Are there any alternatives to using PantoneConnect to add swatches that are unavilable?

[ChloeImrie]

Hello, 
Illustrator has unforuntely not updated their pantone swatches for over 10 years so some newer swatches are not avilable within the illustrator program. 

PantoneConnect was a free extension which allowed me to add swatches into illustrator easily. However, PantoneConnect has now become subscription based and it now cost to be able to use modern pantone swatches. 

Is there an alternative to adding newer swatches outside of PantoneConnect? It's super frustrating that everything is becoming subscription based. Or would it be best to just convert the CYMK Swatch to Spot? 

Thanks 🙂

[Monika Gause]

The reason that Pantone colors even exist is that most of them cannot be reproduced with CMYK. Converting the process colors thius is not a good idea.

Unless you are in packaging or fashion, where for workflow reasons the Pantone extension might be necessary, the only thing you really need for working with spot colors are the printed Pantone swatches books. Spor colors are about printing them. And if you need the equivalent of them on screen, you still need to know how they look when printed.

Unfortunately they are really expensive and the extension doesn't accompany them.