Colors 101

So you’re working on a logo and the client asks you “what Pantone colors are you using?” Pantone?

You send a file to the printer for a banner and the printer tells you “we can only print it in CMYK”.  CMYK?

Or you start on a project for web graphics and the client tells you “just give it to us in RGB”.

What are all of these strange letter combinations? What do they mean and how do they pertain to colors? Welcome to Colors 101.

 

THE COLORS

Pantone or PMS – (Pantone Matching System). This a system of colors, also called “spot colors”, widely used to get colors that you can’t get from cmyk. They are typically more vibrant or are specialty inks such as metallic or fluorescent.

 

 

CMYK – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The four inks primarily used in all printing processes, from print to billboards. Sometimes cheaper to print than Pantone colors.

 

 

RGB – Red, Green and Blue. If you’re looking at a monitor, you’re looking at RGB. If you’re holding a color photo developed in a process lab, it’s RGB.

 

 

WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT YOU GET

The main problem with colors is that what you see on your monitor doesn’t look the same when you print it out. That is why whenever you budget a job, add in time and money for a printing proof.

With Pantone colors you can purchase Pantone swatch books. These swatch books come in come in coated and uncoated samples. Coated when printing on coated paper, such as glossy paper, and uncoated, for printing on paper without any special coating.

A Pantone color will look different when printing on the two types of paper, so sometimes you might need to choose a different Pantone color for each type of paper. Also, when creating an image for the web, the RGB interpretation of the color will vary too.

 

PANTONE TO CMYK

There is also a Pantone process guide that shows CMYK mixes of the Pantone spot colors. Unfortunately, you will not find the colors listed by the Pantone numbers. You will need to compare the spot color to the process swatches visually to get a close match.

 

COLORS IN YOUR DOCUMENT

It is important to remember that when building your files to make sure your file is in the correct color mode. A color in an RGB Adobe Illustrator document will look and print differently than it will in a CMYK document.

 

If you have any more questions or tips about colors, please leave a comment or send me the question.