Please note that Pantone added an additional 336 colours in the form of supplement books during 2012. We have updated all our products to reflect these supplements, but you can find out more about these changes here.

Summary: This guide helps you understand the various Pantone systems and determine which is the right guide product for your needs.

Jump To:

• General purchasing notes about the guides
• Definitions (don't skip this or the rest won't make sense!)
• The Pantone Systems
  
  
  • Pantone Solid (AKA PMS, Pantone Matching System)
  • Pantone Process System (CMYK colours)
  • Other Pantone Systems
• Do you need to measure colours and match back to Pantone values?
  
• Is your current guide expired?

General Purchasing Notes

• Pantone Guides expire after 2-3 years and should be replaced once they reach this age as the colours in the books will shift over time and no longer be accurate
• Keep your books out of direct sunlight whenever possible!
• The books are arranged chromatically (i.e. like a rainbow) to make colour finding very simple
• Each Plus series guide now includes a ColourChecker lighting indicator to help you determine the best lighting to inspect the colours under
• Pantone books are non returnable once opened as breaking the seal accelerates the fading process of the colours.

Definitions

Before we start, let's just introduce a few definitions that Pantone use a bit differently to everyone else in the printing industry.

Solid Colours - these are usually referred to as 'spot' colours in the printing indutry. That is, these are precise colours for which you can buy a dedicated ink and then print that exact tone using that ink. Spot colours are more precise, but more expensive to print with in general. Spot colours can also include exotic things like metallic tones and neon tones.

Process Colours - these are usually just referred to as CMYK colours in the printing industry - these are colours that can be mixed using standard 4 colour process (CMYK) inks.

Guide/Fan Deck/Formula Guide - These are books of colour swatches to give you a printed reference to the colours for use in your own design work.

Chip Sets - These books contain tear out samples you can use to supply colours to clients for approval etc.

The Pantone Systems

Now, let's start discuss the Pantone systems

1. Pantone Plus Series Solid Colours (formerly known as the Pantone Matching System or PMS)

To repeat - this definies Pantone Solid (i.e. Spot) colours which are available as dedicated inks.

Examples of colours specified in this system:

• PMS 185 C
• Pantone 185 U
• Pantone 185 M
• A small selection also have colour names like Pantone Reflex Blue

This is the most popular system and the one that most people generally mean when they just say 'Pantone colours'. This system now defines over 1500 colours and references for these colours are built into all the major digital imaging and desktop publishing packages.

The actual printed guides to these colours come in three forms (designated in the colour name as C, U and M).

• Coated, to show you what he colour will look like printed on a glossy, coated media
• Uncoated, to show you what the colour will look like on uncoated stock
• Matte, to show you how the colour will look on matte stock

There are specialist extensions to the basic series such as the Pantone Metallics, Pantone Premium Metallics, and Pantone Pastels and Neons.

We recommend these guides for this system:

• Basic Guide for the system with just the standard Pantone Plus PMS colours - Pantone Plus Series Solid Guide
• If you want to match PMS tones to their best approximation in 'process printing' (i.e. standard CMYK without spot inks), or on screen for web work - Pantone Plus Series Colour Bridge
  (this is known as 'process siumlation of solid pantone colours')
• Complete System including specialist extensions like metallics, and including the bridge guide - Pantone Plus Series Essentials
• Chips books if you want to be able to supply colour chips to clients etc. - Pantone Plus Series Solid Chips

2. Pantone Process System (AKA 4 Colour Process Colours or CMYK Colours)

This system defines over 3000 'process' colours - colours mixable with standard CMYK inks. These colours are in no way related or named similarly to the PMS tones of the solid system above. They are simply a nomenclature for CMYK colours without talking about the actual ink mix if you don't want to.

Examples of colours specified in this system:

• Pantone DS 1-4 C
• Pantone DE 250-1 U

The E indicates the European version of the guide/colour, the S the US version, and the C indicates the colours appearance on coated stock, with U being used for unocated stock.

We recommend these guides for this system:

• Basic Guide - Pantone Plus Series CMYK Coated and Uncoated
  

3. Other Pantone Systems

Pantone have some dedicated systems for certain markets including fashion, plastics, home, fabric, paint and interiors. We don't currently handle these and most times even in these industries the colours are specified using the PMS solid system above in practise.

Measuring colours and matching them to Pantones.

This is easy - you need the fantastic little device known as the Capsure. This device will very accurately measure any colour and match it to a Pantone library (most of which are built in). It can build whole palettes, take voice notes, doesn't require a computer to use - it's a great little device!

Is your current Pantone guide expired?

You can use the cute little animation below to determine whether your current Pantone product is expired or not.