How do I get rid of this annoying prompt...and what happened to the Pantone color books?

[Supernaut63]

I just upgraded to Mac OS Sequoia 15.3.2 today, and then I upgraded all of my Adobe programs. I was tinkering around with Illustrator and noticed this box kept popping up (highlighted in yellow below). I want to turn this function off. I don't even know what it is...It appears to be popping up in Photoshop as well. I find it annoying. How do I turn it off?

So, the other thing I noticed is that when I go to Window > Swatch Libraries > Color Books, the Pantone libraries are completely GONE. What happened to them, and how am I supposed to use Patnone colors in Illustrator now? I need this for work.

[Ton Frederiks]

You can click the 3 dots ans select Hide Bar (it is also in the Window menu as Contextual Task Bar).

The Pantone colors have been gone for years. Did you click the learn more button?

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

[Supernaut63]

Thanks Ton.

In Illustrator, I went to Window and turned off Contextual Task Bar.

I'm not seeing that option in the Window menu in Photoshop though. Where is it in Photoshop, aside from clicking the 3 dots on the bar? I want it to stay off and never come back on when in Photoshop. Let me know. Thanks again.

[Ton Frederiks]

I see it in Photoshop at the bottom of the Window menu: Contextual Task Bar.

[Supernaut63]

LOL, sorry I was looking higher up on the Window menu where it appeared in Illustrator.

Got it. Fixed it. Thank you, bud!

Kudos!

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

As for the Pantone swatches, Adobe can no longer bundle them for "reasons" I won't get into as that's been covered ad nauseam, but if you still have your older Illustrator install on your previous system (e.g. the most recent one where you had the Pantone libraries available), you can copy them over to the proper location in the new install. (Illustrator > Presets > Color Books). Caveat, some of these libraries are outdated and will not have the most recent color additions, but you will at least have the ones you were working with before.  If you've already trashed your old install, but might happen to have a time machine backup, you can search for them and restore them.

[Supernaut63]

That's exactly what I did. I had an older version of Illustrator (2021), in my Time Machine, and moved the libraries over to the new version (2025). And yes, I am aware there are alot of Pantone colors missing from those old libraries, as I've been asked to use certain (newer) Pantone that aren't available in Illustrator. My client always provides me with really nice branding guides for my jobs that have hexadecimal breakdowns, so I end up using them instead of a Pantone. But yeah, I think soon I'm going to have to break down and pay for the Pantone Conect plugin (everybody's so freakin' greedy nowadays...I'm really not surprised they've done this). Reminds me of Klaus Schwab: "You'll own nothing and be happy"? Yeah, right.

[Bobby Henderson]

The situation with Pantone is just so stupid, IMHO. Rival applications, such as Affinity Designer and CorelDRAW, still have Pantone color libraries and they're updated when new versions of those applications are released (Corel is even hyping that as one of the few new features in its 2025 release). Unless I'm missing something it looks like Pantone singled out Adobe and has, for reasons I don't know, let Serif and Alludo continue to keep using the color libraries in their software.

Here's a funny thing: if you merely have the old Pantone color book files present in a current installation of Adobe Illustrator it will open art files that have newer Pantone colors properly without turning those colors black.

[Supernaut63]

I sent Pantone Connect an email to inquire about their product. They told me, "Adobe has decided to not continue including Pantone colors in their programs". Why would Adobe do that? I'm willing to bet it's probably the other way around. It's irrelevent at this point, but I'm willing to bet Pantone made the decision to score more money.

[Bobby Henderson]

Adobe was forced to remove the Pantone color books from its software. It's pretty easy to see why. Pantone is trying to sell its Connect service, which costs $14.99 per month or almost $180 annualy. They wouldn't get many Adobe customers signing up for Connect subscriptions if updated Pantone swatch book files were included in Adobe software.

