Colour Chaos for Graphic Designers…
Adobe & Pantone Split: the break-up impacting Graphic Designers
Since the 1980’s graphic designers have relied on Pantone for consistent, predictable colour print output. Using Pantone swatch books to select the colours that match logos, CMYK artwork; either searching for a colour match from those bricks of books or within Adobe software online. But as of 2023 it’s all change!
Thanks to a licensing dispute between Adobe Inc. and Pantone LLC, tens of thousands of pantone colours within the Adobe suite are no longer available.
For designers pulling together print ready artwork for clients that’s some headache!
And because Pantone have jumped on the subscription bandwagon, graphic designers will have to pay for the privilege, in addition to their Creative Cloud subs.
Now if your graphic designer wants to gain access to Pantone’s 15,000+ colours, they need to buy the Pantone Connect extension license and install the plug-in (with varying reviews) using Adobe Exchange. Enabling the colours to be pulled into InDesign, Illustrator or Photoshop.
The cost is approx. £80 for the year and there is a free trial, but it’s only 7 days.
Prior to August last year, all pantone colours were pre-loaded for Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop; but artwork files including Pantone colours will now show rendering errors, with the pop-up saying “this file has pantone colours removed” replacing them with black.
Pantone Colours On a Roll…
I get asked to convert print jobs to Pantone colours all the time.
One of my clients Fig - they supply sustainable toilet roll made from sugarcane - wanted to cut down their print costs so rather than print their packaging in 4 colour (CMYK) they asked me to find the matching pantone colours so we can convert the print job to 2 colours. No problem.
Just one of Fig’s many box designs, now set up as 2 colour.
When all of this first kicked off, it took me a little while to figure out how to pull the Pantone colours across but I’m all over it now, and the new system works well! So if you’re stuck call me on 07789 866242 or email graham@absolutegraphics.co.uk, I’m happy to walk you through it.
