Pantone

Pantone is the proprietary spot-colour matching system used in commercial printing. Each Pantone-numbered colour corresponds to an exact ink formulation — a specific recipe of base pigments — so the same Pantone 185 (a particular saturated red) appears identical whether printed on a small offset press in Detroit or a flatbed press in Hong Kong.

This solves a real problem CMYK can’t: brand-colour consistency across vendors. Coca-Cola red, John Deere green, IBM blue are all specified as Pantone numbers in their corporate brand guidelines. Without spot colours, the brand would shift visibly between print jobs.

Pantone is brand-licensed: the colours and their numbering are proprietary IP. Print shops pay for Pantone fan books (the laminated colour swatches); design software (Adobe, Affinity) licences Pantone catalogues for on-screen approximation.

On screens, Pantone numbers are approximated via their nearest sRGB or P3 equivalent — which is good enough for proofing but not for accurate brand-colour preview. For print-bound assets, always specify the Pantone number alongside the screen RGB equivalent; printers will trust the Pantone, not the screen.