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.
In October 2007, X-Rite Inc, a supplier of color measurement instruments and software, purchased Pantone Inc for $180 million.
Pantone, Inc., with its corporate headquarters in Carlstadt, New Jersey, is a private company that over the last four decades of the 20th century built a global reputation as an authority on color and color systems. Using a 1,757-color palate, the company develops, standardizes and forecasts colors for a worldwide clientele. It provides both color systems and the technology that enables industries not only to select colors accurately but also to communicate choices from designers to manufacturers to retailers and thence to customers and other end users. Over the years, the company has expanded its Pantone Matching System concept for use by a variety of industries with color-critical needs, including textile, plastic, and digital technology manufacturers. Its special expertise lies in the development of communication tools for industries and in the adoption of new digital technology to meet the needs of design and production professionals. The company is headed by Lawrence Herbert, who joined Pantone in 1956 and introduced the Pantone Matching System in the early 1960s.
Pantone began as a commercial printing company in the 1950s. In 1956, they hired recent Hofstra University graduate Lawrence Herbert as a part-time employee. Herbert used his chemistry knowledge to systematize and simplify the company's stock of pigments and production of colored inks; by 1962, Herbert was running the ink and printing division at a profit, while the commercial-display division was $50,000 in debt; he subsequently purchased the company's technological assets from his employers and renamed them "Pantone".
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 "fan deck". 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 and 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. Color variance also occurs within editions based on the paper stock used (coated, matte or uncoated), while interedition color variance occurs when there are changes to the specific paper stock used.
It was more of the same during the 1970s, a decade that also saw Pantone sign up some important clients and negotiate at least one major agreement. In 1971, 3M signed on as a Pantone Color Key licensee. Also in that year, Pantone by Letraset Color Markers were introduced in the design field and, in the following year, Pantone and Letraset entered an agreement granting Letraset global rights to produce and market Pantone Graphic Arts Materials, all of which were coordinated to the Pantone Matching System. At that time, too, Pantone entered a licensing arrangement with Day-Glo Color Corporation for the application of its system to fluorescent base colors.
In 1974, Pantone also made its first foray into the digital world of computing when it produced its Color Data System for computerized ink color formulation and matching. It was a significant step in an area of application that, as computer use burgeoned in the 1980s and beyond, became increasingly important.
Herbert took Pantone private in 1977. In its last year as a public company, Pantone's sales were about $2 million. Thereafter, Herbert did not divulge what the company's sales volume was each year, but by the mid-1980s, Pantone's trade mark appeared on about $500 million work of art supplies, ink, and other art and printing products marketed in over 50 countries.
The Pantone Color Matching System is largely a standardized color reproduction system. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to 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 is a method of printing color by using four inks—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. A 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[citation needed]. Those that are possible to simulate through the CMYK process are labeled as such within the company's guides.
However, most of the Pantone system's 1,114 spot colors cannot be simulated with CMYK but with 13 base pigments (15 including white and black) mixed in specified amounts
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 was 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.) The Goe system has RGB and LAB values with each color.
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.
Over the next few years, with the phenomenal development of the home computer industry, Pantone's role in digital art and design grew by leaps and bounds. In 1991, the company expanded its textile color system to 1,701 colors. It also entered into a new licensing agreement with NeXT Computer Inc., marking the first time that its colors were provided at the system level. That meant that developers for the NeXT platform did not have to build support for Pantone colors into either their software or hardware products. The company also entered new licensing agreements with Ventura Software, Hewlett-Packard, and others, and its colors became available for the UNIX operating system for the first time. Although NeXT, in many ways ahead of its time, would be absorbed by Apple in 1996 and end production, UNIX and its desktop computer versions began to give Microsoft some growing microcomputer operating-system competition as the 1990s wore on.
By 1992, Adobe, Bitstream, Deneba, MultiAd Services, Quark, and Ventura had all announced support for the Pantone color system in their newest software releases. In that year, too, Pantone introduced its color printer test kit, allowing users of Pantone licensed printers to find the closest possible matches to Pantone colors. In that year, the Xerox 4700 color document printer became the first color laser printer to support the full range of Pantone colors, while the Tektronix Phaser IISD was the first dye-sublimation printer to provide similar support for the company's color matching system.
Between 1993 and 1995, Pantone launched several new products and continued to enhance its technology. Among other things, in 1993 it introduced its Open Color Environment (POCE), the first color management system allowing true WYSIWYG color matching. In that year it also introduced its Plastics Color System, a universal plastic color reference system, and ColorUP, a software color management tool for business professionals designed to help them enhance color quality in their reports and presentations. The next year, 1994, Pantone introduced its Color Systems Cross-Reference Software as well as ColorDrive, a desktop color-management program free of specific applications. Next, in 1995, Pantone introduced its Textile Color Swatch Files, its Foil Stamping Color Guide, and its SuperChip, all technical refinements for making color delineation as accurate as possible in different applications of the Pantone systems.
Meanwhile, in the same three-year period, Pantone continued to develop new partnerships and licensing agreements. In 1993 alone, six new companies--AGFA, Aldus, Corel, Gold Disk, Linotype-Hell, and Serif--included support for the Pantone Process Color System in their most recent software releases.
