A coated one is fine. It's printed on gloss which matches color best on playfields and backglasses.

Print outs will likely not represent well unless you have a calibrated color output system.

Your best bet would probably be the Pantone Starter Guide. Over 540 colors should contain most you'd run across on a machine. I think they have them over on Amazon as well.

http://www.pantone.com/pages/products/product.aspx?pid=1143&ca=1

Pantone solid, coated is what you're after. A used book is fine -- the new ones are pretty pricey.

Even with one of these guides you'll still most likely have to do a custom mix to get it dead on--but it should get you close.

If you think a Pantone color chart is going to help you mix and match colors......your wrong...it won't help at all.

I do this for a living as I'm a screen Printer.
A pantone matching chart is really only for discribing colors that you don't have a swatch/copy of in front of you. We use the numbers to tell other people who are at different locations what colors we are talking about. Colors can not be sent by computer as everyone computer screen shows colors in a different way. So we use the Pantone numbers.

If you want it to help you mix colors then you will have to buy a matching chart from the manufacturer for the type of paint or ink you use. If they even make one.

I find the Pantone guide mostly helpful when I buy paints.. it's easier to carry around than a playfield.

Couple of things you need to keep in mind though.. all paints dry differently and all paints react differently to being clearcoated (usually darker).

Also if you're mixing your own colours, a good understanding of colour theory also helps.

The Pantone guides exist to create colour continuity between printing houses, so those business cars you got printed in LA look the same as the ones you get printed in Detroit. There are other factors that will alter colour though, such as the brand of inks, different substrates, etc. It's all very complicated.. sometimes you've just gotta settle with "close enough"

Here's some info on color matching that might be of assistance:

http://www.pinballpal.com/colors/

Just be careful with old books. If they've sat around for a long time, light will affect the pages accordingly. Not a huge deal, but being in the print industry I've seen it happen many times. In fact, if you want a used book send me a PM.