Understanding the difference between PMS and CMYK is important for custom packaging and determining which method best fits your needs. It also helps you and your designers determine the format in which you need to specify the colors in your design files for printing.
PMS stands for Pantone Matching System, a color standardization system that identifies and matches color. This ensures that between vendors, platforms, and designs, colors are always a true match. It also helps guarantee that reorders of your packaging are consistent to the color and quality of previous orders.
CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (Black). These are the primary colors used for printing. For each Pantone color, there is a perfect mixture of CMYK that represents the desired color and ensures consistency of that color every time.
By default, Packlane does not guarantee color-matching between CMYK and PMS colors. Due to the nature of digital printing and variances between manufacturing runs of the board on which packaging is printed, color matching can be a time-consuming effort.
If your order requires PMS color-matching, reach out to our Packlane Plus experts for guidance in artwork setup and a quote that includes the appropriate types of proofing to ensure a great result.