From 1995 to 1998, Pantone continued to produce an array of new products in its partnering and licensing arrangements with other companies, both at home and abroad. Among other things, in 1995 launched Hexachrome for commercial use, secured new licensing agreements with Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, and Xerox, and entered a distribution pact with Ingram Micro. In the following year, the company received ISO 9002 certification and entered a global distribution agreement with VISU. Next, in 1997, it signed a distribution agreement with ALTO Imaging Group N.V. for the marketing of Pantone's products abroad, published Color Trends 1998 for graphic and Web design, and released a new version of ColorDrive for Windows. In the following year, 1998, it began shipping ColorWeb Pro, introduced its OfficeColor Assistant, an operating system add-in, and, with Apple, launched a worldwide color seminar series called "Expand Your Color Universe."
2000 and Beyond
By the end of the decade, Pantone had expanded its global presence to the point where its name had virtually become synonymous with color management, and almost monthly it strengthened its position through new partnerships and licensing arrangements.
By 2001, Pantone had built its palette to 1,757 colors. Its aim at that point was to have not just professionals but the general public speaking its color language. To that end, it started up TheRightColor division, the focal responsibility of which was to provide a universal, uniform, and precise color language along with technological solutions for industry retailers needing a color standard for enhancing consumer shopping and sharpening their competitive edge through all their marketing channels. TheRightColor solutions adapted the universally used Pantone Textile Color System to their needs. Among other things, the solutions allowed retailers to cut down on the number of merchandise returns stemming from faulty color matches, update their inventory tracking and restocking techniques, and enhance their ability to monitor customer color tastes and thereby make stocking and shelving adjustments to increase sales. The company also formed a partnership with The National Retail Federation for the purpose of providing a better color coding system for electronic marketing applications. Clearly, with the new millennium firmly underway, Pantone's corporate energy remained unabated in what remained an exciting, wide open specialty driven by a rapidly improving technology.
Principal Divisions: TheRightColor.
Principal Competitors: Adobe Systems Incorporated; Agfa-Gevaert N.V.; Creo, Inc.; IKON Office Solutions, Inc.; Imagining Technologies Corporation.
Statistics:
Private Company
Incorporated: 1962
Employees: 150
Sales:$19 million (2001 est.)
NAIC:511140 Database and Directory Publishers; 511120 Periodical Publishers; 511210 Software Publishers
Address:
590 Commerce Boulevard
Carlstadt, New Jersey 07072-3013
U.S.A.
In October 2007, X-Rite Inc, a supplier of color measurement instruments and software, purchased Pantone Inc for $180 million.
Pantone, Inc., with its corporate headquarters in Carlstadt, New Jersey, is a private company that over the last four decades of the 20th century built a global reputation as an authority on color and color systems. Using a 1,757-color palate, the company develops, standardizes and forecasts colors for a worldwide clientele. It provides both color systems and the technology that enables industries not only to select colors accurately but also to communicate choices from designers to manufacturers to retailers and thence to customers and other end users. Over the years, the company has expanded its Pantone Matching System concept for use by a variety of industries with color-critical needs, including textile, plastic, and digital technology manufacturers. Its special expertise lies in the development of communication tools for industries and in the adoption of new digital technology to meet the needs of design and production professionals. The company is headed by Lawrence Herbert, who joined Pantone in 1956 and introduced the Pantone Matching System in the early 1960s.
Pantone began as a commercial printing company in the 1950s. In 1956, they hired recent Hofstra University graduate Lawrence Herbert as a part-time employee. Herbert used his chemistry knowledge to systematize and simplify the company's stock of pigments and production of colored inks; by 1962, Herbert was running the ink and printing division at a profit, while the commercial-display division was $50,000 in debt; he subsequently purchased the company's technological assets from his employers and renamed them "Pantone".
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 "fan deck". 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 and 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. Color variance also occurs within editions based on the paper stock used (coated, matte or uncoated), while interedition color variance occurs when there are changes to the specific paper stock used.
It was more of the same during the 1970s, a decade that also saw Pantone sign up some important clients and negotiate at least one major agreement. In 1971, 3M signed on as a Pantone Color Key licensee. Also in that year, Pantone by Letraset Color Markers were introduced in the design field and, in the following year, Pantone and Letraset entered an agreement granting Letraset global rights to produce and market Pantone Graphic Arts Materials, all of which were coordinated to the Pantone Matching System. At that time, too, Pantone entered a licensing arrangement with Day-Glo Color Corporation for the application of its system to fluorescent base colors.
In 1974, Pantone also made its first foray into the digital world of computing when it produced its Color Data System for computerized ink color formulation and matching. It was a significant step in an area of application that, as computer use burgeoned in the 1980s and beyond, became increasingly important.
Herbert took Pantone private in 1977. In its last year as a public company, Pantone's sales were about $2 million. Thereafter, Herbert did not divulge what the company's sales volume was each year, but by the mid-1980s, Pantone's trade mark appeared on about $500 million work of art supplies, ink, and other art and printing products marketed in over 50 countries.
