Pantone Inc. is a corporation headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, primarily printing, though sometimes in the manufacture of colored paint, fabric and plastics.

On 23 August 2007, X-Rite Inc, a supplier of colour measurement instuments and software, announced it had reached an agreement to purchase Pantone Inc for $180 million. The deal is expected to be completed in the fall of 2007.

Overview

Pantone, as it is today, was founded in 1962, when the company—at the time a small business which manufactured color cards for cosmetics companies—was bought by Lawrence Herbert, who had been an employee since 1956. He immediately changed its direction, developing the first color matching system in 1963. Herbert remains the CEO, Chairman, and President of the company.

The company's primary products include the Pantone Guides, which consist of a large number of small (approximately 6×2 inches or 15×5 cm) thin cardboard sheets, printed on one side with a series of related color swatches and then bound into a small flipbook. For instance, a particular "page" might contain a number of yellows of varying tints.

The idea behind the PMS is to allow designers to 'color match' specific colors when a design enters production stage—regardless of the equipment used to produce the color. This system has been widely adopted by Graphic Designers, Reproduction and Printing Houses for a number of years now. Pantone recommends that PMS Color Guides be purchased annually as their inks become more yellow over time.^[1] Color variance also occurs within editions based on the paper stock used (coated, matte or uncoated), while inter-edition color variance occurs when there are changes to the specific paper stock used.^[2]

The system in use

A Solid Matte Formula Guide from Pantone®, 2005 edition.

The Pantone Color Matching System expands upon existing color reproduction systems such as the CMYK process. The CMYK process is a standardized method of printing color by using four inks—cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The majority of the world's printed material is produced using the CMYK process. The Pantone system is based on a specific mix of pigments to create new colors—referred to as spot colors. The Pantone system also allows for many 'special' colors to be produced such as metallics and fluorescents. While most of the Pantone system colors are beyond the printed CMYK gamut, those that it is possible to simulate through the CMYK process are labeled as such within the company's guides.

Pantone colors are described by their allocated number (typically referred to as for example 'PMS 130'). PMS colors are almost always used in branding and have even found their way into government legislation (to describe the colors of flags). In January 2003, the Scottish Parliament debated a petition (reference PE512) to refer to the blue in the Scottish flag (saltire) as 'Pantone 300'. Countries such as Canada and South Korea and organizations such as the FIA have also chosen to refer to specific Pantone colors to use when producing flags. U.S. States including Texas have set legislated the PMS colors of their flags^[3].

Intellectual property

Pantone asserts that their lists of color numbers and pigment values are the intellectual property of Pantone and free use of the list is not allowed.^[4] This is frequently held as a reason why Pantone colors cannot be supported in Open Source software such as GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) and are not often found in low-cost software. It has been claimed that "it seems as if the company is being intentionally unclear" but it is acknowledged that "the simplest claim would be trademark misappropriation or dilution towards someone who produced a color palette marketed as compatible with Pantone's".^[5] However, Pantone palettes supplied by printer manufacturers can be obtained freely, and depending on supplier, do not come with usage restriction beyond sales ban on hard copy of the palette.

Pantone also possesses patent 5,734,800, a six-color Hexachrome printing system.

Other

Some Pantone Universe products. Pantone Universe is a brand of everyday items featured in Pantone colors.

In mid-2006 Pantone, partnering with Vermont-based Fine Paints of Europe, introduced a new line of interior and exterior paints. The color palette utilizes Pantone's color research and trending and has more than 3000 colors.

References

1. ^ Senior Staff (interview) October 27, 2006. Ink Systems, Inc. [1]
2. ^ Pantone Press Release, 6 May 2004. Archived from the original on 2006-01-03. Retrieved on 2007-02-23. "Colors in the new formula guide and chips books have changed due to a shift to coated paper that is brighter and whiter"
3. ^ CHAPTER 3100. STATE FLAG (b) The red and blue of the state flag are: (1) the same colors used in the United States flag; and (2) defined as numbers 193 (red) and 281 (dark blue) of the Pantone Matching System.
4. ^ Pantone Terms of Use Clause 3 includes "published materials of Pantone, are protected by copyright laws and include, for example, graphic presentations, color references, PANTONE Colors, PANTONE Names, numbers, formulas and software"
5. ^ Newsforge: Pantone and free software. Three quotes from the section "Colorful language". Retrieved 6 July 2006

See also

• Process color
• Spot color
• Natural Color System (NCS) and Munsell color system, other proprietary color spaces where most consumers use swatches to make color decisions; unlike Pantone, these systems are based on underlying color models rather than pigment mixtures.
• Database rights (copyright protection of databases in the EU)

External links

• Official website
• X-Rite website
• Informal discussion of intellectual property rights, including Pantone (search article)
• Pantone Unveils New Global Brand Identity

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