PANTONE Color Formula Guide Application Guide

In the packaging and printing, the range of spot color applications is more and more extensive, some are for the purpose of expressing rich color effects, and some are for the purpose of anti-counterfeiting. In the field of spot color, the color card has become a color communication language. Currently, there are several mature color cards in the world: the PANTONE color card in the United States, the RAL color card in Germany, and the DIC color card in Japan. Sweden's NCS color card, MUNSELL color card, SCOTDIC cotton color card, Chinese architectural color card and so on. The PANTONE color card has become the de facto international color standard language, it includes 15 kinds of textile color cards and 32 kinds of art design - printing color cards, applications include packaging and printing industry, textile industry and so on. In the course of my career, I found that people in the industry have little knowledge of the standard color card. Here, three color guides commonly used in printing are introduced: PANTONE Formula Guide-Coated / Uncoated/matte - Coated paper/Offset paper/Matte powder), PANTONE 4-color process guide, Pantone Color Bridge coated, PANTONE Color Bridge coated, PANTONE Color Bridge coated ), in order to help people in the industry have a better understanding of the PANTONE color card, better guide the practice.

One, PANTONE Formula Guide-Coated / Uncoated/matte (Panton spot color recipe guide - coated paper / offset paper / matte powder)

PANTONE Formula Guide-Coated / Uncoated / matte is the core of the PANTONE color matching system. The PANTONE color card has a total of 1114 spot colors, and all colors are marked with unique labels and tail codes. The three kinds of substrates also selected more representative papers, which were used to express the effect of the spot color on papers with different gloss and smoothness.

1.PANTONE basic color

PANTONE has 14 basic colors and is a pure primary color ink. It is configured with a single percentage of a single pigment (or color material). It has a high color density and color purity, and is the basis for the deployment of other spot color inks. The 14 basic colors, English names, and PANTONE numbers are shown in Table 1. In the preparation process, in order to meet the needs of the brightness of the ink, PANTONE Trans Write can be added for adjustment.

2. Color number and representation

Different color names can be seen on different color cards, such as PANTONE 3258 U and PANTONE 3258 C. Here, PANTONE 3258 represents the same color number, and the latter characters mean that they are printed on different substrates, so the appearance of the ink is different. The meaning of each identifier in the color code is as follows:

C=Coated Paper Coated Paper

U=Uncoated Paper Non-coated paper

M=Matte Paper Matte Paper

∷=Achievable in CMYK can be obtained from four-color simulation

Pt(s)=part(s) Number of copies of different inks

For example: PANTONE 15pts PANTONE Green 75.0

567 U 1pt PANTONE Warm Red 5.0

∷ 4pts PANTONE Black 20.0

Can be obtained by CMYK four-color simulation: printing on offset paper, the proportion of the three oil ratios, the use of the three basic color inks, the ratio of three ink ratio.

3. Application

In the actual special tone matching process, according to the proportion of the formula, different quality spot inks can be weighed separately for deployment, followed by proofing or scraping, under standard light sources or on sunny north windows and color cards. The color of the control, if there is a difference, the ink volume fine-tuning, re-proofing or scraping, until the color meets the requirements, record the ratio of ink.

Second, PANTONE 4-color process guide (Pantone four-color overprint guide - coated paper / offset paper)

The Pantone four-color overprint guides printed on glossy coated paper and offset paper respectively contained 3010 CMYK color standards. The four-color overprint guide does not belong to the PANTONE color matching system and has nothing to do with the PANTONE field color system.

Basic color

The color card uses four basic colors.

2. Color number and representation

Each color has a color label, such as PANTONE DS 257-6 C or PANTONE DS 257-6 U, the same as the previous PANTONE Formula Guide-Coated / Uncoated/matte, the previous PANTONE DS 257-6 represents the color number, followed by C or U stands for different substrates. The meaning of each identifier in the color code is as follows:

C=Coated Paper Coated Paper

U=Uncoated Paper Non-coated paper

E.g:

PANTONE

DS 257-6 C

CMYK

40 020 25

3. Application

Using this recipe guide, you can use the four basic colors of CMYK, assign a color based on the recipe given for spot color printing, or use four-color printing in actual printing to achieve the same result.

Third, PANTONE Color Bridge coated (Pantong color bridge - paired CMYK and RGB analog spot color)

In this guide, the colors printed with the 14 spot color inks are on the left, and the colors printed with the CMYK four colors are on the right. The number of the spot color on the left is the same as the color number in the PANTONE Formula Guide-Coated / Uncoated / matte, and the same color can be found in the PANTONE Formula Guide-Coated / Uncoated / matte. On the right is the effect of using CMYK four primary colors to simulate spot colors. Customers can decide whether the CMYK overlap color meets the requirements according to their actual needs. Because in the printing process, if you use a spot color, you need to separately print a printing plate, which will increase the cost. If you use a CMYK four-color simulation spot color to meet the requirements, you can directly use four-color printing, which can save Cost, but also to avoid some printing failures, such as overprinting problems.

Basic color

In this guide, the basic color used for the left color is 14 basic colors in PANTONE Formula Guide-Coated / Uncoated/ matte, and the basic color used for the right color is the four primary colors in the PANTONE 4-color process guide. It has been described in detail and will not be repeated here.

2. Color number and value

Left: The color is calibrated with the numerical values ​​of sRGB (standard Red Green and Blue) and HTML, and the color is represented with the dot value of CMYK on the right, such as:

PANTONE PANTONE
1817 C 1817 PC
R 94 G 48 B 50 CM Y K
HTML 5E3032 23 8454 63

sRGB (Standard Red Green Blue) is a color space definition. Since the color gamut of different display devices is not the same, some changes will occur in RGB colors between different devices. sRGB is developed in cooperation with Microsoft and other companies in order to establish a color management standard that can meet the needs of computers and output devices, so that the output device can accurately display the image without special color information analysis. Color information. With sRGB, users can ensure uniform color regardless of viewing on a variety of display devices. The RGB value here is the corresponding RGB value in sRGB space.

There are two ways to specify colors in an HTML page -- either as a color name or as a number that represents the RGB color value. An RGB color value consists of three two-digit hexadecimal numbers that represent the respective color intensity. The value calculated by HTML 5E3032 as given above is R(5×16+14)=94; G(3×16+0)=48; B(3×16+2)=50; and given The RGB values ​​match exactly.

The four-color printing effect on the right uses the CMYK dot value to represent the color composition. The specific meaning is the same as the PANTONE 4-color process guide, and will not be repeated here.

3. Application

In a print job, if four-color printing simulates the effect of a spot color that satisfies the requirement, four-color printing can be considered for color reproduction.