The Pantone Color Matching System is largely a standardized color reproduction system. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to 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 is a method of printing color by using four inks—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. A 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[citation needed]. Those that are possible to simulate through the CMYK process are labeled as such within the company's guides.
However, most of the Pantone system's 1,114 spot colors cannot be simulated with CMYK but with 13 base pigments (15 including white and black) mixed in specified amounts
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 was 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.) The Goe system has RGB and LAB values with each color.
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.
Over the next few years, with the phenomenal development of the home computer industry, Pantone's role in digital art and design grew by leaps and bounds. In 1991, the company expanded its textile color system to 1,701 colors. It also entered into a new licensing agreement with NeXT Computer Inc., marking the first time that its colors were provided at the system level. That meant that developers for the NeXT platform did not have to build support for Pantone colors into either their software or hardware products. The company also entered new licensing agreements with Ventura Software, Hewlett-Packard, and others, and its colors became available for the UNIX operating system for the first time. Although NeXT, in many ways ahead of its time, would be absorbed by Apple in 1996 and end production, UNIX and its desktop computer versions began to give Microsoft some growing microcomputer operating-system competition as the 1990s wore on.
By 1992, Adobe, Bitstream, Deneba, MultiAd Services, Quark, and Ventura had all announced support for the Pantone color system in their newest software releases. In that year, too, Pantone introduced its color printer test kit, allowing users of Pantone licensed printers to find the closest possible matches to Pantone colors. In that year, the Xerox 4700 color document printer became the first color laser printer to support the full range of Pantone colors, while the Tektronix Phaser IISD was the first dye-sublimation printer to provide similar support for the company's color matching system.
Between 1993 and 1995, Pantone launched several new products and continued to enhance its technology. Among other things, in 1993 it introduced its Open Color Environment (POCE), the first color management system allowing true WYSIWYG color matching. In that year it also introduced its Plastics Color System, a universal plastic color reference system, and ColorUP, a software color management tool for business professionals designed to help them enhance color quality in their reports and presentations. The next year, 1994, Pantone introduced its Color Systems Cross-Reference Software as well as ColorDrive, a desktop color-management program free of specific applications. Next, in 1995, Pantone introduced its Textile Color Swatch Files, its Foil Stamping Color Guide, and its SuperChip, all technical refinements for making color delineation as accurate as possible in different applications of the Pantone systems.
Meanwhile, in the same three-year period, Pantone continued to develop new partnerships and licensing agreements. In 1993 alone, six new companies--AGFA, Aldus, Corel, Gold Disk, Linotype-Hell, and Serif--included support for the Pantone Process Color System in their most recent software releases.
From 1995 to 1998, Pantone continued to produce an array of new products in its partnering and licensing arrangements with other companies, both at home and abroad. Among other things, in 1995 launched Hexachrome for commercial use, secured new licensing agreements with Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, and Xerox, and entered a distribution pact with Ingram Micro. In the following year, the company received ISO 9002 certification and entered a global distribution agreement with VISU. Next, in 1997, it signed a distribution agreement with ALTO Imaging Group N.V. for the marketing of Pantone's products abroad, published Color Trends 1998 for graphic and Web design, and released a new version of ColorDrive for Windows. In the following year, 1998, it began shipping ColorWeb Pro, introduced its OfficeColor Assistant, an operating system add-in, and, with Apple, launched a worldwide color seminar series called "Expand Your Color Universe."
2000 and Beyond
By the end of the decade, Pantone had expanded its global presence to the point where its name had virtually become synonymous with color management, and almost monthly it strengthened its position through new partnerships and licensing arrangements.
By 2001, Pantone had built its palette to 1,757 colors. Its aim at that point was to have not just professionals but the general public speaking its color language. To that end, it started up TheRightColor division, the focal responsibility of which was to provide a universal, uniform, and precise color language along with technological solutions for industry retailers needing a color standard for enhancing consumer shopping and sharpening their competitive edge through all their marketing channels. TheRightColor solutions adapted the universally used Pantone Textile Color System to their needs. Among other things, the solutions allowed retailers to cut down on the number of merchandise returns stemming from faulty color matches, update their inventory tracking and restocking techniques, and enhance their ability to monitor customer color tastes and thereby make stocking and shelving adjustments to increase sales. The company also formed a partnership with The National Retail Federation for the purpose of providing a better color coding system for electronic marketing applications. Clearly, with the new millennium firmly underway, Pantone's corporate energy remained unabated in what remained an exciting, wide open specialty driven by a rapidly improving technology.
Principal Divisions: TheRightColor.
Principal Competitors: Adobe Systems Incorporated; Agfa-Gevaert N.V.; Creo, Inc.; IKON Office Solutions, Inc.; Imagining Technologies Corporation.
Statistics:
Private Company
Incorporated: 1962
Employees: 150
Sales:$19 million (2001 est.)
NAIC:511140 Database and Directory Publishers; 511120 Periodical Publishers; 511210 Software Publishers
Address:
590 Commerce Boulevard
Carlstadt, New Jersey 07072-3013
U.S.A.