Pantone Matching Book

[Bronze]

Hi Guys,

I've got someone who's printing onto clothes for me via sublimation.

He said for accurate colour reproduction, it's best to buy a pantone book.

I've had a look and was astounded by how dear the books are.
From what I've seen they use the coated pantones and then when I submit the design I give the relevant numbers. That means I only need the coated book/s but what I wanted to ask was, if I print using a colour from the book, in theory if their doing everything right, will it print identically?

Just making sure it's worth buying before I put the cash down.

Cheers

Bronze

[bms]

He said for accurate colour reproduction, it's best to buy a pantone book.

I've had a look and was astounded by how dear the books are.
From what I've seen they use the coated pantones and then when I submit the design I give the relevant numbers. That means I only need the coated book/s but what I wanted to ask was, if I print using a colour from the book, in theory if their doing everything right, will it print identically?

If you are printing with sublimation inks then a pantone match is not possible. When you print you are using a mixture of CMYK colours then heat pressing and pressing onto different substrates. This whole process means that pantone matching is not possible - you will get close, but not identical.

[Bronze]

If you are printing with sublimation inks then a pantone match is not possible. When you print you are using a mixture of CMYK colours then heat pressing and pressing onto different substrates. This whole process means that pantone matching is not possible - you will get close, but not identical.

Thanks bms for the reply.

He did say it's not possible to get exact matches but close enough like you've mentioned.

As I'm using pantone colours for the designs, would you recommend the book just to check the colour as colours can look different on a computer monitor?

[bms]

As I'm using pantone colours for the designs, would you recommend the book just to check the colour as colours can look different on a computer monitor?

What do you want to check the colours against?

[Bronze]

What do you want to check the colours against?

Against the book. (If that makes sense).

So for example say I choose a particular yellow, I check the book to make sure it's similar to what I wanted.

I just don't know wether to trust my computer screen. Apparently any colour can look brighter or duller than intended due to the monitor.

I've tried to calibrate my screen as well as possible but still don't know wether to trust it.

So just wondering if the pantone matching book will help in that aspect?

Thanks

Bronze

[Andrew]

We use a pantone book for getting the colour that a customer asks for. I know the general theory is you can't pantone match in sublimation but we do this for many of our customers. The problem is it can take several test prints to achieve the correct colour. We have printed various substrates in a full range of shades of blue/red/green etc to give us a starting point in trying to get as near as possible to a pantone. As Martin mentioned, it is safer to say you cannot 100% guarantee a complete match but a pantone book should get you close enough if you do the test prints.

Ebay often has the pantone books. New ones are expensive.

[bms]

Sorry!
I was just trying to work out what you were comparing against. So when you're designing your clothes you might see a, for example, good yellow (printed/ on a t-shirt etc) which you want to use? The book then helps you compare the yellow colour and get a pantone number. You say to your designer that you want a particular yellow in the design (by reference to the pantone book) and they use that to create a digital image for printing. Is that how you want it to work? The yellow printed by sublimation won't be a pantone match, but will be similar.

Or, do you have an image already with a yellow that you want to use? The yellow can be identified in CMYK percentages by using the colour picker in PhotoShop (or similar in other software packages). The image printed to the garment won't be an exact match to the screen (monitors will vary considerably), but close.

So whatever you do the colour won't be a perfect match, so I wonder what purpose the pantone book is going to serve? I might not be able to see the perverbial woods for the trees here!

[Bronze]

We use a pantone book for getting the colour that a customer asks for. I know the general theory is you can't pantone match in sublimation but we do this for many of our customers. The problem is it can take several test prints to achieve the correct colour. We have printed various substrates in a full range of shades of blue/red/green etc to give us a starting point in trying to get as near as possible to a pantone. As Martin mentioned, it is safer to say you cannot 100% guarantee a complete match but a pantone book should get you close enough if you do the test prints.

Ebay often has the pantone books. New ones are expensive.

Thanks for the reply Andrew.
Ebay is definitely the place to get them in terms of price. Like you said it doesn't have to be new.

Sorry!
Or, do you have an image already with a yellow that you want to use? The yellow can be identified in CMYK percentages by using the colour picker in PhotoShop (or similar in other software packages). The image printed to the garment won't be an exact match to the screen (monitors will vary considerably), but close.

It's more of this idea.

I'm sorry, I should've have explained what I was doing in greater detail.

Basically I've been given templates, which I open in Adobe illustrator.

In Illustrator I select colours using the pantone swatch.

After I've designed the template, I send it to my manufacturer with the relevant pantone numbers.
My worry is that the yellow I see on my screen will be completely different to the end result. Yes I know they can't exactly match it but the guy said a pantone book helps as they can get close enough to the original.
This is why I was wondering if a pantone book would be a good guide to see if the colours I was using were along the right lines.
As you've said, computer monitors vary so I'm thinking it'll be a good idea to purchase one.

There's not really any matching involved, it's more of a case of seeing if the pantone colours I'm using on screen are actually the colour I see on the screen and are not effected by the monitor calibration, if that makes sense.

[bms]

I see, in which case I understand tha value of the Pantone book!

[Bronze]

I see, in which case I understand tha value of the Pantone book!

It's my fault for not explaining things very well.

I think I answered my own question within the thread anyway. :biggrin:

Thanks anyway for taking the time to reply ( and Andrew).