The Trouble with Pantone Books

“PMS chip-color books can be buggy.” With just these six words, Pamela touched-off a fury of comments in my Print Production Professionals Group. “There have been times when we will lay five PMS books side-by-side to show that a particular color chip will not match from book-to-book.”

Yes, but Pamela, this does not mean they are “buggy” (is that a technical term BTW?). Here’s part of the problem...

“Our Pantone books are close to 10 years old.
 As long as you keep your swatch pages out of bright light, the colors should be fine to use for many years. But if Pantone wants us to replace our swatchbooks once a year, they should drop their prices.” Mark, another group member, was clearly not amused.

Granted, Pantone books do not come cheap. And yours truly does not replace them every year, either—who has the money? I keep my books in a nice, dark cozy drawer and they stay true to color for a long time, but...

Oh yes, there is a but. You might think that PMS 362 is always exactly the same color, 20 years ago as it is now. Wrong, my friend.

A new Pantone book is not only there in case your issue has faded or to update you on the new colors Pantone has added...Pantone reserves the right to adjust some of your tried-and-true colors from year to year.

I learned this the hard way on a press check a few years ago when my printer’s PMS 362 did not match mine. We compared our Pantone books and—wouldn’t you know it—the green was different.

My printer filled me in on the “Pantone reserves the right to...” fact.

It was news to me. Annoying as this may be, it is not a case of “buggy” PMS books.

Does this mean I now follow Pantone’s "encouragement" to replace my PMS book every year? Nope. Seriously, as Mark put it so well, who has the budget?