question about color printing on plastic bottle

Question

Hello to all the graphic design professionals out there,

I was wondering if you could share your experience on color printing on plastic bottles. (like this material)

I am struggling because I chose a Pantone color (586C) design and went with two different print vendors. The result was that, the color came out differently on each bottle. One bottle came out way off and has an orange tone. I always export my production files with the appropriate Pantone settings.

1.I was wondering if there is anyway to ensure accuracy in color output from my side. I thought choosing Pantone is the safest way to get the correct color.

2. Is there anything I need to learn about the production side of printing such as the different types of materials being used or other factors that effect color printing? Is this screen printing? How is it different than normal paper printing? Or is the onus on the printers?

3. What would you do in this situation as a designer? We would like to submit multiples Pantone colors on sample bottles to insure we get the right color. But each sample costs quite a bit of money (250 dollars) and my company doesn't have enough budget for that.

What the designer is doing is looking at Pantone colors on the screen and present to boss. I am not sure if that is going to be good representation of true color.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I have no experience printing on plastic bottles like this, but I can offer some insight as someone working in the printing industry.

I was wondering if there is anyway to ensure accuracy in color output from my side. I thought choosing Pantone is the safest way to get the correct color.

It could be the safest way, assuming that your printer actually has the right ink system. The discrepancy might be because one printer had the base inks required to mix Pantone colors, but the other just eyeballed it as close as possible or perhaps converted it to CMYK instead.

The printer might not be totally up front about this, so your best bet is to ask them how to specify the color so that the end result is closest as possible to your expectations.

Is there anything I need to learn about the production side of printing such as the different types of materials being used or other factors that effect color printing? Is this screen printing? How is it different than normal paper printing? Or is the onus on the printers?

One thing that seems important for you to know (based on your comment) is that coated and uncoated colors are mixed the same. The coated vs. uncoated refers to the type of paper printed on. PMS 586C and 586U both require the same ratios of base yellow, blue, and white:

The process used by your printers could very well be screen printing, but we wouldn't be able to answer that for you.

What would you do in this situation as a designer? We would like to submit multiples Pantone colors on sample bottles to insure we get the right color. But each sample costs quite a bit of money (250 dollars) and my company doesn't have enough budget for that.

Verify with your printer that they actually are using a Pantone system to mix their inks. If they are, get a Pantone color book. That will give you the closest possible expectation for how the ink will turn out. An RGB or CMYK representation will have some level of inaccuracy (especially RGB, you're looking at a backlit screen instead of a printed representation).