What’s the difference between spot color (Pantone inks) and
full color (CMYK) printing?
Both terms apply to print jobs that are being run at commercial print shops.
Spot color is produced with Pantone Matching System (PMS) inks and is typically used by
a print shop when you are printing a piece with just a few colors, such
as stationery items. Full color (CMYK) printing uses four or more colors to reproduce color
type, images or color photographs.
- Printing in CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) is typically done on digital presses now and are therefore cheaper than printing using Pantone colors, which are printed using the older style "offset" printing presses.
- CMYK inks produce a full color spectrum by using tiny dots in various
combinations to "trick" your eyes into seeing different colors.
- PMS inks are printed as a solid (unless you have a screened element
like a gradient or photo), not like CMYK with tiny dots. Therefore PMS inks are more
vivid and produce sharper text and edges. Almost all stationery pieces used to be printed using PMS inks because of this, and PMS inks still yield superior results for those with a discerning eye.
- PMS inks can be reproduced print shop to print shop, time and again
with the best accuracy. All professional commercial print shops (we're not talking about Kinko's here) have the
Pantone PMS swatch book and should be able to reproduce the PMS color(s)
you selected, no matter where you take your job to be printed.
- Note about CMYK jobs and proofs — a printed piece from a commercial printer will often produce different results in terms of color and sharpness than your office ink jet
or laser printer due to differences in paper, toner type, and printing method. If you have concerns about this, tell your printer, send a sample of a printout you are happy with (if you have one), and/or request a press check or a printed proof to approve.
- Press checks can help avoid surprises for spot color jobs.