Pigment (I) comprises synthetic plate-shaped substrate exhibiting at least an optically active coating, where: (I) exhibits a volume-average total particle size distribution curve with a classification number of D 1 0, D 5 0and D 9 0; the total particle size distribution curve exhibits a particle size distribution with a span (delta D = (D 9 0-D 1 0)/D 5 0) of 0.7-1.4; and the average thickness of synthetic plate-shaped substrate is 500-2000 mm. An independent claim is included for the preparation of (I), comprising size grading the synthetic substrate and coating the synthetic substrate with the coating.