PANTONE CALIBRATED PRINTERS
PANTONE is a standard language for color identification and communication. Contrary to popular belief, there
is no such thing as PANTONE Certified. Often this expression is found quoted in trade press or even in product
brochures but this is in error. What is most commonly meant is that the Printer or Controller is PANTONE
Calibrated. A PANTONE Calibrated Printer allows for a customer to get the best possible color reproduction of a
swatch from the PANTONE Color Matching System. In allowing for this, consideration is taken into account for
any factors that may affect the final color output, including the color engine, the color RIP, device settings, printer
profiles, paper and toner.

Fiery and PANTONE Strategic Alliance
EFI and Pantone offer Pantone Calibration for Fiery Driven Printers through the PANTONE RIP/Output Licensing
Program. EFI was the first vendor to participate in the program. Licensing only the RIP does not automatically
extend calibration to the output device. The approach to RIP and printer calibration adopted by EFI ensures the
entire printing system is calibrated. This points out the fact that although an EFI RIP/OEM engine combination is
Pantone Calibrated, it does not mean that the OEM can place an alternative RIP in front of their engine and call
this alternative combination Pantone Calibrated.

All Fierys are PANTONE Calibrated
EFI has designed all of its Fierys to be PANTONE Calibrated. This allows for a seamless integration of PANTONE
Colors into the color workflow, resulting in accurate color while requiring minimal user interaction. To fine-tune one
or more colors, key in the desired CMYK values in Spot-On® or select a preference using Spot-On Color Search.
There is no need to go back to the source application or edit the PDF.

Workflow for Printer/Controller Calibrated by Pantone:
For non Fiery users, the process of including PANTONE Colors in a document is not east. When a printer/controller
is PANTONE-calibrated, the manufacturer has engaged PANTONE to develop a specially optimized color look
up table so that the customer can get the best possible representation for the PANTONE Solid Color standard
on coated stock. This look up table enables colors from the PANTONE Color Library to be translated into their
equivalent CMYK values, taking into consideration the specific driver/RIP, device settings, ink set, color engine and
paper stock used. The process for non Fiery users, as noted below, is more complicated than the Fiery Pantone
Calibrated Workflow:

1. Download the appropriate device look-up-table from the PANTONE Website. For a typical digital production printer you get a PDF document containing CMYK patches representing the PANTONE colors.
2. Open the PDF in Acrobat to read in the corresponding CMYK values for the desired PANTONE color.
3. Transpose the CMYK values from the color swatches in to the design application. There is no automatic or easy way to do this.
4. Design in CMYK (not spot colors) using the values transposed from the color swatches. Keep in mind that the CMYK values are only good for one printer/media/toner/halftone combination.
5. Finally, since your colors are CMYK, you need to turn off In-RIP color management even though that may result in poor quality CMYK images.
6. If the user wants to switch to a different printer, he needs to request a new color lookup table from PANTONE and repeat the above steps, re-transposing every element in the design and assigning it a new color!

1. Design with a PANTONE Color. Simply mark the desired color as chosen from a PANTONE Swatch book and incorporate this into the document.
2. Print the document to the Fiery Server. That’s it!

 In summary, the EFI PANTONE Calibration workflow is much faster, easier and more flexible to
ensure PANTONE color matching.  EFI delivers the most accurate color possible, tailored to specific
printer devices.