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How to Pick Print Colours for Your Logo

“I was disappointed with the results. Our logo looked red. It was supposed to be pink.”

How many of us have said something like the statement above?

Colours are an essential component of a brand. In fact, it can speak volumes about branding and identity. Yet we often find ourselves in situations where the colours just aren’t quite the shade or hue we were looking for, especially when we do our printing projects.

Colour Referencing

In order to communicate what colours we want, we will have to talk about Colour Referencing Systems. Broadly speaking, I have two categories for these systems.

1. Electronic Colours

These are electronically generated colours. In the electronic world, there are virtually unlimited colours and shades that we can generate. These colours are typically referenced in HEX, RGB, HSV.

If you have built a website before, you should be familiar with these.

2. Physical Print Colours

Unlike electronic colours, there are limitations shades and hues available as physical colours. In the real world, there are limitations associated with pigments, mixing techniques, etc.

CMYK and PMS (Pantone Matching System) are two of the most common physical colour references.

Tips on Getting the Colours Right

1. Pick a Physical Colour First

You should always pick a physical colour first. I recommend using PMS. Most printers will recognise PMS and can easily replicate any of the colours available in PMS.

If you are just starting out with your design, you can go to the PMS colour finder to find the shade that is just right for you.
https://www.pantone.com/color-finder

Make sure to document your selected PMS colour codes in your Branding Guidelines for easy referencing in the future.

2. Use Electronic Colours Appropriately

Finding the electronic colour equivalent is easy now that you have your PMS colours. All you need to do is use a colour picking tool to extract the HEX, HSV or even the CMYK equivalent. Free colour picking tools are available as a browser extension or as a stand-alone program.

It is also a good idea to document these colour codes in your Branding Guidelines.

3. Monitor Calibration and Human Eyesight

Just be aware that your computer monitor can be calibrated to show colours differently. Even the human eye can perceive colours differently.

If you are unsure of how the colours look, you can always open a logo file on a different computer to see how it looks, or get somebody else to look at it for you.

I’m sure the Elves will appreciate it when you use the colour guidelines given in this article. PMS works best, if not CMYK will do.

Do you have any other colour tips?

Regards,
Papa Elf