Pantone has added 294 new shades to its Pantone Matching System (PMS) ink system – the first update since 2016, which brings the total number of shades to 2,100.
The company describes the shades as “trend-relevant” – so, unsurprisingly, they include ‘Gen-Z yellow’, as well as ‘bisexual lavender’ and earthier shades of orange that Pantone is linking to future colour trends.
You don’t have to throw away your current Pantone swatchbooks quite yet – you can buy a swatchbook with just the 294 new colours – but the company says there is a reason to get a completely new set. The new colours guides, it says, are more reliably printed and accurate than before – which might come as news to designers who were under the impression the old books were completely accurate already.
Pantone has launched a Pantone Extension for Adobe Creative Cloud that adds up-to-date colour libraries within Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. You can search for colours from both the PMS and the Fashion, Home and Interiors (FHI) system for textiles – as well as convert CMYK, RGB and Hex colours to colours from either system (or both for projects that span both print and textiles). Colour palettes can be shared with other designers.
The Colour Guides can be purchased from the likes of Colour Confidence. To print with the inks, talk to your printer.