Changes to Pantone Color Books

[Pattie-F]

Some of the Pantone Color Books that are pre-loaded in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign will be phased-out from future software updates starting in August 2022. To access the complete set of Pantone Color Books, Pantone requires customers to purchase a premium license through Pantone Connect and install a plug-in using Adobe Exchange.  

For more information, please refer to the following FAQ pages:

HelpX: Pantone FAQ (Photoshop) 

HelpX: Pantone FAQ (Illustrator) 

HelpX: Pantone FAQ (InDesign) 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Can you please pin this as a featured post so it does not get lost in the forum?

[Gramsterdam]

try this

https://www.culturehustleusa.com/products/freetone

[Gramsterdam]

I'm not saying that it actually came from an actual employee of Adobe. I'm not...

[chanaart]

Yes! I agree with Kevin Important inforamation! need to be there !

Thnk you Kevin!

[NB, colourmanagement]

HI Pattie & Kevin, you're right that’s rather important info. It'll cause a lot of consternation I imagine.

For a big change like this Adobe should write to all Photoshop subscribers.

But can one actually "pin" a post on  Khouros? Google isn't helping, if you know how to do it and can explain I'll do it for you

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer:: co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

I belive its an Admin-only option (not moderator). You can see where other topics are pinned to the top of the discussion board (some that could probably be removed at this point). @Pattie-F Can you pin this post?

[Pattie-F]

Yes, I added this to the pinned links after publishing. Thanks, Kevin.

[Earth Oliver]

Was this a decision that Pantone made or did Adobe decide to stop paying the licensing fee? Either way, if you read the app review comments, this is a disaster:

https://exchange.adobe.com/creativecloud.details.103029.pantone-connect.html

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

This app is a disaster not only for individual users, but imagine Enterprise customers reliant on Pantone? I've been advocating/giving feedback for over a year with the quality and UX for this product. It is NOT ready for release in an enterprise environment.

The pricing is out of whack too - $59.99 per person per year? Even with the 20% discount the cost vs value of this is hard to justify.

We've made plans to continue using our current V4 books for the foreseeable future until Pantone can develop a more user-friendly plugin/app that works well with our Creative Cloud workflow.

[Randy Hufford]

I agree with you. Why cannot adobe and pantone put something workabale?

[Abambo]

I strongly suspect Pantone to be searching for more income. The printer business seems to fade out. Pantone on my computer is for me some numbers and the reputation of precise colours. In the world of CMYK, this generates no income. The last time I used Pantone printing was, with an anual report to print a metallic colour on the pages. 

Pantone probably hopes that enough users will (need to) take their subscription, so that this exeeds revenues from Adobe.

[David Cardillo, PRH]

oh, that is quite literally the case. They've been pushing one scheme or another since X-Rite bought them.

Pantone sells ink. They literally *gave* Adobe their color guides to include in their apps, with the idea that if more people designed with them, they'd sell more ink. That worked, for some time. 

Pantone published at least 4 updates to their color guides since then but never gave them to Adobe, or more than likely wanted to charge them for the updates, and Adobe was content to continue to give out the ones they got for free years before.

For the past 10-15 years, print volumes have declined. Many companies are also looking to save some money and cut down on special effects, including specialty inks.

And then there's this simple fact: browse any of these forums with people asking questions about Pantone colors, and note that the majority of them are designers working online, looking for Hex equivalents, or people arguing about the correct CMYK breakdowns of Pantone inks. *None* of them are using (or buying) Pantone colors, they're just using them as swatch guides.

I just came here from another discussion in another forum where they were arguing "Pantone doesn't own colors!" The article's author and virtually all of the commenters do not work in print.

*Those* people are the target customer for Pantone Connect. They're not making custom ink separations. They want to take a pic with their phone, then get a list of color swatches based on the colors in the image.

They used to publish the CMYK, RGB, and Lab breakdowns of their colors on their website. They tried to charge people for their (now unavailable) Pantone Color Manager app — but if you had a serial number from a physical swatch guide, you could use that as a license. (Something they haven't extended to Pantone Connect.)

All of that is behind a paywall now. They've taken the attitude that if you want to use their color guides, you're going to pay them.

It's fine by me if everyone else abandons them. What really irks me is that they've left no way for people who actually *do* spec inks for offset separations with an easy means to continue to do so.

[mangom]

And how much does digital printing play in? A lot of the spot colors are no longer really relevant for most printing. 

[Abambo]

And how much does digital printing play in? A lot of the spot colors are no longer really relevant for most printing. 