$180 per year is a pretty high price just to gain access to some updated swatch files. That cost does not include any physical swatch books. A pair of coated and uncoated Pantone spot color swatch books cost $190-$250 depending on where you buy them. If a $180 per year Pantone Connect subscription included new physical swatch books every year then it would sound like a good deal. $180 per year just for swatch book files alone feels like a rip-off, especially when rival graphics applications like CorelDRAW and Affinity Designer have updated Pantone color books by default with each version upgrade. From time to time Affinity Designer goes on sale for $50. As I said earlier, if an Adobe Illustrator installation has the old Pantone color book files stored in the proper folder it will be able to open art files with newer Pantone colors and not have the colors turn black. It doesn't matter if the AI, EPS or PDF file was created by a rival application.

Another thing that makes the situation even more messy and hypocritical: there is a wide range of industry-specific applications that incorporates Pantone color books. That includes things like large format printing RIP applications. Is Pantone going to make all these different companies remove their Pantone color book files? Probably not. That would require Pantone to create color books for each one of those specific applications themselves. I don't think all of those applications can simply accept color book files being dropped into a certain program folder. But even if they did Pantone would still face some serious development overhead by having to support all these different applications with unique swatch books. After all, you can't drop an Adobe ACB file into a CorelDRAW program folder and expect it to work properly. Clearly what Pantone has done is single out Adobe and let the other companies slide.

[Supernaut63]

"Clearly what Pantone has done is single out Adobe and let the other companies slide."

But why would they do that to the most popular desktop publishing software in the world (Adobe)?

Because they knew they'd make way more money than if they just did it to Corel and Affinity.

Again: Greed! Basically. But hey, it's their call. Everybody's doing it nowadays

[Bobby Henderson]

The only thing I see this situation doing is reducing Pantone's relevance in the graphic design world. Not every graphics person needs a set of printed Pantone spot color swatch books. While many corporate brand guidelines documents will include Pantone color specifications an increasing number of those brand guides are also including values for other colors models like RGB, Hex and CMYK.

I think a lot of people have used Pantone color specs out of habit. I wonder what percentage of Adobe software users are actually creating layouts for print work that uses separate spot color plates. I'll bet it's a small minority of users. I'm pretty sure most of us are merely simulating Pantone colors in our print work. Some of the printers I use at work have Light Cyan and Light Magenta ink colors in addition to the usual CMYK colors. But the six color output is still a version of process printing. The only spot color I print is white ink for prints that will be back-lit.

The point is a lot of Adobe software users will adapt and move on without using Pantone colors in their work flow. By trying to financially squeeze a large user base Pantone risks becoming less visible, serving a much smaller number of niche users.

If anything, Adobe could have been charging Pantone "rent money" for its color books to have space in Adobe software installers. Apparently Pantone doesn't realize that making Adobe remove those Pantone color books reduces Pantone's brand visibility.

[Supernaut63]

To be honest, I stopped using the actual physical Pantone swatch books 25 years ago. I've never had a need for them. As I said, as a tech illustrator (and not a graphic designer choosing client colors), my clients provide the branding guides, letting me know what Pantone colors are to be used, and they always have the hexadecimal or CMYK breakdowns, which is really convenient when I don't have the actual Pantone color in Illustrator. I usually program in the hex or CMYK numbers and label it in the Swatch palette with the correct Pantone name.

What would really be cool is if there was an online resource that had the hexidecimal, RGB amd CMYK breakdowns of ALL of the current Pantone libraries. If this was available, one could completely go around Pantone and still have color accuracy.

You mentioned spot colors. Oddly enough, I got a request lastweek to use them on a job, and seriously, it's been years since someone asked me to work with spot colors. But I guess there's still a need out there. Some clients are SUPER picky about their brand colors when printing and want Pantone inks. I used spot colors in Illustrator quite often many years ago for T-shirt designs for silk-screen separations.

[Bobby Henderson]

We have to keep physical Pantone swatch books handy at my workplace. I have a set at my desk that I guard jealously. Some clients are very picky about spot colors they specify in their logos and other brand elements. It's not enough to simply select an object in Illustrator, apply a Pantone spot color fill to it and then hit the print button. We have to make small test prints, especially if it's a unfamiliar, newer color and then compare the output to the printed swatch book. I'll often look at the results outdoors in sunlight if the final product is being installed outdoors. Various kinds of indoor lighting can throw off color comparisons. If the stock Pantone values aren't good enough we have to make adjustments. We do tell customers matching spot colors works only so well. Certain Pantone spot colors are well outside the gamut limits of CMYK.

