Pain in the Pantone

I love helping a client narrow down their brand colors. My deep appreciation of colors started in the photo lab. To be exact, at an Eckerd 1-hour Photo Lab. Eckerd (bought by Rite Aide in 2007) was the Duane Reade (now Walgreens) of the South. Throughout high school and college I mixed chemicals and measured temperatures, to achieve the best color results. I took out black if an image was too dark, and removed yellow from photos that had too much incandescent light. I was pretty good at it. As a photographer and photo editor I did a lot of color correcting with CMYK (inks, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) colors and RGB (Red, Blue Green light spectrum used specifically for digital screens).

Of course I knew about Pantone and its color system, but I just didn’t use it as a photographer - for quick and efficient printing no one was asking for a Pantone Color.

When printing for my clients the emphasis has been more about hex code (screen colors in RGB) and CMYK, not Pantone colors. This got me thinking. Although I’ve not noticed some online printers referencing Pantone colors (sometimes referred to as "spot colors") for most small printing jobs, are the latest printing techniques, inks and machines making Pantone’s color reference system a thing of the past?

In my quest to satisfy my curiosity I came across this Reddit conversation that provides some Pantone pain points: https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/16asgfo/im_a_broke_graphic_designer_how_important_is/.

I went down the rabbit hole and found this fantastic article on Fast Company about Pantone: https://www.fastcompany.com/3050240/how-pantone-became-the-definitive-language-of-color.

And if you want a fascinating video history of Pantone, check out this piece by the Wall Street Journal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4HfxwzdCNg.

Laurie Pressman, VP of Pantone Color Institute, says, “We speak a language of color. So we see things in color. We can explain things in color.”

For those of you who work with printing and printers, have you encountered any color consistency issues using CYMK values instead of official Pantone colors?

Comment below to share your thoughts on CYMK printing or how Pantone has made your printing experiences easier, better or more consistent.

If you don’t have much to say about inks just comment on what color describes you and why. We can all explain things in color.