Inking Outside the CMYK Realm

The most well-known of the HiFi printing ink systems was developed and patented in 1995 by Pantone, the 40-year old company that brought us the ubiquitous Pantone Matching System (PMS). For years, CEO Richard Herbert worked with Pantone's color scientists to devise an expanded ink system capable of accurately reproducing more of the design colors found in PMS swatch books than could be reproduced with the CMYK ink system. They eventually settled on a six-color system that Herbert named Hexachrome. The Hexachrome ink set is comprised of black, orange, green, and re-formulations of process cyan, magenta, and yellow.