New PANTONE PLUS Improves on an Industry Standard

What the company has done is add 224 new colors and some neon, pastel and metallic chips and improved some of the paper and printing specifications for creating the swatch books.

I'm glad Pantone is not dropping the GOE line. They have built the new PANTONE PLUS specs into the slick Color Manager they created when GOE was initially released. And it is hoped that users will use the two matching systems as complementary to one another. In the meantime, the folks at Pantone are giving their users what they want—more colors and some other improvements, without giving them the headaches of switching the way they think about color matching. It's a lot easier for printers and designers to wrap their heads around. That's not a slight to the intelligence of printers and designers, it's simply an illustration of just how complicated the art and science of matching colors is.

Here's what's in the new Pantone Plus Swatch books:

PANTONE PLUS SERIES FORMULA GUIDE and SOLID CHIPS
The FORMULA GUIDE and SOLID CHIPS introduce 224 new solid colors for a total of 1,341 colors, offering designers more options and flexibility in the creative process. The new colors are formulated with the same 14 ink bases that were the foundation of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM, ensuring that printers worldwide can reproduce the new colors when specified. Consistent ink film thicknesses make the new colors easier for printers to match on press.

PANTONE PLUS SERIES COLOR BRIDGE
After extensive technical research, development and testing, a single version suitable for worldwide use is now available. The new COLOR BRIDGE guide has been printed within today's ISO specifications and G7 processes, with the exception of a more desirable, optically brightened paper.

PANTONE PLUS SERIES CMYK
The new CMYK guide offers a smoother progression of 2,886 CMYK colors for four-color process printing. The guide is printed with bio-friendly ISO-certified inks using a digital workflow within ISO specifications and G7 processes, but on optically brightened paper, allowing for a single version that is suitable for worldwide use.