I think Pantone's spot color standards still persist because the printed swatch books provided a real-world example of specific colors. One client's notion of "Kelly Green" won't be the same as someone else's perception. There isn't anything subjective to picking a specific number, like Pantone 334 C. I wish it was possible to just roll with basic CMYK and RGB values, but the visible results of those values can be changed by color profiles, computer monitor settings and print output.

[Supernaut63]

I went through all of this years ago, when I was mainly doing graphic design work. That emplyment ran from 1984 to 2001. After that, I got into 3D illustration for 4.5 years, drawing furniture for mostly military contractors. After that I landed my current job at a real-estate based ad agency, as their Technical Illustration Manager (drawing has always been my portfolio strength), only going back to 2D work in Adobe Illustrator. Now, I work from home for that same client...18 years now. But yeah, I feel your pain, LOL. Been there.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Here's my take: all a theory, of course.

Pantone was relevant when people were actually using their inks. Any printer using Pantone colour, had to buy their ink from a Pantone-licensed ink supplier, or buy the set of Pantone base inks that were then used to mix each of the colours in house. That really WAS their bread and butter in those days. Printers weren't even charged for swatch books, as long as they used their ink. Others (like agencies and designers) would have to pay for them mostly because they are hella expensive to print. In my years in the print industry did we ever pay for swatch books.

As more CMYK work and alternative printing processes starting replacing the use of actual spot inks on the press, designers literally stopped opting for spot inks due to the expense of it. At the printer I worked at, we saw less and less Pantone jobs over the years, even from the bigger Agencies. Yes, they were still needed and used for single or 2-colour offset print jobs, and specific brand work, but fewer designers are designing 5-colour or 6-colour print jobs these days. Even to them, digital is cheaper, and better than ever.

Hence, as many printers become more digitally-based, Pantone was becoming less relevant, and although it is possble to do relatively good matches to Pantone inks with wider gamut printers, why even bother. And, of course, this is not good for Pantone as they are no longer selling as much bread and butter ink.

Hence, I suspect that Pantone saw a need to improve a revenue stream, and they started moving to their subscription-based systems as one way to do that. (I personally hate that approcah.... you wouldn't like having to pay a monthly fee to keep an Ikea catalog on your shelf!) I suspect the licensing fee to include them in apps were going up as well, and this is probably where the beef with Adobe started... similar to the decision to drop licensing and reselling of Linotype/Monotye fonts. Even before they were deleted form CC apps, Adobe hadn't updated the libraries they were supplying, missing many new colours. Yes, Corel and Affinity and Quark still have them, but it's because they are likely still willing to pay Pantone to license them, relevant or not....   for now..... who knows!

[Monika Gause]

Yes, Corel and Affinity and Quark still have them, but it's because they are likely still willing to pay Pantone to license them, relevant or not....   for now..... who knows!

By Brad Roaring Mouse

Not sure about Corel, but Affinity doesn't even have a plugin interface. You can't make plugins for it. On top of that: selling a subscription service to people who moved to Affinity because they do not like subscriptions, will most likely fail.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Definitely.

[Supernaut63]

Like I said, EVERYBODY is doing it nowadays.

You can no longer own these things. You have to rent them monthly/yearly.

Eventually, DVD movies will be phased out and the only way you'll be able to watch TV is streaming services which you will pay for everytime you want to watch a movie. Greed - you can't just have a one time purchase anymore...you MUST pay monthly/yearly. It's terrible.

[Ton Frederiks]

To add to what Brad said : 

If you have a Photoshop license, you can install Photoshop 22.2.

In the Creative Cloud app select Apps > All Apps > Photoshop > click the 3 dots …  next to the Open button >  click Other Versions and select Photoshop (22.2) and Install

Then, open Photoshop 2023 Application folder > Presets > Color Books and you will find the PANTONE color books, so copy it to Illustrator's Color Books folder.

Make a copy in a safe place

[Supernaut63]

I'm good.

Thanks bud!