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samf58498923
Participating Frequently
February 23, 2017
Question

Pantone Metallic Colours

  • February 23, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 7379 views

Hello, please forgive me if this is not in the correct place.

I've recently joined a company and been asked to look at all our promotional material.

We currently use a Metalic Pantone 8201 c for all our letterheads and business cards etc.

We are also looking at producing a brochure. One of the issues i've found is that they never get the colour matching correct, there is never any consistncy between different printers. Some have no metallic look at all and are flat, darker or lighter variances.

From my experience it is impossible to recreate this type of colour with a cmyk reference.

The bosses at the company like the metallic sheen it gives but it's really hurting our brand consitency.

I'm just after suggestions on how to get around this problem so we can print in office and external and have some consistency with the output.

Thanks,

Sam

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

ceyhun_akgun
ceyhun_akgun
Legend
July 17, 2019

Printing tools used in the office cannot produce metallic color.

It is possible to use PANTONE color in Corporate Identity works. In order to produce this color in the same appearance in every printing house, they need to use standard solution methods.

These special Metallic PANTONE colors are sold as ready-made. They can build printing houses themselves by adhering to certain formulas to produce them cheaper. Color discrepancies may occur when they make themselves.

They need to use Color Management systems. They can produce color within the standards by measuring with spectrophotometer.

Your problem:

The fact that this color used in your corporate identity cannot show the true color of the values ​​used in the office, web, digital media.

When designing the corporate identity, the chosen color should be used in the same way.

Graphic Designer Educator / PrePress Consultant
jenniferf33836573
jenniferf33836573
Participant
July 16, 2019

They are ripping you off. You cannot print metallic gold digitally. It sounds like they are printing on a color copier. I have a printing place, so I know exactly what is going on here.

Eternal Warrior
Eternal Warrior
Inspiring
February 23, 2017

My suggestion.. and you may not like it... Is to have two specified colours for the branding i.e. a CMYK colour approximate to Metallic Pantone 8201c that is considered safe/consistent for most printers when doing in-house work.

Then retaining Metallic Pantone 8201c for all external print jobs...

Your Boss should try to understand that all printers can interpret colours slightly differently (due to wonderful things such as print management software etc)... Therefore he would be best to use the "safest" possible (as safe as printing colours will ever get without something like Pantone anyway) for in-house work vs external... Or brand all internal documents with a black/white version of the logo... This might even cut business costs > always a good thing.

Either that or as dougofakkad pointed out you will need a specialist printer/printer ink(s) capable of creating the correct metallic appearance. <---- Which would be an extreme waste of money for documents that are likely not that important (otherwise you would have them done externally or with very professional printers).

Anyway, just some thoughts for food.

Best,


EW

Eternal Warrior
Eternal Warrior
Inspiring
February 23, 2017

Also if the external print companies are getting the Pantone colour wrong then you have two options:

  1. Get seriously mad and hot at the Print companies for getting it wrong and make sure they buy the correct Pantone colour from now on > also make a list of printers that get it right and try to only do a "price war" with printers approved on that list.
    1. This could even be extended to add a requirement of considering a tender if they can supply a sample print of that Pantone colour and if they don't match it then they shouldn't be allowed to Quote/Tender.
  2. Find a more recognised and safer Pantone colour that Printers generally have less trouble with.
    1. Admittedly this sort of defeats the point of Pantone vs CMYK but is still an option.....

Doug A Roberts
Community Expert
Doug A RobertsCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 23, 2017

samf58498923  wrote

From my experience it is impossible to recreate this type of colour with a cmyk reference.

is this what you've been tasked with trying to do? otherwise if the printer has that particular ink, then that should be that, right?

it is certainly impossible to replicate metallic colours with cmyk. if you want a placeholder, that's something you'll just have to decide upon and stick to it.

S
samf58498923Author
Participating Frequently
February 23, 2017

Thanks for the response,

Yeah, they want one as close as possible so all office based prints are similiar. I think the issue with the external stuff is they've been printing it to a cmyk when it's not possible to print metallic i.e. a piece of vinyl and it's looking way off.

I think I have two options, one to tell them to scrap the metallic and pick a pantone that can be converted or like you say find a placeholder and be happy that will be the issue.

    J
    jdanek
    Inspiring
    February 23, 2017

    The issue should have been solved a long time ago, but is surprisingly common at the same time.  The key is to finally establish a brand identity.  The company should have produced a branding guide where the answer to the problem could be found.  The external inks will not deviate.  Until you have people doing their own conversions to CMYK.  Therein lines the inconsistency.  Your job should be establishing the branding color in each iterance.

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