According to the software developer, printing spot colours can often cause more problems than four-colour process printing.

Bodoni claimed that printers may not have the same edition of the Pantone guide, or the colour appearance of their guide may have been affected by the conditions in which it has been kept.

Furthermore, printers must rely on ink manufacturers to deliver an accurate Pantone mix, frequently without knowing the paper stock that will be used.

PressSign 4 contains all the standard Pantone libraries, including PMS, Goe and the new Pantone Plus series, while users can also create their own libraries by measuring a swatch, typing in a Lab value or importing a colour definition file.

Printers can select a Pantone colour and measure the colour bar with PressSign, which will then show the operator how to adjust the ink keys to get the closest match to both the CMYK colours and 5th or 6th colour.

Bodoni marketing director Ian Reid said: "PressSign 4 is another advance in helping printers meet expectations. The requirement to print accurate spot colours is as important as the need for consistently accurate process work."

Pantone vice president of technology licensing Andy Hatkoff added: "PressSign's support for Pantone colour libraries enables printers around the world to print both CMYK and Pantone colours with a high degree of confidence."