Pantone Colours For Promotional Gifts
To Pantone or not to Pantone, that is the question…well, actually, we don’t give you the choice.
When your order your promotional items from Redbows, you will find that we ask you for your ‘Pantone references‘, or ‘PMS references’. Many of our clients are unsure as to what we are referring to when we ask for these, so I thought it was time for a little clarification!
When printing ’spot colours’ (ie. colours that are flat with no tints and shades in them), we ask for a PMS reference to ensure that the colour you are expecting will be the colour that gets delivered! Spot colours are collated in a ‘Swatch Library’, which can be found in your illustration application. The most popular and widely used of these is the ‘Pantone’ swatch library. This is a collection of pre-set colours that any Pantone-registered printer will be able to mix up, and the end result will be exactly the same wherever it is printed, and whom it is printed by. PMS references are usually more common with larger corporate companies who need to maintain a corporate image throughout everything that they produce, from staff uniforms to letterheads to brochures etc.
Whether big or small, we always ask our clients for a PMS reference when processing an order (except when printing in full colour process). This is to ensure that everyone is fully aware of the print that will be produced, and there are no big surprises when you open your delivery to find that your supposedly red print is actually…lime green (roughly the colour your face would turn if this were to happen).
I find the Pantone website a great source for colour management, and if you were to ask for us to choose a PMS reference on your behalf we can send you a link to the colour that we have chosen for you to view with your visual sample. If you would like to learn more about colour management, please visit www.pantone.com.
