color space . for other uses see pantone disambiguation . pantone founder lawrence herbert headquarters united states parent x rite website www.pantone.com pantone inc. is a corporation headquartered in carlstadt new jersey . 1 the company is best known for its pantone matching system pms a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries primarily printing though sometimes in the manufacture of colored paint fabric and plastics . in october 2007 x rite inc. a supplier of color measurement instruments and software purchased pantone inc. for 180 million . 2 contents 1 overview 2 pantone color matching system 3 pantone goe system 4 other products 5 color of the year 6 intellectual property 7 see also 8 references 9 external links overview edit pantone began as the commercial printing company of m & j levine advertising in the 1950s in new york city . in 1956 its founders advertising executives brothers mervin and jesse levine hired recent hofstra university graduate lawrence herbert as a part time employee . herbert used his chemistry knowledge to systematize and simplify the company s stock of pigments and production of colored inks ; by 1962 herbert was running the ink and printing division at a profit while the commercial display division was 50 000 in debt ; he subsequently purchased the company s technological assets from the levine brothers for 90 000 and renamed them pantone . 3 the company s primary products include the pantone guides which consist of a large number of small approximately 6 2 inches or 15 5 cm thin cardboard sheets printed on one side with a series of related color swatches and then bound into a small fan deck . for instance a particular page might contain a number of yellows of varying tints . the idea behind the pms is to allow designers to color match specific colors when a design enters production stage regardless of the equipment used to produce the color . this system has been widely adopted by graphic designers and reproduction and printing houses . pantone recommends that pms color guides be purchased annually as their inks become yellowish over time . 4 color variance also occurs within editions based on the paper stock used coated matte or uncoated while interedition color variance occurs when there are changes to the specific paper stock used . 5 pantone color matching system edit the pantone color matching system is largely a standardized color reproduction system . by standardizing the colors different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another . one such use is standardizing colors in the cmyk process . the cmyk process is a method of printing color by using four inks cyan magenta yellow and black . a majority of the world s printed material is produced using the cmyk process and there is a special subset of pantone colors that can be reproduced using cmyk . citation needed those that are possible to simulate through the cmyk process are labeled as such within the company s guides . however most of the pantone system s 1 114 spot colors can not be simulated with cmyk but with 13 base pigments 14 including black mixed in specified amounts . 6 a logo designed by the government of singapore to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the nation s independence . the usage instructions for the logo described it as being in pantone red 032 and white . 7 the pantone system also allows for many special colors to be produced such as metallics and fluorescents . while most of the pantone system colors are beyond the printed cmyk gamut it was only in 2001 that pantone began providing translations of their existing system with screen based colors . screen based colors use the rgb color model red green blue system to create various colors . 8 the discontinued 9 goe system has rgb and lab values with each color . pantone colors are described by their allocated number typically referred to as for example pms 130 . pms colors are almost always used in branding and have even found their way into government legislation and military standards to describe the colors of flags and seals . 10 in january 2003 the scottish parliament debated a petition reference pe512 to refer to the blue in the scottish flag as pantone 300 . countries such as canada and south korea and organizations such as the fia have also chosen to refer to specific pantone colors to use when producing flags . us states including texas have set legislated pms colors of their flags . 11 it has also been used in an art project by the brazilian photographer angelica dass 12 which applies pantone to the human skin color spectrum . 13 14 pantone goe system edit on september 5 2007 pantone introduced the goe system . 15 goe consists of over 2 000 new colors in a new matching and numbering system . in addition to the standard swatch books now called the goeguide the new system also includes adhesive backed goesticks interactive software tools and an online community where users are able to share color swatches and information . the goe system is streamlined to use fewer base colors ten plus clear coating for reflections and accommodates many technical challenges in reproducing colors on a press . 6 the pantone goe system was discontinued in november 2013 . 16 other products edit in mid 2006 pantone partnering with vermont based fine paints of europe introduced a new line of interior and exterior paints . the color palette uses pantone s color research and trending and has more than 3 000 colors . in november 2015 pantone partnered with redland london to create a collection of bags inspired from pantone s authority on color . pantone also produced hexachrome a patented six color printing system . 