In the world of graphic design colours, we have Pantone, also known as spot colours. A set of universal, precise colour combinations using printing ink that give an accurate outcome every time it’s printed.

Pantone vs. CMYK and RGB

In a previous post, I banged on about CMYK and RGB being the two main colour combinations. Well, they essentially are, but they’re not the only two combinations.

CMYK is basically the standard colour combination used for print and mixes the colours cyan, magenta, yellow and black (key).

RGB on the over hand uses red, green and blue combinations and is used when working in digital and web work.

In comparison, Pantone is like CMYK in the sense that it’s used for printing. However, colour variations are a lot more limited, with RGB having the wider range of colour choice.

When to use Pantone colours

Ideally when creating a brand identity, it’s always good if you can to use a Pantone colour when creating swatches, especially if you know the company will be going a lot of printing. 

Why I hear you ask?…well the limited colour variations make it easier to find a matching CMYK colour and then a matching RGB colour. If you do it the other way around, especially if the brand got signed off in something like RGB, then it can be a lot harder to find a matching swatch.

So now, let’s just say that you have a signed off brand with Pantone colour codes in your brand guidelines; where do you go from here?

Well, you’ll only really need to use these colours when printing large quantities of print material that warrant using a lithographic printer.

A lithographic printer, or litho for short, uses four plates and rollers for each of the CMYK inks. It takes longer to setup but prints at high speeds making it efficient for larger jobs. When a specific brand colour is needed and it has to be completely accurate, that’s when a fifth or sixth plate get added and use the ink of the Pantone number given.

This process requires more time and materials so it will increase your budget, but all the big brands do this. Think of Cadbury’s for example and their purple brand colour. Next time you open a cardboard packet of Chocolate Fingers, look on the flap and you’ll most likely see the printing marks of cyan, magenta, yellow, black and their purple Pantone colour.

If however you’re not too fussed about the print colour being a little off from a batch of something else from another printers for example or your budget doesn’t warrant using a Pantone, then CMYK is absolutely fine.