Should i use pantone coated or uncoated

My questions are. First- is it common when creating corporate identities to have multiple PMS colors dependent on paper coating to maintain a consistent visual match?

Second- Any advice on how to relay this to both the foundation and print providers that if they want to visually match PMS on uncoated stock to use PMS ?

Last edited: Jul 1, Click to expand Last edited: Jul 2, I would put money on their inconsistencies on past jobs being the direct result of jobs that have to be digitally printed rather than litho. I've battled this many a time with clients and tweaked for hours. You'll be chasing that colour around forever and will never match it from one paper to the next.

Especially true for coloured stock. Still not a thought I'd entertain. Also, for both questions, a "visual" match is a problematic criteria. Whose color vision would be considered the technical standard? What is their visual tolerance? Craig Well-known member. D Ink Man Well-known member. For more fun :. Craig said:. D Ink Man said:. PricelineNegotiator Well-known member. I have been following that thread thank you. I do understand why the same ink looks different on coated vs uncoated.

Now knowing I have a solution to give my client a better product by using 2 different PMS colors dependent on coated vs uncoated, i am more interested in how to strategically document, create logos and art versions in a manner that is clear and direct with minimum risk of misuse. PricelineNegotiator said:.

Good luck. I think that the only way to do this correctly is for the foundation to hire you as a contractor for a minimum of 10 years at a fat rate, and have you control all print work or anything that involves these colors.

To my knowledge, using "uncoated" is not a standard, it's situational. I personally use coated by default even when I work on uncoated print job; I refer to my printed Pantone book for a preview, not my screen. In general, in standard offset printing, the same ink is used to print a C or a U on coated and uncoated , unless you need something special such as a magnetic black for cheques or forms, or a fast drying ink for example.

To verify this, look at the recipe of the uncoated and coated Pantone your printer will probably use: They are the same. Printing on uncoated stock generally requires more ink because the stock is more absorbent. If you have a look at ink sellers, you will notice their ink estimator will give you different results for the same quantity of prints; less ink for coated, more ink for uncoated. Pantone's PMS colours are based on specific physical ink formulations. The Coated or Uncoated versions of the books and colour palettes are there to indicate what the ink will look like once printed.

Generally, ink on coated papers can be significantly more vivid. However - this isn't the case for their Color Bridge swatches! CMYK process values are totally different between the coated and uncoated variants.

I really don't know why Process Uncoated colours are significantly weaker ink mixes than Process Coated. Makes zero sense to me.

Why would you reduce the ink when for uncoated substrates you need more to compensate for absorption? Does anybody know? Unless you're mocking up an RGB visual and would like an approximation of poorly printed colours, or otherwise like the duller colours therein, avoid using Color Bridge Uncoated.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. This coating makes the paper less absorbent and takes ink better. Think of it as the coat of primer you'd use before painting your walls.

Uncoated paper is just that; paper without the coated layer. It's often used for letterhead, printer paper, copy machine paper, etc. Sometimes it will be classified as "bond" or "writing," but those are just other ways of saying "uncoated.

Regardless of whether a color is C or U , the ink is made the same. Since coated papers allow the ink to sit on the surface, it remains rich and vibrant. The uncoated sheet allows more ink to be absorbed into the paper. Sometimes the minerals used as pigment to color the inks effect how it will absorbed and also effects the color.

This color is made mostly from Transparent White which you'll remember is essentially "clear" and allows more paper to show though the ink.

On the other hand when that same ink is applied to a Kraft Mailer or an uncoated piece of paper, it gets absorbed into the material. The coated surface generally has a brighter finish while the uncoated has a more matte or faded finish. When selecting the color you want for a print, first determine if the printing substrate is coated or uncoated. CMYK is incredible because you can render virtually any color using them.

With Pantone colors, you are limited to the number of colors your printing press is capable of printing. If your materials mailers, boxes, notecards, etc are being printed using a digital print process, they will likely utilize CMYK colors.

In a digital printing process, software translates an image on a screen to the printer, which renders the image on a substrate using the CMYK process approach. If your materials are being printed using flexographic or offset printing, they can use either Pantone or CMYK colors. Flexographic or offset printing is a process by which a printing plate is produced that matches your artwork.

You should therefore ask how your material is being printed. Once you know what type of printing is being used, you can then determine whether or not you need to be thinking about PMS or CMYK colors, and develop your art file and color strategy accordingly. An art file that is going to be printed with Pantone inks should ultimately be translated into specific PMS colors for each layer or color in that file.

Much of the custom printed packaging EcoEnclose produces is done flexographically with Pantone inks. Typically, a company sends us an art file and then specifies their desired PMS color or two colors if it is a two color print for that file. Depending on the print, selecting the PMS colors may be your job as the customer, or in more complex, multi-color prints, it may be the job of the printer if the art file requires someone to build and layer PMS colors to achieve a final image.

This allows you to match colors on paper, rather than on a screen, given that RGB or HEX colors on a screen are not designed to exactly match a print out. Much of what EcoEnclose custom prints for companies is actually a kraft material - such as corrugated shipping boxes, kraft mailers, padded mailers and apparel mailers.