To Pantone or Not To Pantone, That Is the Question

For years, Pantone was the defacto standard for picking colors for graphic artists. I have had Pantone swatch books within easy reach of my drawing board and then my computer my entire career. Back in the day, complicated CMYK combos were a pain and had to be hand-stripped together—that meant a lot of work and a lot of expense. Spot colors (AKA Pantone) were the way to go for a lot of color printing. It was cheaper and easier, and yielded consistent results. The first magazines that I worked on were printed largely in black using a single Pantone highlight color with a small, full-color CMYK feature well/section in the middle. That was very common at the time.

Computers made it much easier to create complicated CMYK combos (no hand stripping needed). But Pantone stuck around for a long time after that. It was just easier to designate Pantone colors—even if the final project was only going to be printed in CMYK.

Then two things happened. One, Adobe and Pantone decided that they did not want to play nice together in the same sandbox. Adobe products (which are pretty much industry standard) stopped including Pantone options. Sure, they offered other options like FOCALTONE, TRUMATCH and TOYO, but really, did anyone use those. I know I never did. And two, a lot of designers began working in a digital-only world where colors were defined as RGB and HEX. If your designs only live in an electronic sphere, did you really need to designate a Pantone equivalent? Increasingly, the answer seems to be a resounding NO.

But I am old school. I like print and still work mainly in a print environment. And I have been using Pantone for years. It is hard habit to break. But I began to wonder “Do I really need to Pantone?” For designs and branding that are never going to be printed using Pantone inks, why bother with it? So lately, I have been skipping it. It is a super radical, devil-may-care, throw-caution-to-the wind move, and so far, so good. I still reserve Pantone designations for logos that are likely to be printed on letterhead. Because I can, and you never know. (Okay, I know, but I feel better including a spot-color option.) And the swatch books still come in handy when picking colors. But more and more, the answer to the question when providing finished files seems to be: Not to Pantone.