Given information that Pantone palletes will be removed from Adobe software libraries this March, and Pantone focusing on promoting their Pantone Connect extension subscription model, i was wondering if anyone heard anything about it regarding Corel software.
If the Pantone color libraries are not removed from the impending release of CorelDRAW 2022 I figure it will only be a matter of time before they are removed. Give it a few months or maybe a year. But we'll have to see what kinds of consequences take place in March and the months following that after Pantone's color libraries are removed from Adobe software.I don't know what Adobe, Corel or any other vendor is having to pay Pantone to bundle those color libraries into the graphics software (or even if they're paying Pantone anything at all). Whatever the terms may be I think Pantone, X-Rite and the higher ups who own those companies are making a really stupid mistake by letting those libraries be removed from Adobe's software. I can't see this being a good thing at all for Pantone. I think they're taking a big gamble and it's going to backfire on them.Pantone is not the only color library standard. There are other spot and process color systems available (and bundled into many graphics applications, such as CorelDRAW). I always looked at the existence of those color libraries within software like CorelDRAW as a form of advertising. Pantone makes a bunch of its money selling physical swatch books and other kinds of products. The little color palettes within graphics applications are a way to sell those physical products. If those Pantone electronic swatch libraries are removed from the applications it's going to make Pantone a lot less visible. Pantone may end up seeing sales levels of their physical products drop.Some users will be forced to pay $60 per year per computer to use the Pantone Connect service. But I think a great deal of users will just adapt around the removal. Some users may put the Pantone color palettes in the nice to have but do not need category. Thanks largely to the Internet many companies already use RGB, CMYK or even L*a*b values to describe the official colors of their branding in addition to Pantone values. With Pantone's swatches removed from Adobe's applications it may lead to many firms to just stop using Pantone in color specifications. Adobe claims they're developing some kind of work-around, but no details have emerged about that yet.
Bobby Henderson said:Whatever the terms may be I think Pantone, X-Rite and the higher ups who own those companies are making a really stupid mistake by letting those libraries be removed from Adobe's software.
I can envision the executives at Pantone convincing each other around a boardroom table that they are providing essential, critical, and irreplaceable technology. To the point where they think they have a monopoly on color.
Pantone has a good and unique business, but seeking predictable ongoing revenue through a curiously expensive subscription model is excessive. Perhaps they have too many staff to feed (100+ staff) and are frantically trying to justify keeping everyone.
I'm wondering if it would be considered a kind of anti-trust violation if Adobe introduced its own spot and process color libraries. They still haven't mentioned details of their work-around. A new color library system could be a possible work-around.
I'm betting revenue is way down. I haven't seen a new Pantone book in a manufacturing environment in years. I bet designers buy them but even those sales are down. Everyone designs from the screen, then bitches when it doesn't look right. I saw a trend of designers buying books with tear out tabs to give to the printer a while back.
Pantone was on a buying spree about a decade or so ago, buying palettes and color technology, so was Xrite. In my experiance none of these companies had good customer service. They would not be helpful and always steered me toward spending more money even when I didn't need to. They wanted to sell me 3 spectrophotometers when I was smart enough to have already spent a bit more on one that did all the required tasks and they knew it. The 485 page manual had 41 pages that really told you what you needed to create profiles and maintain your equipment they rest of the book gathers dust.
The reality of color management and palettes is that it's technical and intellectual, once you read it and understand it, it's a set it and let it work technology for everyone except the archival print manufacture, they need to update profiles with every lot of media. It's not a revenue generating powerhouse.
The problem is most users are not intellectual.
Bobby Henderson said:A new color library system could be a possible work-around.
Great point... and Adobe has the cash resources to do that. Literally start fresh.
Plus... they could even market Adobe-branded swatch books and color scanning equipment, to have a comprehensive in-house solution.
The Adobe Integrated Color Accuracy Systemᵀᴹ
OK, I just made that up.
If Adobe is irritated with Pantone? Adobe can bury them in 5 years - or at least cause huge damage.
I wonder kind of production costs are involved in making the spot and process color swatch books sold by Pantone (and others). Pantone recommends you replace the swatch books at least once a year. But when a package of Pantone Plus Series spot color swatch books (coated and uncoated) costs $150-$200 or more most people will keep them quite a bit longer. It would be interesting if Adobe could sell a similar product for considerably less money.
For a long time Pantone had a pretty stable list of spot colors. In recent years they've gotten into the habit of adding a few more colors each year, probably as another way to push people into updating their swatch books. My workplace has to have those things on hand. I'm jealously protective of mine. From time to time various people want to "borrow" those swatch books, be it a customer or a co-worker who works out in the fabrication shop or on one of our install/service trucks. Nope. They don't leave my desk.
I believe Adobe will get a slice of the Pantone pie. Access via their applications to get your pallette gives them a slice. Corel and all others may go the same way.
Technology it will be a mess for awhile. Pantone standardized on LAB conversions for all their palettes so new development is not a problem technically.
However as an example if you dump Pantone but want to create a color pallette with colors, say Pantone 286, that have equivalent LAB, grayscale, RGB and CMYK values (which you must do to have a viable pallette) where does that intersect and cross the boundaries of intellectual property.
Would it be a violation to even call it an equivalent? Would any colors that convert to identical values in LAD, RGB and CMYK as Pantone colors do be a violation?
The technical issues of RIP conversion has to be addressed for older and newer applications. Then users, some use the LAD default, others RG and CMYK.