In printing industry colour is the real game-changer. A simple design can overshadow a creative masterpiece if the colours used in it are vibrant & appealing. In fact, designers devote their most of the time to decide about the perfect colour that instantly enhances the look & feel of a creative. It draws more significance when it comes to brand logo as no brand can afford their logo being displayed in different colours every time. And then, PMS that is Pantone Matching System comes to rescue.

CMYK & PMS: The Difference

Printing industry primarily revolves around two colour system styles: CMYK & PMS.

CMYK colour style is often used in Offset printing with four base colours including Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and black. One can produce a wide array of colours by varying the quantities of these four primary colours.
On the other hand, PMS or Pantone Matching System has 14 basic colour palette. The colours used in this system are referred as Pantone colours and they appear more accurate on printing. That’s the reason designers/printers prefer pantone colours over CMYK for printing brand logos, stationary & other collateral that are supposed to be colour consistent all across.

Pantone Colours

A Pantone colour is a specific numbered color in the Pantone Matching System used in the graphic arts, printing and other industries to facilitate accurate and consistent color reproduction. For instance, Pantone 165 C, Pantone 101 C etc. One can choose a pantone colour that best suits the design from the pantone swatch book.

THE PMS BENEFITS

Standard Language of Colours

Also referred as spot colour, the pantone colours offer a more standard language to the colour system. As these colour are premixed and carry a particular name for every colour-shade, it becomes easier to maintain the same colour across different printers.
Let’s demystify this with an example. If someone needs to print red 152C, he can directly pick the same colour from pantone colour swatch rather than wasting hours on matching CMYK.

Provides great colour consistency to designs

Maintaining the same colour consistency every time is the biggest challenge that a print company/designer faces. With the CMYK colour style, that is both inexpensive and efficient, making it great for printing brochures, catalogs, or anything else with lots of images, it is still a difficult job to be colour-accurate for the designer. And here, the PMS is something one can swear by for colour accuracy. It ensures colour consistency & therefore preferred for all corporate identity jobs.

Hope, the above information will help you to understand the colour better & choose a colour style that not only provides you with quality designs but fits with your budget as well!