Pantone Announces New “Plus Series†-- 566 New Colors, Including Metallics and Neons Galore
Pantone has announced that its Pantone Matching System -- the universal color standard for print design and reproduction -- has been expanded and renamed as Pantone Plus. Besides offering 566 new colors, the Plus system’s fan decks and chip books are arranged chromatically rather than adhering to the sometimes confusing numerical system of Pantones past. The new solid color collection features 224 new colors, for a total of 1,341 specific swatches. Even more intriguingly, the Plus Series Premium Metallic set includes 300 new “high luster†metallics, and the Pastels + Neons set includes 42 new neons. In short, print designers of the world will be able to explore bold new opportunities in designing, say, high-tech magazine covers (via the metallics) and action sports packaging (via the neons). As for the existing collection of pastels, well, baby book publishers can continue to pull all the same soft and gentle colors they were using before. All of the Plus Series color guides include a “ColorChecker†lighting indicator that reveals whether your ambient lighting provides accurate color representation of your swatches and chips. The guides are now also printed on “text weight†paper to better represent how your finished product will look in typical reproduction scenarios. Best of all, color profile software is available for free with every Plus Series purchase, meaning you can start using the Plus Series palettes in Adobe Creative Suite and other applications right away. Both of Pantone’s iPhone apps -- myPantone and X-Ref – support the new color system, but updates for these apps weren’t yet available at the App Store at press time. X-Ref is a digital color bridge and cross-referencing tool for Pantone’s various systems. You can use to compare different Pantone swatches against each other, and check their sRGB, CMYK and HTML values. X-Ref was announced in early April.
http://www.maclife.com/article/news/pantone_announces_new_plus_series_734_new_colors_including_metallics_and_neons_galore
