New PANTONE Formula Guides with incorrect ink formulations

PANTONE Fächer Solid Uncoated 2023 mit Fehlern in der Farbrezeptur. Detailansicht der identischen Rezepturwerte für unterschiedlichen PANTONE Farben.

Several errors have crept into the new PANTONE 2023 fan decks. In both the PANTONE Solid Coated and the Solid Uncoated color fans, there are colours for which the new ink formulations are incorrect.

In the PANTONE Formula Guide Solid Coated fan 2023, PANTONE 107 C and PANTONE 108 C have absolutely identical ink recipes, as well as PANTONE 113 C and PANTONE 114 C. As the colors differ, this cannot be the correct.

Several errors in the PANTONE Solid Uncoated fan 2023

In the PANTONE Solid Uncoated fan 2023 it gets even more critical: In the new fan, PANTONE 106 U and PANTONE 107 U have exactly the same ink formulation, the same applies to the formulations of PANTONE 108 U and PANTONE 109 U as well as for PANTONE 113 U and PANTONE 114 U which also have identical colour formulations.

PANTONE Connect also with formulation errors

But not only in print are the formulations wrong, in PANTONE Connect the shown formulations are identically wrong. In one case, in PANTONE Connect, the PANTONE 109 U spot colour even has a different, but nevertheless incorrect formulation, as it shows the exact ink percentages of the PANTONE 110 U.

At the same time, there are 3 formulations for 1 colour:

Currently there are three formulations for PANTONE 109 U within PANTONE, as the former fandecks are still available for sale on the PANTONE website: Of the three formulations, one is old and the two new ones are wrong.

PANTONE 109 U

  • The “old” formulation of the still available previous fans:
    PANTONE Yellow: 98.5%
    PANTONE Warm Red 1.50%
  • The new formulation of the 2023 fan, probably wrong:
    PANTONE Yellow PY 12: 27.01%
    PANTONE Orange 016: 1.07%
    PANTONE HD Extender: 71.92%
  • The new formulation from PANTONE Connect, probably wrong:
    PANTONE Yellow PY 12: 51.95%
    PANTONE Orange 016: 3.28%
    PANTONE HD Extender: 44,77%

An annoying mishap that PANTONE has made here. I am curious if and when PANTONE will correct the mistakes. In PANTONE Connect it can be done with a simple update, but current colour fans will hardly be able to be exchanged or supplemented with corrected pages.

Proof GmbH 2021 Certified Again by Fogra with Fogra “Spot cert”

Title Test Report Fogra Certificate Proof GmbH 2021 Fogra Contract Proof Creation 34558

Fogra Certificate Proof GmbH 2021 Fogra Contract Proof Creation 34558

This year we have again submitted proofs for Fogra certification. We thus prove that we not only deliver excellent proof quality through internal quality controls and checks, but that the quality of our proofs is also confirmed by an external body. We have therefore had proof prints certified for the seventh year in a row.

Already in 2019, we were among the first to also be certified for the representation of spot colours (“Spot-cert”), and in 2020 we also went through Spot-cert in addition. And all in all, we have been successfully certified by Fogra for the ninth time in a row. Sometimes customers ask:

“You get Fogra certified every year. Won’t that become unnecessary at some point? You know you can do it …”

Yes, that is sometimes true. Every certification means effort and costs, the prints have to be made, sheets have to be filled in, everything has to be sent to Munich and invoices have to be transferred. And that’s just so that we can have the same high quality confirmed as in previous years. On the other hand, this isn’t true either.

Proofing is only superficially “service by the book as always”. In real life, no two years are the same. Proofing software, for example, is not sold on the mass market, so every update brings difficulties: Important functions fail, protocols are output incorrectly, optimisations do not optimise but worsen the results…: What we haven’t had to experience! Especially here it is important to have the security of certification by Fogra that even with the latest software revision all relevant processes still run cleanly.

