Odd Pantone color discrepancy

[Mac]

MS Publisher cannot "read" an eps file. Neither can most other applications,
including Quark, Indesign, etc.

An eps file is postscript code. the code defines the picture. Without an
interpreter, the code cannot be acted upon.

However...most eps files are created with a low resolution tiff or wmf
"preview". (most does not mean all, some don't have previews and thus will
display as simply a box, depending in how the app chooses to handle such
cases). It is this preview you see on screen. And print (unless you are
using a PostScript printer which does contain the interpreter and discards
the preview)

the preview in most cases is rgb (effectively, there is no such thing as a
Pantone colored tiff). This rgb will display differently on different
systems and from different applications. Sometimes even at different times.

 

[Mac]

there are many different "Pantones" used in the computer world . C, V, M, U,
CV, CVU, etc.

they all refer to the same color as it is mixed and applied as a real spot
color on press.

but they all have different rgb/cmyk "equivalents"

why this is I have not been able to find out (from the Panone people).

I suspect it has to do with the fact that a Reflex Blue on one kind of paper
will look a little different from the dsame ink run on anotehr kind of paper
and they are trying to tweak their formula so on screen it shows those
differences.

Better than that, however, would be a Pantone fan book and an admonition to
never iuse Pantone colors as a source for process output.

Reflex Blue, BTW, is something that cannot be emulated very well at all in
cmyk. Most "pretty" blues are impossible to get with process inks. they get
all purplish. Inkjet inks, some color toners...these sometimes handle the
conversion ok, but the pigments used and the conditions under which they are
used are not the same and one cannot extrapolate one to the other.