Pantone Color chart, is there one available

By nametags on Sep. 07, 2011
Forums: 
Embroidery and Digitizing

Is there some type of general pantone color chart you can buy, to compare pantone colors to embroidery thread colors, to match them up more accurately?

For example, if I wanted to match up Budweiser red, or Home Depot orange, or Packers green or yellow, what is the easiest way to do this, and find the embroidery thread to match it. Those are just examples of course to make it easier to understand what I'm talking about, as they're copyrighted I'm sure.

All help appreciated.

Location: 
United States
Submitted by widners on Wed, 09/07/2011 - 15:33

Do you have the thread chart from your thread manufacturer? They generally have their color number in addition to the panton color number. If there is no direct match in thread though it would be nice to have a pantone chart and visually match it to the closest thread color. How many pantone colors are their though? Have to be a pretty large chart huh?

Submitted by dubiat on Sat, 09/10/2011 - 03:14

Not to sound dumb,but I was a printer for 25 years. That was before I got layed off and went into embroidery. Just find the nearest commercial printing company and ask them to get you one from their ink supplier. You will have to pay for it though. They come in very handy. I kept mine from when I was a printer

Tony
Twin Dragon Embroidery.

Submitted by Brian Burr on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 20:02

Color matching with Pantone Color charts and embroidery threads is not yet a perfected science. Instead we have color coordination specialists who use Pantone Charts to compare to thread swatches and choose the closest option based on the tone as well as the hue of the color in question.

Regards,

Brian

Wholesale Hats specializes in embroidering and screen printing hats, caps, tees, polos, jackets, and shirts. The company's product line includes hundreds of styles of wholesale caps and wholesale hats, many of which can be embroidered with a personalized logo.

Robert Young's picture
Submitted by Robert Young on Thu, 01/05/2012 - 15:35

also with embroidery please keep in mind that just because you picked a color, you really need to make sure the direction you sew the thread allows for the thread to actually LOOK like the pms color you selected.... if it really matters.
Personally I messed up 3000 hats for AMEX once when they changed their logo to the solid blue box.. we picked the thread, but the angle we sewed it actually changed the color you saw. Light changes the color every 15 degrees we learned the hard way.
Embroidery viewed head on 3 ft away in natural light. sounds crazy but we actually had to redo the 3000 hats and change the angle of the fill to make the blue LOOK like the pms color demanded.

Modern Embroidery Designer
volant-tech.com
volantfineart.com

Robert Young's picture
Submitted by Robert Young on Thu, 01/05/2012 - 15:37

You can prove this easily enough.. sew a 1 inch square with the fill pattern going left to right... then change the angle to 15, then 30 , then 45, 60, 75 and finally 90. pretty obvious then. After 90 doesnt matter as it then goes back to the others in reverse. Try it when you are bored. lol

Modern Embroidery Designer
volant-tech.com
volantfineart.com

Submitted by stevendq on Thu, 01/05/2012 - 17:04

Robert Young wrote:
You can prove this easily enough.. sew a 1 inch square with the fill pattern going left to right... then change the angle to 15, then 30 , then 45, 60, 75 and finally 90. pretty obvious then. After 90 doesnt matter as it then goes back to the others in reverse. Try it when you are bored. lol

WOW - I never thought of that. Guess that's the difference from a 3-D product (thread) to a 2-D product (ink). Might be why it's harder to match the pantone printing colors to threads. Sheesh!

I have also had a pantone book, but you have to be careful with them and keep them out of sunlight as the pages/chips will fade and mess up the colors.

Submitted by dubiat on Sun, 01/08/2012 - 16:17

stevendq wrote:
WOW - I never thought of that. Guess that's the difference from a 3-D product (thread) to a 2-D product (ink). Might be why it's harder to match the pantone printing colors to threads. Sheesh!

I have also had a pantone book, but you have to be careful with them and keep them out of sunlight as the pages/chips will fade and mess up the colors.

No, the same thing happens in print. If you usea printers loupe (magnifying lens very small) you can see that the print is actually made up of thousands of dots. changing the shape and angle of those dots will change your color. Even moving the position in relation to the other colors change change the color because the pattern changes. I know this from 25 years experience as a printer.
And your right about sunlight ruining the pantone books

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