Which color guide is right for you?

COLOR FOR PRINT AND PACKAGING

Clients ask me every day every day about color guides, wishing to ensure they are looking at the right guide for the right project. Pantone produce two different color systems, for both the Graphic Design industry, as well as guides for Fashion, Home + Interiors. Here, I'm sharing best advice on Pantone Graphics color guides.

PANTONE FORMULA GUIDE

Formula Guide is Pantone’s most globally recognized and used color guide. With 1,867 Pantone Spot Colors and ink formulations, it is the musthave professional graphic design tool recommended for color inspiration, communication, specifi cation, production, and quality control. Fan out, select, and communicate your Pantone Colors, but don’t forget to keep your guide up-to-date! Colors fade over time and your old guide may be missing new colors.

PANTONE COLOR BRIDGE

The Pantone Color Bridge guide is a multifaceted tool, providing a side-by-side visual comparison of Pantone Spot Colors (Formula Guide colors) versus their closest CMYK process printing equivalent. The Pantone Color Bridge can save you time and money when used before production to see what your spot color might look like when printed in 4-color process. But that’s not all: Color Bridge also provides CMYK, Hex and RGB values for each color, making it the go-to tool for digital design.

PANTONE EXTENDED GAMUT

Extended color gamut printing is the latest development in process printing technology. The Pantone Extended Gamut guide allows for ~90% better Pantone Spot Color matches over CMYK by adding Orange, Green, and Violet to the color gamut. Each color is displayed with both the ink percentages and as the RGB values. For eye-catching color on a budget, Extended Gamut is the ideal tool to help with your print production workflow.

Learn more about the Pantone Graphics System