Kornit’s Digital Printing Glossary
Pantone Book
Pantone Book
What Is a Pantone Book?
A Pantone book is a printed reference tool used to identify and match colors in printing and other industries.
The book contains hundreds or thousands of standardized color swatches defined by the Pantone Matching System (PMS). Each color has a unique code that allows printers to communicate the color requirement. Professionals can reference a specific Pantone code to ensure the final printed result matches the intended design.
Pantone books are widely used in industries such as apparel decoration, textile production, packaging, branding, and graphic design.
Why Pantone Books Are Important in Printing
Pantone books help eliminate guesswork by providing a universal color reference for consistency purposes. Their main advantages include:
- Standardized color communication: Designers and printers can refer to the same Pantone code to reproduce colors accurately.
- Reliable color matching: Physical swatches show how colors appear when printed with real ink rather than on screens.
- Brand consistency: Many companies define official brand colors using Pantone codes to maintain visual identity across products and materials.
- Production accuracy: Printers can mix inks to match a specific Pantone color during screen printing.
Because lighting, monitors, and materials can affect perceived color, physical Pantone guides remain an essential tool for professional color management.
Types of Pantone Books
Pantone produces several types of color guides designed for different industries and printing methods. Common examples include:
- Pantone Solid Coated and Solid Uncoated guides: Used for traditional offset and screen printing applications.
- Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors (FHI): Designed for textiles, fabrics, and product design.
- Pantone Color Bridge guides: Show how Pantone colors convert to CMYK printing values.
These guides allow designers and printers to select colors that can be reproduced across materials and production methods.
Pantone and Digital Textile Production
While Pantone guides remain important for color specification, digital textile printing is changing how colors are produced.
Digital workflows allow printers to reproduce complex designs, gradients, and photographic images without mixing individual spot colors for each job.
Kornit’s digital textile printing technology supports consistent color reproduction powered by QualiSet – smart autonomous calibration – for color accuracy and consistency across orders, jobs, systems, and sites. Meanwhile, Kornit Apollo offers color accuracy to match PANTONE© and spot colors
Contact us to learn more about it today.