Pantone has added 229 new colours to the Pantone Matching System (PMS), meeting an increased need for more nuanced shades across the library to help designers easily integrate with evolving workflows.

The new colours include 224 mixed hues and five base inks. They join Pantone’s existing library of over 2350 colours available across all of Pantone’s graphic system products, including its Formula Guide and additional Pantone products such as Color Bridge, Solid Chips, Solid Guide Set, Reference Library, Portable Guide Set, Essentials Set and Solid Color Set.

PMS is regularly reviewed by Pantone’s team of colour scientists and trend and market experts to further fill gaps in the existing system and allow for an even larger gamut of available colours, capabilities, integration and standardisation for graphic and product designers, brands, printers, converters and ink manufacturers. The addition of these new colours is said to highlight the increased need for more nuanced shades across the library to help designers easily integrate with evolving workflows, such as:

  • Trend-relevant colours, with the addition of more dark neutrals, blues, greens and purples allowing for more variety throughout the design process while maintaining close proximity to upcoming trends;
  • Colour accuracy, with the latest Pantone colour guides the most stable and consistent printed colours, matching the master standard digital data with all-new and updated cross-referenced data for closer parity between physical and digital formats;
  • Digital integration and ease of use, as designers can access all PMS colours, including the new additions, in real-time through Pantone’s digital application, Pantone Connect; and
  • Product advancements and development, as all Pantone colours in the new Formula Guide are claimed as eco-friendly, containing soy and other vegetable oils, with consideration for low migration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to ensure compliance with OSHA, the EU and GHS.

Further to this, all existing and new colours in the Pantone PMS system have been formulated using the 11 base inks in the colour library. Additionally, to ensure no disruption to a user’s design workflow and creative projects, the appearance across Pantone products and services, including the Pantone Digital Master libraries, remains unchanged. Pantone licenses ink suppliers around the world to communicate and match PMS colours to meet the needs of brands, designers and printers. This means that, ‘anyone who is collaborating within a creative workflow can be in separate locations yet the end result in the production process will realise colour consistency across substrates, thus ensuring the project will be aligned with Pantone’s global standards.’

Elley Cheng, general manager and vice president at Pantone, commented, ‘As the leading source of colour information, products, and services, including seasonal trend forecasts, palette recommendations, marketing and colour psychology, we are continuing to evolve our business, products and partnerships to ensure that we prepare our designers for the best solutions for colour accuracy and a seamless workflow across digital and physical spaces.

‘Keeping in tune with not only trend research, market research, and designer feedback, our scientific processes for colour creation allow us to build the most thoughtful and accurate colour libraries to provide the best outcome to our customers.’

The launch of the new colours comes following the integration of 294 PMS colours in 2019 for closer alignment with Pantone’s Fashion, Home + Interiors System.