Die Firma Spot Nordic aus Reykjavik hat ein interessantes Farbsystem auf den Markt gebracht: Das sogenannte „Spot Matching System“ enthält 470 regelmäßig abgestufte Farbtöne, die als Farbmuster verschiedener Herstellungsverfahren (z.B. Proofdruck, Offsetdruck, Screen, TV) angeboten werden. Die Umsetzungen sind so gewählt, dass der Farbton jeweils möglichst exakt getroffen wird. Sinn ist eine bestmögliche Crossmedialität fester Farbtöne (im Unterschied hierzu sind bei HKS K/N sowie bei Pantone C/U die Farbergebnisse unterschiedlich). Basis sind, wie bei unseren HLC Farben, die Lab-Koordinaten der gewählten Farbtöne.
The print conversions exist as colour fans, posters and downloadable PDFs. The high price of the prints is striking, e.g. the uncoated colour fan with the 470 SMS colours is offered for 299 EUR. This is nothing more than a screened four-colour print without spot colours - comparable other CMYK atlases and fans are sometimes offered for less than 50 EUR. The basic sRGB target shown above is available free of charge (pdf link below). A PDF file in sRGB, showing the 470 colour samples with their respective names, costs 29 EUR.
For an annual fee of 420 EUR, you can register as an SMS user and then receive the above sRGB PDF chart free of charge, reduced prices for the CMYK products and download access to further colour values and tables.
The website appears graphically immature, is not responsive and contains long sections of text in which one first has to search for the (quite numerous) meaningful contents.
Uniform cross-media colour is a sensible approach - but its success may be doubted here.
Manufacturer link to the Spot Matching System: www.spot-nordic.com/sms
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For the record: The 500 standard colours of the Spot Matching System are fixed CIELAB values, adapted to industry standards - to CMYK printing on coated and uncoated paper according to ISO 12647 as well as for displays (sRGB and Rec. 709 RGB).
Thus the posters and colour guides are not CMYK atlases, although they are of course printed in CMYK and certified according to ISO 12647-7-2016.
A CMYK atlas is typically a set of CMYK colours arranged with fixed CMYK values (example: 100c100m0y0k, 100c80m0y0k etc.), while the colours of the Spot Matching System are fixed CIELAB values and thus the CMYK values of the coated version are not the same as those of the uncoated version of our posters and colour guides.
SMS colors are available for Fogra 51, Fogra 52, Fogra 39 and Fogra 47 as well as GRACoL – to order a CMYK variation you need to provide the ICC profile you are using, the white point of your substrate and the print standard your printer has confirmed he will be using to output the job (in some cases your printer may in fact be using an inappropriate print standard for your papertype, so in this case we are often able to „bend“ your SMS colors to be correctly printed, – even if the rest of your job will be either too „cold“ or too „warm“.).
This is what makes the Spot Matching System different from other commercially available colour systems - i.e. that our colours are fixed - visually identical when printed on coated and uncoated paper and for just about any display, including your iPhone.
The ideology of SMS is for brands to keep their precious brand colours consistent (fixed) in any media - and obviously SMS colours are feasible for multi channel advertising campaigns, AR and VR projects and even for 3D projects.
Designers, brand owners and print shops might want to familiarise themselves with SMS at http://www.spotmatchingsystem.com or contact sms@spot-nordic.com for more details.