Pantone Color Bridge

[riziharris]

I just bought the new Pantone Color Bridge Coated book. When I try to add a new color swatch and specify Pantone+Color Bridge Coated many colors that are in my book don't come up for selection.

[rob day]

The Pantone Book Libraries have not been updated since CS6. There is a free extension from Pantone—Pantone Connect—which lets you search for any color and add it to your Swatches panel.

Also, note that there is a bug in the current version of Connect—if you add a Pantone Bridge color to your swatches panel it is defined as a Lab color and not the Bridge CMYK value. Bridge colors are intended to be process CMYK simulations of the Lab Solid ink colors and should have the CMYK definition listed on the swatch, so for now you will have to manually adjust the Color Mode and values after you add the swatch:

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

Be aware that Pantone Connect is absolute not a free product. Quoting Pantone on the Adobe Exchange page, https://exchange.adobe.com/creativecloud.details.103029.html, from which you can download Pantone Connect:

Pantone Connect remains completely free to access while we build up the Pantone Connect platform. No payment information is necessary to create an account and use. After intro period expiration is announced, many features will remain free while others will be part of Pantone Connect Premium.

Once this product is out of its test phase, it will cost you to continue using certain unspecified features. Pantone has been shifting its business model from providing inks to providing printed chips to licensing individual access to its color definitions.

To be very clear, the reason why “over 5,600 Pantone Colors are missing from the Pantone Swatch Libraries in Adobe^® Creative Cloud^®, including 826 Pantone Matching System (PMS) Colors and the entire Fashion, Home + Interiors system” to quote Pantone at https://www.pantone.com/pantone-connect-for-adobe-creative-cloud is because Pantone's new business model is to license Pantone colors directly to designers and prepress professionals and not bundled with applications as previous done with Adobe. Exactly what their pricing model will be has not yet been revealed.

[Steve Werner]

Thanks, Dov, for that very useful information.

We get to look forward to something new to pay a subscription fee for!

[rob day]

There is also the same lookup interface on their website—you don’t need the extension:

https://www.pantone.com/color-finder

If they are trying to protect the color definitions as IP it seems weird to publish them on their website. 

[Dov Isaacs]

You can't assume that the color definitions provided on their website “for free” will necessarily remain so. Furthermore, the big $$$$$ is in selling the CxF4 color definitions which are used for proofing in packaging applications. Part of the new Pantone business model is to try to make those definitions only available as a subscription cloud service as needed.

[rob day]

Maybe, but the Bridge values that @riziharris is asking about have always been, and continue to be a mess, so currently they have little value. Pantone insists on pretending there can be a universal CMYK definition that simulates a solid color ink without publishing the expected press conditions, and now in the latest Connect extension they are defining the Bridge swatches as Lab!? On top of that, the new Bridge Lab values are different than the Solid ink Lab values, almost guaranteeing any conversion from the Bridge definition to process CMYK would be wrong.

[riziharris]

Thanks for the info. Boo Pantone.

[Chad Chelius]

Agree with several of the posts. It's just a spot color so you could just name it appropriately and plug in the values from their website. I know it's not as easy as looking it up in InDesign, but it's a pretty quick process.

[riziharris]

Yes. I can look up the values but you get spoiled ya know. Been doing it a certain way for so many years. Maybe the old pantone book was enough. The new bridge book just made the whole experience more cumbersome.

[rob day]

You would hope they will fix the Connect Bridge Add Swatch bug. Users are already confused about the difference between the Solid Color and Bridge simulation libraries—creating Bridge swatches with Lab values really makes a mess of managing Pantone color.

[Jens Trost]

I have another tip – use the PANTONE Color Manager. You can export ALL color books/up-to-date from PANTONE Live from the app  (as *.ase or .*acb, or *.aco) and import them as libraries in InDesign.

If you bought a physicial color book you were licensed to use this app in the past (there is a serial number on the back you have to register with PANTONE). Same applies if you own a measurement device from xrite.

If both doesn't apply to you,  it still is possible to use the 30-day trail version. It is fully functional to export the libraries.

I'm not sure if all of this still works because there is a note on the website saying "Pantone Color Manager is temporarily unavailable for purchase." But you can still download it!

So I'm guessing Pantone Connect is meant to replace the Color Manager someday...

[Dov Isaacs]

Yes, per Pantone, that product has been discontinued and will not be updated.

[katherinereece]

After Illustrator upgrad to 2022, I cannot load my Pantone+ Color Bridge acb files any longer.  I need this to work. Help.

Windows 10 64 bit.  Latest upgrade to Illustrator 26.5 was very recent.

[rob day]

Hi @katherinereece ,

Your .acb files have to be placed in ‎⁨Applications⁩ ▸ ⁨Adobe Illustrator 2022⁩ ▸ ⁨Presets⁩ ▸ ⁨en_US⁩ ▸ ⁨Swatches⁩ ▸ ⁨Color Books⁩

[katherinereece]

Thank you that worked.