The Pantone Color System Explained

Interior design can be overwhelming for a homeowner – there are so many colors, styles, textures, patterns – where do you begin. An excellent starting point is the Pantone color system.

Today, many people are familiar with the fact that a new Pantone color of the year is chosen to spotlight each year. What they do not know is that Pantone has helped standardize the manufacturing industry through its Pantone matching system (PMS). Different manufacturers working on the same project can maintain consistent colors throughout their designs.

The widely produced Pantone Solid Colors palette has over 1100 unique colors used primarily in graphics, print, and publishing.

Unlike the CMYK colors which are made up of only four elements (black, cyan, magenta, and yellow), the PMS system consists of a wider range of colors, maximizing color consistency and reducing the degree of variation found in the CMYK system.

The Pantone color system, or Pantone Color Matching System, is the most widely used standardized color system today. There are actually two separate systems for Pantone colors – one for print and packaging, and the other for fashion and product design. The last one is the one we will focus on today. …more