Has the mere mention of the word ‘Pantones’ left you completely confused? What is that? Or what are those?

We’ve got your back, here’s a quick overview of the colour matching system used in printing and beyond.

Image via Pantone®

Pantone® created the Pantone Matching System (PMS) as a way for designers to be able to match specific colours and create a consistent way of doing so. The PMS helps us standardize colour reproduction, so when a designer chooses a specific “green” for a design, the manufacturer, client, partner, printer, etc. are all able to refer to the Pantone system and create a perfectly matched “green.”

Often times, a client will send us their company artwork along with the Pantone “codes” associated with the design. We’re able to add these to our visual proof, ensuring that our print team will produce the exact colour match of original artwork. Here you can see where Pantones are denoted on our visual proofs:

If you’re design or brand artwork doesn’t have Pantones associated yet, you can head here to start picking your colours. For screen printing we use Coated Pantones only, so look out for the ‘C’ after the code to know you have the right one.