Pantone colour palette?

I've got a couple of questions regarding pantone colour selection.

Which pantone colour palette should I use if i'm to prepare a design for commercial printing; Pantone Solid or Pantone Process?

And when the printers say :"Pantone 185", which palette are they referring to?

Pls advice, thanks alot.

when you get a number - that's usually a a spot (solid) color. A special ink you buy at the store...or they use at the printers. Process colors are just CMYK blends. They probably gave you the number so you can use a matching system to find the right CMYK version of the spot color. There's a pantone matching system you can buy...it's about 100$...or you can simply ask the printer guys for the exact CMYK values that would translate the spot color to the closest visual match. They must have the catalog thinghy...

there's a lot of Pantone palletes. Coated and uncoated for instance. it looks like they're different but only on your monitor. The application simulates how a certain Pantone number would look on coated or uncoated paper but the ink is the same.

hmm... so if i'm working in Photoshop, from which palette should I choose my colours from?

why don't you change the palette view to list and look for it? 185 should be a red (C0 M91 Y76 K0)

use the "Process to coated" swatch that should be your best bet

yeah i think i got it. so in the future, working with the Pantone Solid to Process swatch in CMYK mode would be best for print works, am i right?

www.pantone.com has a very extensive knowledge base. I think you need to read some stuff there. They'll most assredly have all your answers

Well, does the document have several colors? sometimes, printers use only black and a Pantone color, so working in CYMK is definitively not a good idea, you'd better work with spot colors, like explained in this tut: http://www.weichertcreative.com/tutorials/2color.php

depends tho, but basic rule of thumb...

If you are printing a 1, 2, 3 color job you want to use spot.

OR

It's 4c, plus another color (like gold) you want to use spot. Note just the gold is spot, the other part of the job will be process.

the other part of the question coated or uncoated, depends on your paper stock.

I dunno if you wanted definitions of process color and spot color or a more specific answer...


:>

also, to answer your question, 'what does it mean Pantone 185?'

Pantone colors are specific colors that will always come out the same way every time, so, if you specify Pantone 185 and you print it on the same stock, it will always look the same. (in theory)

Note that you will be paying extra for any Pantone colors, and if the color isn't as it is on the swatch then you have fodder for not paying, reduced rate or the job to be printed over again.

Whereas, if you print via process you are asking the printer to use CMYK in an approximation of the color you want so, using the Pantone 185, in CMYK terms would be C-0, M-100, Y-90, K-0, so for example if your printer gangs his or her jobs up and there are drastically varying jobs on the plate then you red will be "red" (hopefully) but it might not be the red you expected.

wow... lotsa technical knowledge involved, but i tink i got most of it :D
has been working mostly wif on-screen designs previously, so pardon me for my ignorance involving commercial prints. anyway, thanx guys, great help. ;)