Pantone™ PMS 396 C

For brand installations using PMS 396 C in pop-up or retail spaces, sample both paint finish and color under your actual project lighting before committing to large-scale application. PMS 396 C is highly visible and appears greener and more fluorescent in cool or daylight conditions, and finish level (such as gloss) can increase perceived brightness. If exact appearance is critical for your brand, evaluate both the physical Pantone reference and a test panel in your intended setting to confirm acceptance. This helps avoid surprises due to lighting or substrate effects and ensures your project meets brand standards.

Proper surface preparation is key to successful results with PMS 396 C. Clean the surface to remove dust, grease, and residues. For glossy or slick substrates, a light scuff sanding improves adhesion. Surfaces should be dry and structurally sound. Before proceeding with full application, test a small area to check for adhesion and true color appearance. Highly saturated colors like PMS 396 C may require a white or light-colored base coat to achieve full hide and visual impact, especially over dark or porous materials.

PMS 396 C is a Pantone Matching System standard, and most paint brands have their own unique color palettes. Vivid colors like PMS 396 C are rarely replicated exactly in other brands, so direct cross-references are not reliable. For brand accuracy, always specify PMS 396 C directly and confirm using a physical Pantone reference and a real paint sample rather than relying on approximate matches from other systems.

Select interior or exterior grade paint for PMS 396 C based on your project's exposure. For interior retail displays or branded installations, choose an interior finish suitable for your substrate and traffic level. For outdoor signs or brand activations exposed to weather, use an exterior-rated product for durability. The color target remains the same, but performance and longevity depend on choosing the right formulation for the environment.

Unfortunately, no.

Some manufacturers specify Pantone colors as touch up for their products, but Pantone does not work well as a proxy for a touch-up solution (for a litany of reasons such as it doesn't include sheen and Pantone color tolerances are not tight enough for touch up). When we match Pantone colors we are matching to a swatch in a Pantone book - not to your product.

The only way we can provide a touch-up solution for your product is for you send us a part. We would use the part to create a touch-up grade match. Unfortunately, there isn't an effective way to 'spec' the color well enough to produce a touch up without the part.

Read more about using Pantone for touch-up.

Learn more about our paint color matching service.

To make spray paint matched to Pantone PMS 396 C. MyPerfectColor uses an acrylic enamel which is a fast-drying durable coating suitable for interior or exterior use. MyPerfectColor custom spray paint enables you to conveniently achieve a professional spray-smooth finish in any color in any sheen. It sticks well to most surfaces including metal, plastics, powder-coatings, cabinets and primed or previously painted wood.

The 11oz spray will cover about 20 square feet per coat. Keep in mind that it is difficult to gauge how much spray you'll need as it is highly dependent on how it is applied. It is better to have too much than run short.

While MyPerfectColor can provide PMS 396 C in paint, we don't provide any crossover information. We've found that every paint company offers its own unique selection of colors and rarely does a color have an exact equivalent in another company's color collection, especially for a color collection like Pantone which is designed for bright colors and inks.