Pantone vs hex: matching brand colours across print and screen

Pantone vs hex is really ink versus light. A Pantone colour is a numbered, premixed printing ink you can hold as a physical swatch. A hex code, such as #1d4ed8, is a set of red, green and blue values that tells a screen how much light to emit. Neither converts perfectly into the other. Pantone publishes hex and CMYK equivalents, and they are useful starting points, but a brand that looks right everywhere chooses each version by eye and writes all of them down.

What a Pantone colour actually is

The Pantone Matching System is a catalogue of standard ink recipes, each with a number. A printer anywhere can mix the same recipe and get, within tolerance, the same colour. The suffix tells you the paper it was designed for: C for coated and U for uncoated. The same ink looks brighter and crisper on coated stock and softer, darker and flatter on uncoated, so a code like PMS 186 C and PMS 186 U are deliberately listed as separate swatches.

Spot colour vs process colour

Many brands use both: the logo printed as a Pantone spot colour on letterheads and packaging, and a CMYK match for full colour leaflets. RGB vs CMYK explains why process colour loses some of the brightest shades.

Hex and RGB: colour as light

A hex code is just RGB written in base 16: two characters each for red, green and blue, from 00 to ff. #1d4ed8 means red 29, green 78, blue 216. It is precise as a number but not as an appearance, because every screen renders it a little differently depending on its panel, brightness and settings. Colour codes explained covers hex, RGB, HSL and the rest.

Why Pantone to hex conversions are approximate

• Different gamuts: some Pantone inks, especially bright oranges, greens, fluorescents and metallics, sit outside what a standard screen can show.
• Paper and light: an ink swatch changes with paper and with the light you view it under; a screen emits its own light.
• Screens vary: the same hex looks different on two monitors, so no single hex can match a physical ink everywhere.
• Updates: Pantone has revised its digital values over the years, so older brand guides may list different hex equivalents for the same ink.

How to match a brand colour across print and screen

1. 1

   Decide which medium leads

   If the brand lives mostly in print, such as packaging or a shop front, choose the Pantone first. If it lives mostly on screens, choose the hex first and find the nearest Pantone.

2. 2

   Pick from a physical guide

   Choose the ink from a printed Pantone guide in daylight or neutral light, in the coated or uncoated book that matches your paper.

3. 3

   Find the closest screen colour by eye

   Start from Pantone's published hex, then hold the swatch beside a calibrated or good quality screen and adjust until the two feel the same.

4. 4

   Get a CMYK breakdown from your printer

   Ask for the best CMYK version on their press and paper, for jobs that won't use the spot ink.

5. 5

   Proof everything

   Print a test of the CMYK version and compare it with the swatch before a large run.

6. 6

   Write all four values down

   Record Pantone, CMYK, RGB and hex in your brand style guide, so nobody converts on the fly.

{
  "brand-blue": {
    "pantone": "Chosen from the coated guide, e.g. PMS xxxx C",
    "pantoneUncoated": "Matched separately in the uncoated guide",
    "cmyk": "From your printer, checked on a proof",
    "rgb": "rgb(29 78 216)",
    "hex": "#1d4ed8"
  }
}

Brand colours beyond a single swatch

A flat brand colour is easy to specify and easy to copy, and on screen many brands now add depth with light, gradients and texture. Those live in RGB: build them from the brand hex and its neighbours, and keep the flat Pantone for print jobs where a single exact ink matters. Brand colour codes and how to choose brand colours go further.

A Gradiently Mark takes that idea further: a living background with its own colours, light and grain, owned by one brand at a time. Search the Market by colour words such as "deep blue" to find one close to your brand colour.