PANTONE Premium Metallics or PANTONE Matching System Metallics?

Currently, PANTONE has two parallel Metallics colour fans:

PANTONE Metallics Coated: Contains the classic metallic shades available since the late 1980s.
- Main basic colours: PANTONE 877, 876, 875 …
- Typical colour names: PANTONE 8020, 8040, 8060, etc.
PANTONE Premium Metallics Coated: The new Metallics fan, which has been in existence since 2012, showing new, finer metallic shades.
- Main basic colour: PANTONE Silver 10077 C
- Typical colour names: PANTONE 10142, 10158, 10214, etc.

The main differences between the two fans lie in the composition of their respective basic colours: Firstly, there is the different Pantone Silver: PANTONE 877 or PANTONE Silver 10077 C. On the other hand, in the PANTONE Metallics Coated the silver is supplemented by further gold basic colours, while in the PANTONE Premium Metallics Coated the newly defined silver is the only metallic basic colour and is tinted by PANTONE Goe basic colours.

Pantone 877 and the gold inks contain metal flakes which, after the ink has dried on the paper, settle on the ink surface like leaves, creating a silver effect. This irregular surface structure can be very different and depends, among other things, on the drying time of the ink. As a result, the silver effect could vary from print to print. After varnishing, the silver effect was usually much weaker and less brilliant than before print finishing.

PANTONE Silver C(called PANTONE Silver 10077 C in the fan, but today mostly communicated by Pantone itself as PANTONE Silver C) consists of finely emulsified metal particles, which, in contrast to the metal flakes of the 877, are very evenly distributed on the paper due to the colour. The result is a more even, calm and brilliant silver surface that retains its shine and brilliance even after varnishing and is more stable in perspective than the previous colour. According to PANTONE, the durability of the ink has also been improved. The new silver is compatible with UV and water-based lacquers and can be laminated and foil embossed.

The Premium Metallics C colour fan from PANTONE shows colour reproduction with and without dispersion varnish. Important for printers: Due to the different composition, the manufacturer Eckhart recommends a different density: 1.0 for PANTONE 877 and only 0.7 for the new PANTONE Silver C, each measured with a polarized densitometer via the black filter.

One thing is not quite clear: The new 300 PANTONE Premium Metallics C colours are mixed from PANTONE Silver 10077 C and PANTONE Goe basic colours. However, GOE was discontinued in 2014. According to information from a Pantone employee, the colour shades will be converted to the 18 Pantone Matching System basic colours in a new fan generation – PANTONE Bright Orange (GOE) would then become PANTONE Orange 021 (PMS) as the basic colour. Since the basic colour is the same anyway, and has only differed in the thickness of the layer, this has no effect on the colourfulness.

Both PANTONE colour fans are stored as spot colours in our FIERY XF for the proof and can therefore be proofed as spot colours by Proof.de – in the context of the very poor proofability of metallic colours. As no metallic pigments are available for proofing, the silvery effect is only simulated by the velvety gloss of the proof paper. We use the EFI 4245 Gravure Proof Paper, which has a satin surface and allows a halfway decent silver simulation. However, a reasonable preview of the expected printing result is only possible in the PANTONE colour fan.

You can order PANTONE 877 or PANTONE Silver C Proofs here

PANTONE Premium Metallics or PANTONE Matching System Metallics?

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