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pantone (pms)

Also known as: PMS · spot colour

Pantone (PMS) is a standardised colour system where each colour has a fixed ink recipe. It guarantees consistent brand colours across different printers and materials when no other method can.

CMYK colour shifts batch-to-batch and printer-to-printer because the four inks mix differently each time. Pantone solves this by using premixed inks — a printer in Toronto and a printer in Tokyo both use the same ink recipe for PMS 286 (a specific blue). Pantone matching is usually only worth the upcharge for branded materials where the colour MUST be exact (think Coca-Cola red). For most marketing prints, CMYK is close enough.