mixing pantone inks

Other than eye-balling the amounts of inks for various pantone colors, what methods do you folks use to mix proper proportions of inks to get particular pantone colors? Do you use a scale of some sort? The pantone scales costs LOTS of money and I don’t do enough mixing to justify that cost. Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks, Ren

I use a triple beam scale to weigh my ink, some people like the postal digital scales. Just remember to mix your ink about two shades (PSM#) lighter. But be careful because sometimes two shades lighter is a completely different color. Transparent white will help to thin the pigments in the ink if needed.

I have the new pantone formula books which only has the % breakdown formula but my colleague has an older version and it has ‘parts’ and %. (I’m not sure if I just got the wrong version or if the no longer put parts?)Parts do look a lot easier than percent because they are a little easier to ‘divide down’ (My math isnt really good!)

Anyway, he taught me to divide down to a low common denominator for example, if its 25% black, 25% white and 50% blue, then take it down to 1 part white, 1 part black and 2 parts blue.

Then use the end of a flat spatula (one that is around 3 inches wide rather than a narrow one), dip the end into the paint and daub and draw a line with the ink, then repeat the process for the other colors so you end up with 4 ‘stripes’ in total. If you feel you will need more ink, you can repeat the process, effectively doubling the quantity.

It gets a bit tricky when the formula is like 95% to 5% but end up eyeballing anyway.

 

I am novice to this so other methods would be great to hear!

I was disappointed by the new Pantone book, too, (plus the chromatic arrangement makes looking numbers up a huge pain!), so I wound up keeping my old (ca. 2006) one. Maybe you could find an old one with the parts breakdown on eBay?

 

I have an old Ohaus scale (another member of team Antique Machinery), but I seldom use it. I start by mixing the rough parts, and then adjust as needed till a dab with my finger matches the chip. This works well, and has taught me to be able to fix colors by eye, rather than by unit of measure.

I also use a triple-beam balance scale, and use the gram measurements offered on the right side of each swatch in the Pantone Solid Uncoated swatchbook.

 

Here’s a little conversion guide I use when mixing ink; I convert ounces to grams for the most accuracy:

 

• 1 oz = 28.57 g (rarely use unless I’m printing in the thousands, or want to mix enough for future runs)
• 3/4 oz = 21.427 g (used for longer print runs, when I print from the fountain/heavier coverage)
• 1/2 oz = 14.29 g
• 1/4 oz = 7.145 g (use this the most, for lighter coverage, shorter runs, such as wedding invites)

 

How does this work, you ask? Say you want to mix 1/4 oz (or 7.145 g) of Pantone 151 U (orange). Here are the color components, taken from the Pantone Solid Uncoated guide: 

• Yellow = 75.0
• Warm Red = 25.0

 

First, you take the gram measurements and move the decimal point two places to the left (.75 and .25, respectively).

 

Then, multiply each value by the total amount of ink needed (7.145):

• Yellow = .75 x 7.145 = 5.359 g
• Warm Red = .25 x 7.145 = 1.786 g

A good way to double-check your math is to add the gram components up, they should add up to 7.145:5.359 + 1.786 = 7.145 g

 

Hope you find this handy!

 

Lars.

Hello all,

Thanks for your answers, especially about the scales/balances. Do you use a scoop or freezer paper on the scale or just clean the scale off when done? I understand the proportions and thank you for the refresher course on that. This is why I love Ladies of Letterpress!

Ren

I mix onto coated cover paper, leftover from an offset print run. I zero out the triple beam scale each time I mix ink, with the paper sitting on the left side of the scale. There’s no clean up needed after 🙂

[Author]

Posts