If you’ve worked with us at Panther Signs, or dealt with another signage company, you may have heard the acronyms PMS and CMYK thrown around. They may sound like an alphabet jumble but they’re very important when it comes to printing signage and branding material for your business, so today we thought we’d take you through a lesson on the difference between the two.
PMS stands for Pantone Colour Matching System and is a standardised colour reproduction system used in a variety of industries. Initially for printing, paint, fabrics and the plastics industry, the Pantone colour guides have been adopted on a much broader level. The system is now used by artists, designers, marketers and clients alike.
CMYK is a process colour, four colour model. Meaning each colour variation is simply a weighted combination of four primary colours; Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Khol (Black). CMYK is used for printing, mainly offset printing full colour documents.
Why the confusion between the two?
Well the straight answer is that they are two different colour matching processes for printing, so converting PMS to CMYK or vice versa, can result in colour variations in your brand’s artwork.
The best way to avoid any confusion is to familarise yourself with the difference between the two colour matching systems, and knowing how your artwork is set up for print.
Let’s take a look at an example:
Below you’ll see a collection of four colours. On the left is the PMS colour, so the Pantone ink for the Pantone colour number. On the right you’ll see the CMYK version of the same colour. As CMYK colour needs to be broken down into four different parts of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, you can see the variation between the PMS colour and the CMYK colour.
As there can be so much colour variation using CMYK, the Pantone system sets out to standarise the colour system to ensure consistent colour printing. As a marketer or business owner, understanding the difference between the two colour systems will help ensure your brand’s colour identity is not compromised during the printing process.
At Panther Signs our colour matching processes ensure that your branding is matched perfectly, whether your artwork is set up using PMS or CMYK colours. Once we have matched a clients branding CMYK ratio, it is stored on file for future reference.
Do you have any questions on the topic of PMS and CMYK colour printing? Call us for a chat or send us an email.
Image Source: http://bit.ly/1SUAVl4