Pantone Laundry List

Below is a brief list of products sold by Pantone and what they do.

• display calibration software/devices (colorimeters) for getting accurate on-screen colour
  
• spectrophotometers for measuring the wavelengths of light
  
• palette management software for selecting Pantone colours from images, building co-ordinated palettes and managing those palettes
  
• colour chip books for selecting and matching Pantone colours and getting mixing instructions
  
• colour matching electronic thingies for pointing at colour, whereupon the thingie tells you what the nearest pantone equivalent is
• digital colour chips same as the colour chip books, except digital
  
• colour chip books for process colour same as standard colour chip books, but for CMYK colours instead of Pantone
  
• colour selector systems for opaque and transparent plastics with cross references to pantone textile and print systems for selecting plastic colours
  
• cotton colour swatch sets for selecting fabric colours
  
• colour forecasts for up to a year in the future, detailing what colour trends will be in upcoming fashion/houseware seasons
  

Very Preliminary Findings on Commercial Colour

Pantone: de facto industry standard for colour matching

• Does print, textile, plastics, paint, has own line of consumer goods in Pantone colours
• Loads of things are specified in Pantone colours: Canadian flag red, colours of plants in patent applications, sciencey things, spot colour in offset printing
• Sells chip books that help designers determine what colours will look like when printed, as well as providing ink mixing instructions to printers. The chip books need to be replaced every year to prevent fading. They also happen to be ridiculously expensive.
• Has its colour specification built into the Adobe Creative Suite

Not Pantone

Paint manufacturers tend to have their own colour systems.

Canadian Government Standards Board has specifications for paint. I just need to get my hands on a copy of the document.

Individual manufacturers of markers have their own systems (for example, Letraset, which bases its colour system on HSL)

Letterhead & Business Card

The Logo

Logos: round three