By @mangom

That's it. Exactly. Printing gets no more significant business because people simply do not print Pantone colours. A digital printing machine manufacturer may have paid licensing fees to put a “Pantone Certified” logo on the machine, but that will also dry up, as fewer people print.

If you want to make money, you need to make it at the source. And designers are at the source. It was easy to tell the customer, that the colour was right because you used the Pantone definition. Now this discussion gets more difficult.

[David Cardillo, PRH]

to be clear: Pantone Connect does not work with Photoshop to create spot color channels.

Adobe needs to address this.

you can add swatches, but those swatches are in the color mode of the art (RGB, CMYK, etc.).

Adding a Spot Channel from the Channels menu means looking up the color from a color book file (.acb). If no acb files are present, you cannot add the color.

The only alternative is to enter the Lab values manually, based on data in the Pantone Connect panel. (Which only runs in Rosetta, btw.) This is not only tedious but is prone to error.

Adding spot channels is basic functionality that's been present in Photoshop since the beginning. It's functionally gone now.

I realize this is largely Pantone's doing. (And Adobe's failure to agree to Pantone's pricing.) Pantone's failure to address how spot colors are used in Photoshop, as well as the functionality of a plug-in that only works in Rosetta, for $5/month/user.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

You assume this is Adobe's failure to agree to pricing, rather than Pantone thinking this will help with longevity and cash inflow for the product.

[David Cardillo, PRH]

it's both.

Yes, Pantone wants to turn this into an eternal revenue stream. (read any forum about how designers use Pantone swatches, and see that very few of them use the actual books, or even print with those inks.)

Pantone's price can be (and is) absolutely outrageous. When the realtor tells me the house I want is $2.4 Million, I'm failing to agree to that price.

[Digital Halftones]

to be clear: Pantone Connect does not work with Photoshop to create spot color channels.

Adobe needs to address this.

you can add swatches, but those swatches are in the color mode of the art (RGB, CMYK, etc.).

Adding a Spot Channel from the Channels menu means looking up the color from a color book file (.acb). If no acb files are present, you cannot add the color.

The only alternative is to enter the Lab values manually, based on data in the Pantone Connect panel. (Which only runs in Rosetta, btw.) This is not only tedious but is prone to error.

Adding spot channels is basic functionality that's been present in Photoshop since the beginning. It's functionally gone now.

By @David Cardillo, PRH

The best part about this is in their video for pantone connect they actually said it saves time. They literally made the process of selecting/finding pantone colors take 5 times as long. Without the function to quickly select pantones from color libraries I'll just skip using it all together and manually type in the name. 

[Ussnorway]

i think the price was fine for Enterprise customers... paying $ for buggy software has become the norm & the idea that normal people used this system i think misses the point

[Alex24237082bzyq]

I have a workflow in which I use many software from adobe and corel and gmg and esko and studiorip .. 

The fact that adobe eliminated the pantone solid coated color libraries and the fact that they changed the way the pantone + solid coated libraries are made .. affects my work and I cannot rely any longer on adobe updated software because all my other programs I work with no longer interpret correctly the PSD files made with the updated soft from adobe.

I have international clients I work for that need changes and updates to their old / existing files and products . I cannot work with adobe updated versions because the software language for the color libraries / books / swatches has been changed for certain pantone libraries and elinimated for other pantone libraries.  My PSD files that contain pantone spot colors, made before august '22 are no longer editable with the new updated software regarding the Pantone spot colors... these colors are no longer supported in the updated sofwere from adobe.

My other programs (not from adobe) that I use no longer import correctly the files I made with photoshop 23.5.1 or 23.5 that contain spot colors from Pantone .. This greatly affects my work and my workflow and this is not normal. I had to reinstall a older version of photoshop so I could work again and have consistency through my workflow.

Adobe should not change or eliminate pantone color libraries and not take into account that designers use also other programs that use the same pantone colors.. designers need consistency and reliable software. The fact that pantone colors from adobe progreams no longer work in other programs is not acceptable and this affects workflows and this has and will have huge implications. The customer / end user should not suffer or pay more due to disputes over licensing fees between Adobe and Pantone.

Please restore the old color libraries / books so we can have consistency and reliable workflows again.

[Stephen Marsh]

A relevant related discussion here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/pantone-colors-converted-to-black-err...

[TheLinenHouse]

Thanks For sharing this information 
if you have more similer post like this 
send me my personal adobe profile 

am very thankful to you

Best Regard For

The Linen house

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Hi @TheLinenHouse this is a user-to-user forum. If you want to subscribe to threads, they will alert you otherwise no one will send you posts to your profile.

[Pattie-F]

@TheLinenHouse-

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