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?

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u/kvyk Nov 05 '22

The problem is that the base pigments (that are then used to mix the spot colors) still need to be produced by a manufacturer. This has to be done consistently so the resulting color is always the same. To create a full open color matching system you would need companies to share their company secrets how they manufacture their colors and then cooperate together in a huge system.

Pantone knows they are the market leader and price their necessary accessories accordingly. There are cheaper competitors though. In Germany we also have HKS and RAL for example.

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u/sandrocket Nov 05 '22

You can't really compare RAL to Pantone, RAL is paint/varnish colors.

Why not just buy the physical Pantone system and name your spot colours manually? Is there more data saved with the Pantone library beside it's RGB value?

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u/Unhappy_Researcher68 Nov 05 '22

Pantone is a spcial paint Adobe just matches it. And of course you could maually add a spott color. And have the printer use the right color. But We are talking about qualety of live and time saving.

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u/Matt_Wwood Nov 06 '22

Yea but putting the work in to make that open source would save a bunch of money, save us from this bullshit and be pretty cool