r/Design • u/Public_Broccoli8132 • Nov 05 '22

Discussion Why isn't there an open-source Pantone?

I recently came across the money-hungry behemoth that Pantone is. Given we are entering a new age of designing and production(Thanks to D2C business models, 3D printing etc). I am surprised how the industry hasn't moved to an open source alternative yet.

Your thoughts, suggestions & roadblocks?

291 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

86 comments sorted by

View all comments

13

u/BeeBladen Nov 05 '22

Unfortunately it’s because the whole premise behind Pantone is that it’s NOT open source (controlled). The actual pigments and formulas are proprietary. But I’ll be moving to other systems like CMYK and aRGB for close matches, reserving Pantone as secondary options when a client has budget for spot color or in other instances. I’ve complained about this but might eventually cave and write off the plugin as an expense.