Pantone Inspires Designers with 336 New Shades

Pantone LLC, an X-Rite company (NASDAQ: XRIT) and the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, today announced the addition of 336 New Colors to its PANTONE® PLUS SERIES, bringing the total to 1,677 colors.

336 New Colors (Photo: Business Wire)

Introduced in 2010, the PANTONE PLUS SERIES is the next generation of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® – the defacto standard for color communication in the graphic arts market. The PLUS SERIES provides an accurate way for designers to communicate and control color throughout the entire design process – from inspiration to final output. The 336 New Colors offer designers more options and flexibility in the creative process and will become permanent standards in the PLUS SERIES Color Library.

The 336 New Colors enrich the current PLUS SERIES palette, providing a more comprehensive selection. All color families are extended to include a wider variety of values, saturation and undertones – from subtle pastels and reliable mid-tones to the intensity of deep tones, vivid brights and vital, nuanced neutrals.

“Color is integral to every project. The more colors I have to choose from, the easier it is to translate from fragrance to color,” said Matt Fadness, partner at Through Smoke Creative in Sausalito, Calif., a design firm specializing in home fragrance and body care scent and packaging design for brands including The Gap, Restoration Hardware and William Sonoma. “We need to form a strong connection between fragrance and color during the product development process and spend a lot of time choosing the precise hue. The additional colors in the PANTONE PLUS SERIES will give us greater flexibility and latitude to translate color into product.”

“Pantone is committed to continually deliver essential color inspiration and innovation to creatives and color professionals,” said Giovanni Marra, director of corporate marketing at Pantone. “Designers consistently demand more colors to differentiate their work and stand out in a crowded marketplace. We created the 336 New Colors with this in mind, expanding all color ranges to offer designers greater creative freedom.”

The New Colors were inspired by the PANTONE Goe™ System and add depth and breadth to the PLUS SERIES Color Library with fresh hues that did not previously exist. The Goe System represents important technical improvements in the area of ink film consistency and coatability, and these benefits have migrated to the 336 New Colors. Formulated using consistent ink-film thicknesses, the 366 New Colors can be easily reproduced by printers worldwide. All 336 New Colors will be available in coated and uncoated formats and are printed on text-weight paper to match popular print specifications.

Pricing, Availability and System Information

The 336 New Colors, coated and uncoated, are available immediately and can be purchased from the Pantone website at www.pantone.com/plus and through PANTONE Resellers worldwide. The additional colors will be available as supplements for a limited time so owners of previous publications can easily update their Guides.

COLOR BRIDGE® supplements featuring the 336 New Colors will be available in June. All new orders for core publications (PANTONE FORMULA GUIDE, COLOR BRIDGE, etc.) will ship with the 336 New Colors supplements.

The list below provides a complete breakdown of pricing and availability for all products that will include the 336 New Colors.

Digital color values for the 336 New Colors are available in PANTONE COLOR MANAGER, allowing designers to update popular design applications including Adobe® Creative Suite® (up to 5.5) and QuarkXPress® 9. While the original 1,341 PANTONE PLUS Colors are available in the recently announced Adobe Creative Suite 6, the 336 New Colors can be added in the coming weeks through an update to PANTONE COLOR MANAGER.

The 336 New Colors will also be available in CAPSURE™ and the myPANTONE™ mobile app (for iPhone® and Android smartphones) by early June. Owners of all of these products will receive automatic updates to download the 336 New Colors.

About Pantone

Pantone LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Rite, Incorporated, has been the world’s color authority for nearly 50 years, providing design professionals with products and services for the colorful exploration and expression of creativity. Always a source for color inspiration, Pantone also offers paint and designer-inspired products and services for consumers. More information is available at www.pantone.com.

About X-Rite

X-Rite, Incorporated, is the global leader in color science and technology. The company, which now includes color industry leader Pantone, develops, manufactures, markets and supports innovative color solutions through measurement systems, software, color standards and services. X-Rite’s expertise in inspiring, selecting, measuring, formulating, communicating and matching color helps users get color right the first time and every time, which translates to better quality and reduced costs. X-Rite serves a range of industries, including printing, packaging, photography, graphic design, video, automotive, paints, plastics, textiles, dental and medical. For further information, please visit www.xrite.com.

PANTONE®…The color of ideasSM.

PANTONE® and other Pantone trademarks are the property of Pantone LLC. Adobe and Creative Suite are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. QuarkXPress is a registered trademark of Quark Software Inc. and its affiliates in the U.S. and/or other countries. iPhone is a trademark of Apple.© Pantone, Inc., 2012. All rights reserved.

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