Interesting dilemma

[Andy D]

PANTONE colors books represent colors of finished "mixed ink" which has a recipe on how to mix it - similar to how Sherwin Williams mixes paint to an exact color. That mixed ink or SPOT COLOR is then loaded into a press and what you see is what you get. The reason a PANTONE BRIDGE book exists, is that there is a distinct difference of printing PANTONE colors in CMYK vs. mixing the correct PANTONE color due to the color gamut limitations of CMYK. The one chip shows the SPOT COLOR if you mixed the ink to produce that PANTONE color, the other shows how that color prints using CMYK or PROCESS COLOR printing.

Agreed. I would add that our CMYK printers only print four colors; Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black, everything else is an illusion of color & we all see those illusions differently.
Years ago, I had a picky customer that had rejected several hard copy proofs of their multi PMS critical layout. It was getting down to the wire, so the business owner had me print
out each PMS color with about 30 variations of that color, he had everyone in the business that worked with colors (Painters, Print techs, Sales) pick the color on the swatch
that they thought best matched the PMS book... That was a huge learning experience for me, you would not believe the huge disparities between the colors people picked, they went from
one end of the color swatch to the other and those colors looked nothing alike. Moral of the story, color matching digital graphics to spot-colors is very subjective, color critical
projects must have the customer's signature on a printed sample.

 

[HulkSmash]

This is a pretty cut and dry situation. The long time client isn't happy - make them happy. redo the prints, done. No need to get a million opinions on this. Basic business 101.

 

[Bly]

Agree with Hulk.
But when a client says a colour must match a Pantone I say look it will be pretty close in CMYK.
If you want us to match closer and send a proof it will be $50.
Not many are critical enough to spend the time or money.

 

[HulkSmash]

We never agree to match a pantone, we show them how close we can get, and either take on the job, or send them on their way. you will waste time and money to exact match a pantone, educate your customer about the outdoor printer inks, and explain this isn't a xerox laser printer. usually they're ok and accept it. the ones that don't you really don't w

 

[Carol Sundberg]

We've encountered a similar problem as well with a couple clients & are planning to highly recommend a production color sample for all color critical projects. Any suggestions on how to charge? 1 sample? multiple samples? follow-up samples?

 

[gabagoo]

Agree with Hulk.
But when a client says a colour must match a Pantone I say look it will be pretty close in CMYK.
If you want us to match closer and send a proof it will be $50.
Not many are critical enough to spend the time or money.

But I did match the pantone!!! I'm not going to reprint anything if it was done right!!! Not my fault that they use a pdf file and a computer screen to verify colours. My client won't drop me for this. I have proved to them that the colour is correct...it is their client ( probably some 25 year old fresh out of Uni) who doesn't own a pantone book. The banner stands are still here in the back and I have no idea whats going to happen to them, but I was paid already so I am not going to worry about it.

 

[ColorCrest]

We've encountered a similar problem as well with a couple clients & are planning to highly recommend a production color sample for all color critical projects. Any suggestions on how to charge? 1 sample? multiple samples? follow-up samples?

Charge nothing.

Upon learning what color sample to match, you should already know if your process can reach the particular color. If so, then do it. If not, no amount of "samples" will hit the color. You should be able to provide a free sample or a substitute ID number from stock to see if the color will suffice.

 

[Johnny Best]

Also when you match pantone colors you have to keep in mind what it is printed on. If the person at the bank sees the color every day printed on his or hers business card it might be different than what you printed on their banners, but in your case it might be "your" banners until you fix the problem. Printing the same color on glossy or matt paper or gloss vinyl will yield different results.