Problems with PANTONE?

[Commando]

I had a customer tell me the PANTONE numbers for an order of signs he wants. I sent him a sample and the colors were WAY off! I thought PANTONE was a "universal" kinda thingyyy..
He sent me a pick of his chart and the colors were way different.
I went to a couple of sites, and one of them, we matched on the numbers. On another page, they were the colors he needed.
I know there are several different types of PANTONES but they were the same series..
WTF
Do I need a new book and upgrade on my uniform fill or something?

 

[the graphics co]

There are a lot of variable when it comes to specifying pantones. Are you working off of the same book as the client? Pantone + Color Bridge Coated is the best for sign making, but there are a handful of books that use the same numbers but they are printed on different stocks with different coatings which causes shifts in the colors. This is where the letters behind the numbers come into play, for example 290pc is 290 process coated and 290c is the same color in rgb or web color space. Obviously you will be working off of the process side of the list. It is recommended that you replace your books yearly as they will fade over time.

Are your printouts matching your pantone color book? Or, are you just picking the pantone color out of illustrator and hoping for the best?

 

[Commando]

It was the coated series.
This book is old, and I did mention they could fade, but they are matching my printouts..
The book I am using is actually a formula guide. (We used to only screen print up until a few months ago). But like I said, they match..
I just made him my own PANTONE chart (lol) and will mail that to him. If we cant come up with a number, I am going to get him to send me the original sign and I match them myself.

 

[gabagoo]

It was the coated series.
This book is old, and I did mention they could fade, but they are matching my printouts..
The book I am using is actually a formula guide. (We used to only screen print up until a few months ago). But like I said, they match..
I just made him my own PANTONE chart (lol) and will mail that to him. If we cant come up with a number, I am going to get him to send me the original sign and I match them myself.

He may find out that his original signs were printed wrong!!!

 

[Commando]

He may find out that his original signs were printed wrong!!!

LOL
They were the numbers the guy gave him. He loves that color combination, I reckon

 

[DesireeM]

You're probably best to buy a new pantone swatch book. I have the Pantone + Solid coated and uncoated books and they are all I really need because I just use it as a reference for cmyk printing. It's always good to stay current.

They are supposed to be universal but in the last few years Pantone has made changes to some of their Pantone colors. There are legitimate reasons for that but you'll have to look it up cuz I don't remember exactly.

I don't remember which blue it was, but recently another designer specified a blue pantone for a customers signs so I colormatched my cmyk print to the pantone swatch in my P+ solid coated color book. They contacted us shortly after picking up their signs to say the color was wrong...there was a lot of confusion back and forth over the phone.."The prints match my Pantone swatch!!" "Well they don't match MY pantone swatch" so the other designer came here and we compared the SAME Pantone swatch and, sure enough, they were WAY different...like Royal blue vs Navy blue different.
His swatch book was maybe 5 years old - mine was about 2 years old.

OHHHH and....they've also made changes to some of the CMYK and RGB values/equivalents of their digital libraries so a couple times I've received an .eps file from a customer and an object in the file was set to a Pantone color but it was using the "digital signature" from the customer's digital Pantone library. My exact same Pantone swatch had different cmyk values and looked different on screen. Even printed differently through our rip. So watch for that too....

 

[Commando]

You're probably best to buy a new pantone swatch book. I have the Pantone + Solid coated and uncoated books and they are all I really need because I just use it as a reference for cmyk printing. It's always good to stay current.

They are supposed to be universal but in the last few years Pantone has made changes to some of their Pantone colors. There are legitimate reasons for that but you'll have to look it up cuz I don't remember exactly.

I don't remember which blue it was, but recently another designer specified a blue pantone for a customers signs so I colormatched my cmyk print to the pantone swatch in my P+ solid coated color book. They contacted us shortly after picking up their signs to say the color was wrong...there was a lot of confusion back and forth over the phone.."The prints match my Pantone swatch!!" "Well they don't match MY pantone swatch" so the other designer came here and we compared the SAME Pantone swatch and, sure enough, they were WAY different...like Royal blue vs Navy blue different.
His swatch book was maybe 5 years old - mine was about 2 years old.

OHHHH and....they've also made changes to some of the CMYK and RGB values/equivalents of their digital libraries so a couple times I've received an .eps file from a customer and an object in the file was set to a Pantone color but it was using the "digital signature" from the customer's digital Pantone library. My exact same Pantone swatch had different cmyk values and looked different on screen. Even printed differently through our rip. So watch for that too....

I wish I could hug you! lol This has really blown my mind.
Everything you said happened! He originally sent in an EPS file from the original. He thought I had changed the first sample! lol (Yes, I have sent 2)
I reckon I am going to find a new book and see if I can upgrade my COREL PANTONE colors. As the print matches my book..