There are many colors that cannot be created using CMYK, but may need to be printed. In such cases, for printing press work, a single ink known as a Spot Color is used. There are many families of spot colors, one of the most common is the Pantone Matching System. A Pantone Swatch book contains samples of the colors available, indicated by a color number, and when a color is decided upon, the Pantone number can be entered into DTP programs such as InDesign or Quark Xpress. Then, when the document is printed on the printing press, the same Pantone ink is used as specified in the DTP program.

Spot inks can be used for colors that cannot be created with CMYK, and also when only a single color is needed, and the cost of CMYK is too high. For instance a document may be created using, say, two inks, black and Pantone 280 (a blue), rather than using the 4 CMYK inks to create only a single black and blue.

Other spot inks include metallic silver and gold, and the bright fluorescent colors. In some cases, a combination of the CMYK process and spot colors 
A PMS color is a metallic, neon, or particular color not always attainable by using 4 color process method. Most corporations and businesses use PMS colors for their logos and trademarks.