The same applies to the hardware, which can be just as troublesome as the software: sometimes we have a generation change of proof printers, which always involves a change of inks and colour pigments, sometimes the driver or firmware is renewed, sometimes faulty print heads have been replaced …: Here, too, there are many possible sources of error that keep us on our toes. And here, too, the certifications bring us security for daily production – our everyday business. And that, too, is often not commonplace at proof.de:

Verifiably precise …

Our so-called “everyday business” is often characterised by special cases, exceptions and special requirements. Admittedly: We like to work off Fogra39 proofs in ISOCoatedV2, where all data is delivered in CMYK. Something like that just runs really smoothly for us. But apart from these “standards”, we process much more for our customers: we produce high-precision colour samples, proof individual proof profiles for metal decor printing, process thick, high-gloss papers for proofs and extremely thin, matt papers for art projects, apply PANTONE colours to roll-ups, fine art prints in AdobeRGB on cotton canvas, ECI-RGB-V2 on Hahnemühle papers, print XYZ colour targets for multispectral cameras and …:

Our so-called “everyday business” is often characterised by special cases, exceptions and special requirements. Admittedly: We like to work off Fogra39 proofs in ISOCoatedV2, where all data is delivered in CMYK. Something like that just runs really smoothly for us. But apart from these “standards”, we process much more for our customers: we produce high-precision colour samples, proof individual proof profiles for metal decor printing, process thick, high-gloss papers for proofs and extremely thin, matt papers for art projects, apply PANTONE colours to roll-ups, fine art prints in AdobeRGB on cotton canvas, ECI-RGB-V2 on Hahnemühle papers, print XYZ colour targets for multispectral cameras and …:

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PANTONE Find a Color No Longer Available Without Registration

New PANTONE Find a Color home page: Now only with PANTONE Connect: Without logging in, you can no longer even access the RGB and CMYK values of PANTONE colours on the PANTONE website.

That was fast: Only a few days after Adobe’s announcement to remove the PANTONE colours from their latest revisions of the Adobe product range, PANTONE reacted and removed the popular tool “PANTONE Find a Color” from the internet. Instead, the login to PANTONE Connect can now be found there, a tool that provides the previous functionality partly for free and partly for a subscription price with extensions.

New PANTONE Find a Color home page: Now only with PANTONE Connect: Without logging in, you can no longer even access the RGB and CMYK values of PANTONE colours on the PANTONE website.

 

If you are looking for the usual functionality again, you at least have to register, but many additional features are only available for a hefty surcharge. The discount in the first year still sounds reasonably cheap, but when paying the full price, the PANTONE colours are only available for 6.99 €/month or almost 84 euros per year. This is a steep price for the fact that PANTONE should have a vested interest that their colours on the internet should also be used by people who do not have a PANTONE fan in their hands.

Price table of PANTONE Connect: If you need all functions, you have to dig deep into your pocket.

PANTONE Color Manager discontinued

The popular PANTONE Color Manager was also discontinued. This software was available to anyone who bought a PANTONE fan. An individual code was printed on the back of the fan, with which one could download the PANTONE Manager and get it running. Once installed, you could access all current fans, colours and key colour definitions in RGB and CMYK and export all PANTONE colours as LAB, CMYK and more as ASE and ACO for Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. If you now call up the Color Manager website, it says: Product set.

 

But maybe that is exactly PANTONE’s new approach: We are so big, we can afford everything. Just like Adobe: nothing works without a subscription. But while Adobe has really set standards in the graphics sector, PANTONE has not necessarily stood out as the indisputable “Biggest Global Player in Colour” in recent years due to its often short-term actions.

Let’s see how the next months turn out. It is not impossible that PANTONE will have to row back. If a licence-free colour system like the free colour CIELAB HLC colour system should ever gain a foothold, then hard times are ahead for the licence-driven systems. If more companies open up to such duel-open, transparent and yet precise and predictable solutions, then PANTONE will quickly be on a difficult track. Because when it comes to colour, it is certainly difficult to regain market share once lost. Also noticeable:

PANTONE Connect rated very poorly

If you search for PANTONE Connect in Adobe’s extensions, reading the ratings will bring tears to your eyes. At the tool Ekomi, which we at Proof GmbH use for rating collection, the best rating score is only up to 4.8 out of 5 stars. And below 4 out of 5 stars, everything is rated as a disaster. And PANTONE Connect: 1.9 out of 5 stars. In other words: absolutely miserable.

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