Adobe has lost its license to support PMS Spot colors!

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
February 10, 2023
3 replies
945 views

Print designers beware. Adobe has lost its licensing to use PMS Spot color libraries in its applications. See my chat screen shots. This is concerning. Print in all its various forms is still a viable industry and the moving toward digital applications only leaves the industries that depend on the PMS spot system out in the cold. I'm often asked to provide files in PMS for industries like fabric printing, embroidery and some signage applications. What recourse do I have now? Any suggestions for alternatives from the community are appreciated.

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Kevin Stohlmeyer

Community Expert

Hi @partnrz_ic - see this page it will give you options and explain what to do:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/pantone-plus.html

Met1

Legend

Adobe announced it would have to remove Pantone colors from its app back in December 2021.

Search this forum for a solution, it's come up many times.

Met1

Legend

Monika!

Monika Gause

Community Expert

You can install an older version of Illustrator and then grab the color libraries from it and install them in your current version. There are a couple of threads on the Pantone issue in this forum. Maybe you could search for them?

P

partnrz_icAuthor

Participating Frequently

I had searched. Nothing came up. Also, Adobe's support neglected to provide an option. met1 mentioned this was announced before, I guess I missed that memo. Why didn't they handle it like the type 1 font issue? That would have ensured everyone was aware. Searched the web and found an extension that will work, but it will take some getting used to.

Kevin Stohlmeyer

Community Expert

Hi @partnrz_ic this was announced at the beginning of 2022 with plenty of run way.

The link I provided gives you options to work around the issue. To be clear - this was not Adobe's doing or "neglected support" this was all Pantone.

No offense, but there are literally pages of Google search results regarding this. There are dozens of posts on this forum alone with similar workarounds posts and complaints about the Pantone Connect plugin.

Be wary of that.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/pantone-and-fonts/m-p/13455289

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/pantone-solid-swatches-missing-from-2023-update/m-p/13368029/page/2

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/is-anyone-else-having-trubble-with-pantone-connect/td-p/13486792

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/the-maddness-of-pantone-colours/m-p/13314346

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/pantone-solid-coated-missing/m-p/13369224

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/working-in-illustrator-with-pantone-connect/td-p/13545208