Colors are essential, especially if you’re a graphic designer.
This is an unpopular decision for the majority of users, but it might be the right one.
After all, they’ve already paid for the app.
And ever since Adobe launched Photoshop, it has included Pantone Color libraries for free on the app.
But why is the Pantone Color Book going behind a paywall a big deal?
If you’re printing unique one-off images, standardization isn’t as important.
In fact, some shops even let you take home large color books for free.
That way, the expense for these color books is offset by their sales of paint.
But with Pantone, their primary product is the color itself.
So, it doesn’t make any business sense if they give away their main product.
For many, color is just thata set of values between cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.
But for professionals, it goes beyond that because different materials interact differently with colors.
Do You Even Need to Use Pantone?
But do you really need Pantone?
you could also use other color books, likeStuart Semple’s Freetone, as an alternative to Pantone.
While these colors don’t have the exact codes of Pantone, they look almost the same.
However, since they’re missing the codes, it defeats the purpose of having a standardized color palette.
The people who mainly need Pantone Colors are professionals who work with businesses that require accurate and precise colors.
At these levels, Pantone’s $15 monthly fee is just the cost of doing business.
