Pantones? Illustrator CS

[lindsay_auchinachie@adobeforums.com]

I have sent three jobs to printers for corugated boxes, plastic sleeve label etc. and every time I give them my pantone # they have trouble finding it. I am using Illustrator CS in OSX and the pantone I am using is Pantone DS-274-2 C. Why don't they know what colour I am using? Are they just using out of date pantone charts?
Thankyou
lindsay

[Gloria_Chen@adobeforums.com]

Lindsay: The Panton DS-274-2 is from the pantone process swatch book. This color designation is made for 4-color process printing and the Pantone Process Swatch Book is for you to have something tangible to look at and know exactly what the end result of the color will be. (All monitors display color differently). To designate an actual spot color for printing, you need to use the other pantone swatches, be it solid, metallic or pastel.

[Scott_Falkner@adobeforums.com]

The truth is you can use anything for a spot colour, and name it whatever you want. THe problem here is that the pritner has no means of faithfully reproducing the desired colour as a spot ink. Pantone solid ink colours are mixed from a base of pure Pantone inks. For each colour there's a specified ink formula to use. There is no precedent for reproducing process colours using those inks, so the printer is unable to find that formula.

Look in a Pantone solid ink swatch book for the desired colour, or closest to it you can find.