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. Carlstadt is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Proprietary indicates that a party, or proprietor, exercises private ownership, control or use over an item of property, usually to the exclusion of other parties. ... A comparison of different color spaces. ...

On 23 August 2007, X-Rite Inc, a supplier of color measurement instruments and software, announced it had reached an agreement to purchase Pantone Inc for $180 million. The deal was completed in October 2007^[1]. There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

Overview

Pantone, as it is today, was founded in 1962, when the company—at the time a small business that 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. Mom and pop store redirects here. ...

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. Paperboard is a paper-like material, usually over ten mils (0. ... Color is an important part of the visual arts. ... Colour wheel with shading for colour picking. ...

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.^[2] 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.^[3]

Original Pantone Color Matching System

A Solid Matte Formula Guide from Pantone, 2005 edition.

The Pantone Color Matching System is largely a standardized color reproduction system. By standardizing the colors different manufactures in different locations can all refer to a the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another.

One such use is standardizing colors in the CMYK process. The CMYK process method of printing color by using four inks—cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The vast majority of the world's printed material is produced using the CMYK process, and there is a special subset of Pantone colors that can be reproduced using CMYK. Those that are possible to simulate through the CMYK process are labeled as such within the company's guides. Cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) CMYK (or sometimes YMCK) is a subtractive color model used in color printing. ...

However, most of Pantone system 1,114 spot colors colors created cannot be simulated with CMYK but with a 13 base pigments (15 including white and black) mixed in specified amounts.^[4] Printing technicians around the world use the term spot color to mean any color generated by a non-process color ink; such as metallic, fluorescent, spot varnish, or custom hand-mixed inks. ...

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, it is only in 2001 that Pantone began providing translations of their existing system with screen based colors (Screen based colors use the RGB—red, green, blue—system to create various colors).^[5] And the GOE system has RGB and LAB values with each color.^[6] REDIRECT RGB color model ... Lab is a common shortened form for several terms and can refer to: Laboratory, a place where scientific research and experiments are conducted Lab, a people living in southern Albania Labrador, a region on the easternmost coast of Canada Labrador Retriever, a dog breed Lab color space, the most complete...

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 PMS colors of their flags^[7]. For other uses, see Flag (disambiguation). ... For the national legislative body up to 1707, see Parliament of Scotland. ... The Saltire, the flag of Scotland, a white saltire with an official Pantone 300 coloured field. ... The Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile, commonly referred to as the FIA, is a non-profit association established on June 20, 1904 to represent the interest of motoring organisations and motor car users. ... For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation). ...

Pantone Goe System

On September 5, 2007 Pantone introduced the Goe System^[8]. Goe consists of over 2,000 new colors in a brand new matching and numbering system. In addition to the standard swatch books (now called the GoeGuide), the new system also includes adhesive-backed GoeSticks, interactive software, tools and an online community where users are able to share color swatches and information.

The Goe name has no meaning, however the swatchbooks are well thought out as compared to the original Pantone system who's new colors were added ad-hoc. It is also streamlined to use fewer base colors (10 + Clear coating for reflections) and accommodates many technical challenges in reproducing colors on a press. ^[4]

Other Products

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 uses Pantone's color research and trending and has more than 3000 colors. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2272x1704, 946 KB) Three Pantone Universe products, two pocketbooks and a coin wallet. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2272x1704, 946 KB) Three Pantone Universe products, two pocketbooks and a coin wallet. ... Fine Paints of Europe is the exclusive North American importer of premium quality paints and varnishes which are manufactured in the Netherlands by Wijzonol Bouwverven B.V.. Fine Paints is located in Woodstock, VT, U.S.A. and is generally regarded as the quality and price leader in the North...

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.^[9] 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".^[10] 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. For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Often, the name GIMP is used erroneously for the Gimp-Print printer driver set. ...

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

References

Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

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)

Process color is both a method of printing, and a method of specifying a color. ... Printing technicians around the world use the term spot color to mean any color generated by a non-process color ink; such as metallic, fluorescent, spot varnish, or custom hand-mixed inks. ... The Natural Color System (NCS) is a perceptual color model published by the Scandinavian Colour Institute of Stockholm, Sweden. ... Munsell Color Wheel In colorimetry, the Munsell color system is a color system that specifies colors based on three color dimensions. ... Database rights are a form of exclusive right introduced by European Union Law to those countries which follow EU Law in 1996. ...

External links

• Official website
• Informal discussion of intellectual property rights, including Pantone (search article)