Colour Guide

We dye our fabrics to best match the international colour pallet referred to as PMS. The Pantone® Matching System (PMS) is a standardised colour matching system that utilises the Pantone® numbering system for identifying colours in both textile dyes and inks. By standardising these colours, different manufacturers in different locations or even countries can all reference a Pantone® numbered colour, making sure colours match. The most commonly referenced colours are in the Pantone® solids palette.

The Pantone® Solid palette consists of 1,114 colours, identified by three or four digit numbers,followed by a C, U, or M suffix. Originally designed for the graphics industry, the Pantone® solids palette is now used by a wide range of industries, and is the most commonly used palette. For example, Pantone 199 Red can be identified as Pantone 199C (C= Coated Paper), Pantone 199U (U= Uncoated Paper) or Pantone 199M (M=Matte Paper). So, when you say Red you could mean any number of shades.

Every good Screen Print Company uses an ink mixing system that corresponds with the Pantone® Matching System (PMS). Despite the exact nature of Pantone® colours, what you see is not always what you get when screen printing on textiles and PMS ‘Fan’ Books come in coated and uncoated versions. Textiles do not come in coated and uncoated versions so C (or coated colours) are the best match for screen printing. Standard plastisol screen print ink has little shine by nature and more closely resembles the look of the coated PMS Colours.

Screen printing on dark garments requires an underbase so the true colour of the ink can be seen vibrantly because without an underbase the ink colours are absorbed by the garment. An underbase is a layer of white ink before the design colours are printed and some lighter garments can be printed with no underbase depending on the colour of the garment and the ink colour.