Submitted by ExternalUserError t3_zwm0hr in explainlikeimfive
mmmmmmBacon12345 t1_j1vmmri wrote
Color consistency on most systems is barely a priority. Home screens and printers vary wildly
RGB is only for illuminated displays and even that has some pretty wild variations as most screens are not calibrated and don't even try for perfect color consistency. Your average LED/LCD screen is TFT and color accuracy isn't even a priority. Higher end screens are IPS which is at least consistent with colors across itself, you can then get ones that are calibrated to get a consistent view of the colors between computer screens
Pantone isn't for display colors, its for print colors. Most printers are CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) but again there are calibration differences. For general use the CMYK values are close enough. If you want to make 50,000,000 of something at 8 different vendors and have them all look the same you'd need to have some way to specify colors and calibrations beyond just CMYK because that doesn't adjust for if printer A is inherently a bit Cyan heavy in its prints
That's where Pantone comes in. If you specify Pantone Red 032 and everyone has a Pantone calibrated printer and their booklet of reference swatches then all of them will come out looking exactly the same despite using different equipment
mysterylemon t1_j1vsrt6 wrote
This.
Pantone is basically so one person can say "I want this colour from this Swatch book and it needs to look exactly like this" and a printer operator 10 steps down the line can look at their pantone Swatch book and know they are matching to the same colour the original person is.
What Adobe displays on the screen is only a representation of that pantone colour in whatever colour space you are using. Monitor to monitor will vary and then actually printing will give another colour again.
There's no way computer software can display the exact pantone colour it is supposed to represent on every screen in the world accurately. Using pantone colours in illustrator, Photoshop etc. Is for reference. There is no CMYK or RGB value for any colour as that will vary across screens.
You would never go to a printer and say I need the colour on this logo to be c-14 m-45 y-89 k-20. You could but the result wouldn't be what you want. You could, however, use a pantone Swatch to find the closest possible match to what you want and ask them to print that, because then the printer can use their own pantone Swatch to match the colour when they print.
_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ t1_j1w1kot wrote
Desktop printers and cheap bulk presses are CMYK, but a lot of industrial printing is spot-colour. If you’re printing advertising materials or signage or something, you load it with the exact colour inks you want in each area.
imgroxx t1_j1xywln wrote
How does this behave with different kinds of light sources? Some materials are more reflective in some frequencies than others, so a print in one material may look quite different from another when you bring them both under cheap fluorescent lights or something.
Or does Pantone specify a particular kind of light source too?
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