October 1, 2007
Color
Pantone and the frozen french fry color standard
There is some news in the world of color worth noting. Pantone, keeper of the keys to the industry standard color matching system, is introducing the first significant upgrade of its 45 year old system—the Pantone Goe System. It includes a new range of solid colors, software, new color guides, and so on.
The other side of the news is that Pantone is being acquired by x-rite, a color conglomerate traded on the NASDAQ. Among their products are all manner of color calibration software and hardware used by many different industries around the world. I thought it was particularly interesting that one of their holdings is the Munsell Frozen French Fry Color Standard for the USDA.
Seriously though, these are the types of transactions that effect us as designers in significant ways—not the least of which is the cost of upgrading to a new system.