17 18 in addition to custom cmyk inks hexachrome added orange and green inks to expand the color gamut for better color reproduction . it was therefore also known as a cmykog process . hexachrome was discontinued by pantone in 2008 when adobe systems stopped supporting their hexware plugin software . color of the year edit annually pantone declares a particular color color of the year . twice a year the company hosts in a european capital a secret meeting of representatives from various nations color standards groups . after two days of presentations and debate they choose a color for the following year ; for example the color for summer 2013 was chosen in london in the spring of 2012 . 19 the color purportedly connects with the zeitgeist ; for example the press release declaring honeysuckle the color of 2011 said in times of stress we need something to lift our spirits . honeysuckle is a captivating stimulating color that gets the adrenaline going perfect to ward off the blues . 20 the results of the meeting are published in pantone view 750 which fashion designers florists and many other consumer oriented companies purchase to help guide their designs and planning for future products . 19 2000 cerulean pantone 15 4020 9bb7d4 2001 fuchsia rose pantone 17 2031 c74375 2002 true red pantone 19 1664 bf1932 2003 aqua sky pantone 14 4811 7bc4c4 2004 tigerlily pantone 17 1456 e2583e 2005 blue turquoise pantone 15 5217 53b0ae 2006 sand dollar pantone 13 1106 decdbe 2007 chili pepper pantone 19 1557 9b1b30 2008 blue iris pantone 18 3943 5a5b9f 2009 mimosa pantone 14 0848 f0c05a 2010 turquoise pantone 15 5519 45b5aa 2011 honeysuckle pantone 18 2120 d94f70 2012 tangerine tango pantone 17 1463 21 dd4124 2013 emerald pantone 17 5641 009473 2014 radiant orchid pantone 18 3224 22 b163a3 2015 marsala pantone 18 1438 23 955251 2016 rose quartz pantone 13 1520 24 f7cac9 2016 serenity pantone 15 3913 24 92a8d1 in 2012 the color of the year tangerine tango was used to create a makeup line in partnership with sephora . 25 the product line named sephora pantone universe collection features tangerine tango embellished false lashes ; nail lacquers cream glitters and high pigment lip glosses . 26 the person behind pantone s color of the year executive director of the pantone color institute leatrice eiseman explains how 2014 s color of the year radiant orchid was chosen for a two part interview held by custom printing company signazon and bannerbuzz i look for ascending color trends colors that are being used in broader ways and broader context than before ... in this case radiant orchid descends from the purple family which is kind of a magical color that denotes creativity and innovation . purple is just that kind of a complex interesting attracting kind of color ... the back story to purple is that it inspires confidence in your creativity and we re living in a world where that kind of creative innovation is greatly admired . in the world of color purple is an attention getter and it has a meaning . it speaks to people and we felt that it was time for the purple family to be celebrated . that s why we chose the particular shade called radiant orchid . leatrice eiseman 27 pantone has said that color has always been an integral part of how a culture expresses the attitudes and emotions of the times . 28 colors of the 1960s were chosen in conjunction with the rise of youth culture counterculture and social revolution ; including hot pink 17 1937 vermillion orange 16 1362 grass green 15 6437 lemon chrome 13 0859 cyan blue 16 4529 and bright violet 19 3438 . recession and growing environmental awareness in the 1970s brought earthy colors like avocado 18 0430 burnt sienna 17 1544 carafe 19 1116 harvest gold 16 0948 rust 18 1248 and corsair 19 4329 . mtv and similar cultural influences and economic upturn are responsible for the more vibrant colors of the 1980s ; lavendula 15 3620 radiant orchid 18 3244 also color of the year in 2014 mauve orchid 16 2111 ribbon red 19 1663 royal blue 19 3955 and rose violet 17 2624 . the 1990s with rise of graffiti grunge and zen saw the colors overcast 14 0105 lead gray 17 1118 oasis 16 0540 super lemon 14 0754 firecracker 16 1452 and scuba blue 16 4725 . 28 intellectual property edit pantone asserts that their lists of color numbers and pigment values are the intellectual property of pantone and free use of the list is not allowed . 29 this is frequently held as a reason pantone colors can not be supported in open source software and are not often found in low cost proprietary software . 30 pantone has been accused of being intentionally unclear about its exact legal claims but it is acknowledged that the simplest claim would be trademark misappropriation or dilution towards someone who produced a color palette marketed as compatible with pantone s . 31 pantone palettes supplied by printer manufacturers can be obtained freely and usually do not come with usage restrictions beyond a sales ban on hard copies of the palette . see also edit color portal color chart other color systems and charts cmyk color model natural color system ncs munsell color system and other proprietary color spaces where most consumers use swatches to make color decisions ; unlike pantone these systems are based on underlying color models rather than pigment mixtures . ral colour standard spot color sui generis database right copyright protection of databases references edit horyn cathy . pantone s color of the year is ... the new york times december 20 2007 . accessed september 8 2008 . nonetheless pantone s choice of blue iris or no. 18 3943 got some news media attention last week which seemed to be partly the objective of the company which is