Pantone began life as a small printing company in Carlstadt, New Jersey in the 1950s. A part-time worker and recent college graduate applied his chemistry knowledge to the then-difficult process of trying to match ink colors. The company’s ink matching began to catch on, but its commercial printing work was losing money. So this young chemist, Lawrence Herbert, bought the ink matching assets and the name to found the Pantone system we know today.
What is a Pantone system? It includes a series of swatch books that are carefully printed to correspond with the actual ink colors that will be used on a printing press. Each swatch has an identifying number, and a formula for mixing pigments. The ink can be purchased pre-mixed or can be mixed by any printer who carefully follows the Pantone formula.
The most recent Pantone addition is the Goe System. The Goe System was created to add 2,000 more swatch colors and it magically arrives at these colors with fewer mixing inks.
Pantone also has color systems for fashion fabrics, plastics, home and industrial paint. They have also engineered computer monitor calibration and proofing systems, such as Huey™ and ColorMunki™ to help ensure color accuracy throughout the design process.
Since the Pantone system is based upon mixing proprietary ink pigments, there are limitations to representing Pantone colors in other ways – like on a computer monitor; on trade show graphics or billboards that are inkjet printed; or on digital and conventional cmyk presses without using additional spot colors (pre-mixed Pantone ink.) Some Pantone system colors convert nicely into cmyk colors, so a cmyk breakdown book is strongly recommended as a guide to determine whether or not a separate Pantone ink is required.
Pantone is also the leader in determining trend colors in advance of the next year. Color experts from around the world gather in a white room and bring in objects that are the sources of their color inspiration. This handful of people will determine the colors that are sure to be followed by the industry leaders in the new year. This year’s trend fashion color of the year is Honeysuckle.