your PC should only be understood as an approximation.
Things to Keep in Mind When Specifying PANTONE
As shown above, the colors of the sample book (left) and the monitor (right) are slightly different. Therefore, do not expect the printed material to come out in the same color as your PC monitor.
So, what should you do? Set the colors while actually looking at the PANTONE sample book. However, most companies do not have an actual PANTONE sample book.
If you do not have such a sample book, print out the colors and send them to the printing company as color samples. This way, instructing colors through actual samples is the most efficient. (Clear instructions!)
If you seek higher satisfaction, we recommend color proofing at an additional cost.
Printing generally uses four colors (CMYK) to represent colors, but in the case of four-color printing, it is often not possible to achieve the target color by adjusting the ink alone. In this case, it is necessary to adjust the CMYK values of the original AI data, and no amount of ink adjustment will achieve the desired color.
In such cases, we prepare the color by mixing the ink in advance, using specified colors like PANTONE or DIC.
Conclusion
View and select colors based on the PANTONE sample book or printed colors, not on your PC monitor. If you print out the colors, send them to the printing company as color samples when ordering.
We hope this will be a helpful tip for your future design work.
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