Our Pantone fan decks and chip books should be used as guides to give customers a starting point to create and repeat color. Below are normal printing process variables that can contribute to color appearance and quality changes naturally over time.
Age Relative to Color Variance
If you are looking at a Pantone Guide from prior to 2010 – these guides used a significantly different substrate. Papers are made of natural pulp and fibers; as such, they will yellow over time with exposure to light and other environmental factors. Moisture, temperature, exposure to light, friction (turning pages), natural oils, and soap residue or hand lotion from fingers will contribute to color deterioration and inconsistency.
Paper Qualities Relative to Color Variance
If a paper contains optical brighteners (OBA), the brighteners will tend to “burn out” with exposure to UV light, which will change the paper color (less blue) over time and will also affect the appearance of the transparent ink color printed on top. Pantone’s current paper includes optical brighteners which is representative of current, in-market paper stock varieties. Differences between paper lots and source paper mills results in varying surface characteristics, which can cause slight differences in the absorption rate and “ink hold-out” of the paper. We have occasionally noticed instances where the ink lay on the paper can be affected.
Pigments Relative to Color Variance
Some of the base ink pigments used in creating our guides are not lightfast which means they will naturally discolor when exposed to light. Among these are the Pantone Reflex Blue, Yellow, and Warm Red base inks. Lighter colors – such as pastels – contain less pigment and more Transparent White and are therefore more prone to fading and expiration with normal exposure and guide use.
Normal Printing Processes Relative to Color Variance
As noted – the formulas shown in our guides are starting points. Most printers, as well as Pantone, understand that application of ink to paper requires flexibility in the exact ink recipe in order to compensate for variations that naturally occur in pigments, in ink bases, and in paper stocks, to name a few.
When preparing a press run, Pantone employs an exhaustive regime of testing and checking in an effort to reduce material variations as much as possible. Although we pay a premium price for paper, matched inks and quality control equipment, these variables are reduced but are not always eliminated. Slight variations may occur between printings, as well as during each printing. Within any given printing, this process variation can result in a visual or measured color change.
During Pantone production runs, a representative number of samples are measured using a scanning spectrophotometer in order to provide high confidence in the overall print quality of the production run. Press operators follow the guidance of software to simultaneously adjust the level of all the colors and maintain a small ∆E value. The goal is to achieve less than 2δE2000 for all colors on the page.