Which PANTONE book?

[Lukas Engqvist]

That is probably a level two thing. If customers understand that printing flourescents and metalics is not doable in CMYK, then we at least have the ball rolling our way.

[michaelejahn]

Hi Ritter,

my intent is just to reproduce exactly some colors when I go to print both digital and litho. When I have got a client asking for a precise color, should I show him the CMYK reference in Bridge Swatch?
I think this is the core of my problem. So many times I have try to get the nearest color but now I want to be sure that when I go to print I won't get a bad surprise!!!
Thanks again.

Yes, you are getting the basic idea. Here are a few other things that are important when speaking to a customer about color matching a color in a Pantone fan book.

What you are using is a CMYK printing GUIDE. That is what they call it - a guide. Be sure you and your customers fully embrace that idea - it is not like a manufacturing engineering specification where it is accurate to some precise L*a*b* values like they do when they create car panels and they are using a single colorant on a single substrate with no variation in the process.

Pantone prints this guide using a far different process that you do, on a one of a kind printing press - and they print it on a very specific paper - both of these things will effect what the CMYK build looks like - for this reason, it is a rare thing indeed to get your press sheet to look identical to that Pantone swatch in a side by side comparison. Lighting - or the color temperature of the light used when viewing - also can change how the color is looks - you may find that in your press area that you have a nice match, but when the customer opens and views that same thing in their offices, the color shifts dramatically - metamerism is a tricky thing to grasp sometimes, but it is a fact of life - My friend Jim Raffel's blog post might help you get you head around this..

Golden Nugget #16 Matamerism & Color Management at JimRaffel.com

One thing you will notice in the Pantone color bridge book is that many of the CMYK build are quite different that the Pantone color - one of my favorite examples is Pantone 151 or more recently, Pantone Goe 13-1-6 C - the color of a Cheese Doodle - the CMYK build is no where near the spot color version - the CMYK simulation is dull and brownish compared to the bright saturated orange. Setting a customers expectation level is key.

Finally, many people discount this, but where two colors are within proximity to each other, colors seem to appear differently - Research Demonstration Images

Hope this helps !