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Would agree that this is best...Just read this on some professional Vinyl printing company which sums up the Pantone problem pretty accurately in the last sentence:
Sign Vinyl Colours Matched to Pantone® or RAL Colour Systems.
Graphics are often specified by the end user to be produced to one of several colour matching reference systems that are used across industries, including Pantone®, RAL and British Standards.
Most Sign Vinyl ranges are not cross referenced to these systems, as a typical vinyl range will never be able to match the variations of shades in each colour matching system. A true match can often more simply be produced by digitally printing the colour.
YIKES!!!
2 [EDIT] or 3 Iterations are definitely best here.....
EXACTLY!!!!
Hence why I said Yikes!!!
Admittedly I dispute how professional they actually are but they are offering "professional services"...
Anway it just highlights my point about having 2 or 3 iterations.
It's the same with file sizes and types for displaying Logo's on the web now...
Let's not even go there with Retina displays, 4K or even 8-12K monitors planned for release in the next year or so....
There's a couple of questions asked here:
1) I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong but - Quite a few external companies will struggle to Litho print on vinyl as they often need a system to very very quickly dry the inks before they starting running etc. etc. and causing a large mess... However, it is possible to find specialist printing companies etc that "claim" they can handle this... See this quick google search here about litho printing on Vinyl:
- Specialist UV Printing and Varnishing | Victoria Litho
- Litho Printing - Optima Graphics - design, digital, litho, screen, print
- UV litho vs conventional litho | Xcaliba
2) Yes technically....BUT... only to a point....
As this article I read summed it up as well as I could probably explain I'll just quote directly:
Myth 3: Pantone Colors will Look the Same on Any Material
If you’re using real Pantone ink, you’re good to go, right? But don’t forget to consider what you’re printing on. Suddenly, you might be asking yourself, “Why doesn’t my logo look the same on vinyl as it does on metal?”
The fact is, the material you choose could affect the shade of ink. Some materials are darker, more translucent, or more absorbent than others. A professional vendor should be able to help you get it closer to the color you want, but be prepared for a difference. Sometimes there’s just not much you can do. For example, perforated vinyl is simply less vibrant than regular vinyl.
Tip: For unusual or dark materials like metal and wood, an undercoat of white will help. Generally, white paper shows color splendidly. Pantone provides a different ink for Coated (C) and Uncoated (U) papers. Pick a Pantone number for both versions ahead of time and use the one that’s right for your project. Keep in mind that Uncoated will probably look less vibrant, and sometimes will be a different number than the Coated version.
From: Ways You’re Using Pantone Wrong: Fact vs. Myth - Mixed Media Creations
Essentially you will need to decide as part of the Branding Guidelines - How much deviation from the colour is allowed? If very little deviation is acceptable then you need to revise the colour mix or the choice of colours used in the Logo to get it to acceptable levels.
You will always get some deviation no matter how hard you try...it's like trying to design a responsive website... You will get it working wonderfully in most browsers and screen sizes.. then some "burger" will come along and try and view your site in some really old/alien browser or monitor size and then moan endlessly that they can't see anything properly...
You gotta decide how much you can care and work hard to minimise the chance for people to mess with your rules.
Some trial and error will be the only way to make your guidelines fully "rugged".
3) Yes again for the most part it should be the in-house printing that will struggle the most and bring the most pitfalls.
Best,
EW
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
Also if the external print companies are getting the Pantone colour wrong then you have two options:
- 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.
- 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.
- Find a more recognised and safer Pantone colour that Printers generally have less trouble with.
- Admittedly this sort of defeats the point of Pantone vs CMYK but is still an option.....
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