Pantone Color of the Year

I was about to say that Pantone's Couleur de l'Année is their yearly attempt to get printers to buy a new Pantone book.

That is not necessarily true. My inner cynic has been somewhat bested.

On the Pantone website it explicitly says that the nearest printing ink match to 2017's color is PMS 376C, which is a pretty old release.

For 2016's colors, however, you would need newer books.

Oh yeah, I agree about the 2017 green... reminds me of late 1960's avocado refrigerators.
 
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I will defend Pantone on this one and say it was not created so everybody has to buy a new book. Particularly with the printing side of their offerings, as this is as said in the fashion PMS guide. If someone desires this color in any industry, it should be quite easy to communicate color, especially if we are speaking of a single color such as this green. However they will certainly profit and capitalize on the Color of the Year and that's OK.

It's just the other aspects of Pantone that have oft times been mentioned........that infuriate some, as to the user friendliness throughout the people who need it as a tool in their everyday endeavors.

D
 
What I have found infuriating about PMS is its use of reflex blue and rhodamine red as part of its basic colors of printing inks.

It seems PMS makes no effort to educate designers that their beauteous creations could take "forever" to dry, smudge customers' hands, or change color when going through industry-usual processes such as UV coating or hot lamination.

It is left to the print shop to break the bad news (somehow) to the customer that the design was "designed" without enough information. It is never a pleasant task to let people know that critical details were not dealt with.

This, I would venture to say, is one reason why four color process is making such leaps-and-bounds progress in areas such as stationery. 4CP printing is predictably ready to use (depending on substrate), a claim that can never be made about printing from a PMS color number pulled from a hat.
 
What I have found infuriating about PMS is its use of reflex blue and rhodamine red as part of its basic colors of printing inks.

It seems PMS makes no effort to educate designers that their beauteous creations could take "forever" to dry, smudge customers' hands, or change color when going through industry-usual processes such as UV coating or hot lamination.

It is left to the print shop to break the bad news (somehow) to the customer that the design was "designed" without enough information. It is never a pleasant task to let people know that critical details were not dealt with.

This, I would venture to say, is one reason why four color process is making such leaps-and-bounds progress in areas such as stationery. 4CP printing is predictably ready to use (depending on substrate), a claim that can never be made about printing from a PMS color number pulled from a hat.

And a factual side note> Refllex Blue is the heaviest ink film in the guide and Rhodamine is the thinnest film. Reflex blue requires over 100% the ink film to achieve density versus the Rhodamine. If each base were half way between each other there would be no squabble here. Even lithographers would fine usefulness with the system. :rolleyes:
 
Pantone recognizes the impossibility of that endeavour.

"Yes, I'm the graphic designer who created the file. I'm sorry, you need bleeds for this piece? I've never worked with a printed that needed bleeds. You need spot colors for the letterhead programmed into the file? I'm not sure what you mean. Is that like converting everything to CMYK?"
 
The topic has evolved into proof of some previous proclamations made in the past from people of undenounced recognitions.

D Ink Man
 
Perhaps, however it was not written by a computer. It was composed by a clean shaven thoughtful human being, promise that.

D
 

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