Pantone Colors for Letterhead Offset Printing

Corporate letters are sent for important correspondences, and hence, should possess a design that is compatible with this purpose. Letterheads, commonly done through offset printing, provide an otherwise bare sheet of paper a polished look that sets a formal tone which would complement any business letter.


The basic components of a letterhead

A letterhead is the heading found in corporate stationeries that contains the company name, a logo and certain details such as address and phone numbers. It may also include designs like lines to add elements other than letters.

Designing stationeries with letterheads are now easier to achieve with ready-to-use templates available in certain softwares like word processors. You can create your own without the need to consult a graphic designer or a layout artist. It entails simple image manipulation of your logo and addition of your company information to complete the design.


Using pantone colors for letterhead offset printing

While black texts and other basic colors are accurately produced by the four color process printing (cyan, magenta, yellow and key color black, also known as CMYK), some logos may require more than this color space to recreate its component colors with precision. These sort of logos are the ones that have distinct shades and hues that give it a signature look, some of which are seen with famous brands.

This is remedied by the use of color matching systems, the most popular of which is the Pantone Matching System (PMS).

PMS is designed to match colors in an image with that of the ink to produce the image accurately on print. This matching system has a color guide which is released annually. This color guide shows various colors, all of which are coded and even marked whether suitable for uncoated (U), coated (C) and matte (M) stocks.

The PMS, through offset printing, offers a variety of colors and ink options such as metallic and fluorescent inks which are not possible with other means like digital printing.

Some printers have basic Pantone colors at hand which they mix at certain proportions with black and white to achieve the distinct colors. However, pre-mixed inks can be directly purchased once you know the amount of each ink that goes into your color.


Factors to remember when printing with pantone colors

- Letterheads are commonly printed on uncoated paper since coated paper are not suitable for writing due to the resistance of the coating to regular pen inks. Check the code and opt for Pantone colors for uncoated stocks. Printing Pantone inks for coated or matte paper on uncoated paper may significantly affect the printed results.

- A PMS color cannot be accurately achieved by the four color process. To supplement it, some use the Pantone ink as the last color after CMYK but this method may be disadvantageous due to the higher cost.

- Study the PMS swatch book properly and ask the printer to assist you with the formulation of the Pantone ink mixture that will match your logo colors.

Metallic and fluorescent inks cannot be prepared by mixing base Pantone colors. They are purchased from the ink supplier.

- Inform your printer before hand if you are going to use pre-mixed inks since it may take days to obtain the ink mixture from the supplier.


Pantone inks can help you achieve an accurate printout version of your logo. Before you request for letterheads on your stationeries, ask your printer to access a PMS swatch book, and for an estimated cost of the printing and inks.

Add a professional look to your business letter with a Pantone-inked letterhead.