INK COLORS AND THE PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM
One term you may hear tossed around by printers regarding colors is PMS. No, it has nothing
to do with women, instead it stands for Pantone Matching System.
It is nothing more than a standard system for specifying colors using 8 basic
colors plus black and white. The colors are referred to by a three or four digit
number and have a standard formula for mixing. This system makes it releatively easy to
duplicate colors to match existing stationery or other printed pieces when a PMS number
is specified.
PMS colors are sometimes suffixed with a U or C, such as 185U or
185C. Actually, these are the same EXACT color! The only difference is that in
the swatch book, 185U is shown printed on uncoated stock while 185C is printed
on a coated or enamel sheet. Since most printing inks have transparent properties,
inks printed on enamel (gloss or matte) stock will tend to look brighter and have more pop.
In some cases, the same ink on coated and uncoated stock looks like an entirely
different color! Since inks have this transparent quality, be careful when selecting
colored inks to be printed on colored stocks. In particular, lighter inks will
tend to have some of the base stock color show through and may even change its
hue entirely.
1717 CHESTNUT AVENUE
PMS colors are sometimes suffixed with a U or C, such as 185U or
185C. Actually, these are the same EXACT color! The only difference is that in
the swatch book, 185U is shown printed on uncoated stock while 185C is printed
on a coated or enamel sheet. Since most printing inks have transparent properties,
inks printed on enamel (gloss or matte) stock will tend to look brighter and have more pop.
In some cases, the same ink on coated and uncoated stock looks like an entirely
different color! Since inks have this transparent quality, be careful when selecting
colored inks to be printed on colored stocks. In particular, lighter inks will
tend to have some of the base stock color show through and may even change its
hue entirely.
