PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: Major Debut in Color Matching

Pantone Matching System has become a de facto standard for specifying colors—and not just in print, but in a range of markets from interior design to consumer goods, even apparel. It can be fairly said its widespread adoption has helped make Pantone (which announced Aug. 23 it would be acquired by X-Rite) into the global authority on color, and a key provider of professional color standards for the design industries. Although the printing industry has benefited from the fact that many of its customers use Pantone to guide color selections for their manufactured products—perhaps making it easier to match them on press—it has stretched the system beyond its original intent as a print-specific color matching guide.

To bring the matching system in line with today's technology, Pantone is unveiling its Goe System (pronounced go), which the firm calls “the first completely new color inspiration and specification system for the graphic arts industry since the introduction of the Pantone Matching System.”

Just one indication of the scope of this introduction: Goe offers more than 2,000 colors. These are arranged in a chromatic order, more intuitive for designers, to ease cross-media color selection and specification. Pantone's Goe System includes chips and intel-ligent software for creating color palettes that can be imported into applications, given to clients when proposing color schemes, shared among coworkers for color matching and archived with projects for future reference.

While the Goe System offers a significantly expanded color palette, it is based on a smaller set of 10 Pantone mixing bases, plus Pantone Clear. The company says these are readily available anywhere in the world, opening the potential for color consistency on a global basis, while minimizing ink inventory needs.

The new mixing bases were created to be compatible with aqueous and UV coatings, says Pantone. The firm reports that the colors have also been designed for printing uniform ink film thicknesses to allow for equal drying times and more control when matching color on press. This also means press operators can run jobs at the same ink film thickness settings, providing significant production efficiencies. Pantone is ISO 9001:2000 certified, and the Goe System has been manufactured under that stringent quality control guideline as well.

The GoeGuide is presented in fan-guide format as the primary tool for selecting and communicating colors. Seven colors are represented per page, each identified by a unique number along with its ink mixing formula and RGB values. To avoid confusion, the Goe System uses a different naming system than its predecessor matching system. The new convention uses a three-part numbering system with a substrate identifier of “C” that refers to coated stock.

All 2,058 colors are available in a two-volume set of adhesive-backed GoeSticks color chips, allowing users to peel off a chip and place it where needed. (No more staples, glue or tape!)

GoeSticks also includes a Pantone palette “playground” for use as a test area to experiment with the chips. Once a color palette is set, the chips can be permanently placed onto one of 30 palette cards supplied with the book.

Also included is software for myPantone Palettes, the interactive color workspace that integrates into any application that supports system level color pickers.

The complete Goe System will be available October 1, for U.S. $499 at www.pantone.com.