When you use a named PANTONE color in an image, your application will normally send to the printer a CMYK or RGB approximation to that color. But the application does not take the printer or the paper type into account, it merely produces a generic approximation of the PANTONE color, which will look different on different printers and on different papers.
HP Professional PANTONE Emulation can do a much better job by taking into account the characteristics of the printer and the paper type. The results look as similar to the original PANTONE colors as is possible on a given printer using a given paper type. This technology is designed to produce emulations similar to those set up manually by prepress professionals.
To use HP Professional PANTONE Emulation, all you have to do is to turn it on. In fact, it is normally on by default.
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In the Windows driver dialog: go to the Color tab and select HP Professional PANTONE Emulation.
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In the Mac OS X Print dialog: go to the Color Options panel and select HP Professional PANTONE Emulation.
You can also use the Embedded Web Server to print a swatch book showing emulations of PANTONE colors as made by your printer, together with a measure of the color difference (ΔE) between each emulation and the original PANTONE spot color. So HP Professional PANTONE Emulation not only provides the closest match that can be achieved on your printer; it also gives clear information on how close the emulation is to the original spot color. See Printing PANTONE swatch booksPrinting PANTONE swatch books.