On some occasion you can find the reference to some shades of colors referring to their “Pantone code”. What does this refer to? What are Pantone colors?
The Pantone Color System establishes a catalog of color codes that universally and unequivocally identify different shades of pigment
Pantone is a company founded in the 1950s in New Jersey (United States), initially dedicated to commercial printing by two former executives from the field of advertising. Lawrence Herbert worked for this company, an employee who, thanks to his knowledge of chemistry, was able to develop a system that simplified the way of systematizing the company’s huge catalog of pigments, in order to facilitate the production of color inks.
Through some strips of cardboard representing the different colors available, grouped in a catalog that collected these samples on 15×5 centimeter cards, the different shades of color that the company could produce were offered grouped and organized. Each color was assigned a code that individualized it.
Each color is produced by a precise combination of four basic colors according to the CMYK model, corresponding in English to the colors cyan (blue), magenta, yellow, and black (for blacK). In addition to the basic combinations, the Pantone Color System (PMS, Pantone Matching System) offers direct colors (solid or flat) but also processed colors from this four-color process generated by the combination of the four colors mentioned.
This combination can be specified by the manufacturers of different parts, companies and locations so that when a specific color is identified there will never be differences in tonality, even when new colors are introduced… as long as they are previously included in the Pantone catalogue.
The set of colored strips was called pantone guide and currently offers a catalog of thousands of different colors so that in terms of direct colors there are 3,026 different colors, in four-color there are 6,732 different colors but there is a digital platform, Pantone Connect, which offers exclusive access to designers and manufacturers to the more than 15,000 colors from all the different Pantone libraries existing.
And it is that new colors do not stop appearing, especially since in 2000 the Pantone Color Institute began the “Color of the Year” initiative that once a year (it has increased to twice in 2021), and after a secret meeting of representatives of various color standardization organizations from all over the world, selects a new specific shade, newly created, that connects with the predominant aesthetic trend of the moment. Each color receives its descriptive name as well as the codes that allow it to be unquestionably universally identified.
In the latest editionsThe Colors of the Year have been the following:
-Year 2020: Classic Blue – Pantone 19-4052 #0F4C81
-Year 2021: Ultimate Gray – Pantone 17-5104 #939597
-Year 2021: Illuminating (Illuminating Yellow) – Pantone 13-0647 #F5DF4D
-Year 2022: Very Peri (Very Peri) – Pantone 17-3938 #6667AB
Since Pantone registers its colors as intellectual property, their use is only permitted with permission. In this sense, this week it has been known that Pantone will begin charging a subscription so that its colors can be used in Adobe platform tools, such as Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator.
