FAQs

It is recommended to replace your Pantone books at least every 12-18 months, however this does depend on how you store and use them! Books should be stored away from light and dust and handled with clean hands to keep them in great condition for as long as possible. However, the paper fan guides or smaller books like the Passport which are used frequently, and are taken to meetings with clients or are left open on your desk or at the end of the press, will deteriorate sooner than the master copy of the books stored in away in a locked cupboard in the dark. Even when looked after you need to replace your  Pantone books regularly to take advantage of the new colours added or the new ink recipe formulations. It is always best to use the same edition as your manufacturing site or your client so that you can be sure everyone is looking at the same colour. Some of the reasons for damage to the books can be found below - not to mention spilling your coffee or accidentally marking with a biro!

• Handling = smearing and removing pigment from natural oils on fingertips
• Pages rubbing together = scratching or removing pigment
• Light exposure = fading
• Paper aging = yellowing effects
• Ambient moisture = accelerated paper aging
• Natural pigment expiration = faster, noticeable colour variation, especially in lighter and pastel colours

Choose Pantone Swatch colour from Pantone > Fashion, Home & Interior > The first three products on this page are the Cotton, Polyester or Nylon Brights swatch cards. Please click on the swatch card material required. The following instructions work for all of the swatch card options.

1. Click onto the coloured wheel found under the product description. This will open up an image of the full Pantone palette in that particular range.

2. All the Pantone swatches show as coloured squares, either search through the colours or type the colour number, such as 18-0830, into the search box above the colour palette. The colour that matches the number searched, will then be displayed on its own.

3. To choose the Pantone Swatch colour, click  onto the square to select and then click the orange confirm button to proceed to the next step.

4. To choose the size of the swatch card, click onto the drop down box that will say 'Choose an option' and click on the size required.

5. The original 2 ply is the standard size of swatch, for alternatives view the size descriptions in the blue box at the bottom of the page.

6. Amend the quantity, if you need more than one swatch of the same colour.

7. Click add to cart.

8. Repeat this process for all the other colours you may require.

9. Proceed to checkout by clicking the basket icon in the top right of the page.

10. Add the billing and delivery address and select the relevant mailing option. If you need express post (essential for next day or high value) or standard post.

11. Continue to the secure payment page with Pay360 to complete the order.

12. We will receive the order and process it accordingly.

  If you have any questions, please email us at colourstandards@verivide.com and we will be happy to advise and help with your order.

Should I get the CMYK Guide set or the Color Bridge Set? It can be a difficult choice to make. The CYMK system is is a different system to the PANTONE PMS system and so it does not relate to Pantone Spot colours. Need the CMYK equivalent of Pantone PMS Spot colours? Then you should purchase a Color Bridge Set. This is ideal if your clients select PMS colours only to decide they want them printing digitally in 4-color process. Color Bridges display the closest match to the Pantone Spot colours, the client can be advised on the expected outcome. They have squares of Pantone Spot colours with their RGB and HTML code, alongside squares of the closest match using CMYK inks and their percentages. CMYK Guides contain a separate range of 2868 colours, they contain only colours which exist within CMYK colour space. These also give the ink percentages to enable confident use of 4-colour process colours in offset lithographic printing. If you only work with 4 color process, your clients can select colours from these guides with confidence that they can be accurately reproduced.    

VeriVide do not sell Pantone paint. We can sell you the Pantone colour standard which your supplier can match to. Pantone is a copyrighted colour system and they do not make paint either! Pantone provides colour standards used by brands and manufacturers, enabling people to communicate colour and set colour specifications The colour system is licensed to manufacturers of a range of coloured products. Click here for full details of companies holding Pantone licenses for production of coloured materials including paint, powder coat and inks. Unfortunately due to restrictions on shipping paint it must be manufactured in the Country in which it is to be used and therefore Pantone paint is only available where a License is approved to manufacture it. Paint for interiors is in some Pantone colours is now available in a number of Countries in Europe. In the UK some Pantone colours are available as Crown Trade paints in various finishes through Brewers Decorating Centres  , they offer some Pantone Graphics Coated colours in their trade range, Valspar (UK) Corporation Limited were also a licensee - for more information contact them at http://www.valsparpaint.co.uk or Email: customerservice@valsparpaint.co.uk. Please note Pantone colours that are available may be limited to current trend colours and not available in all finishes.

How can I buy a Pantone Colour in paint if it is not part of the pre mixed range?

You will need to purchase a colour standard for the required colour. This can be a Pantone book or a Replacement Page for a Pantone book or even a fabric swatch (depending on the Pantone range your colour is from).  VeriVide can sell you the correct colour sample to provide the standard for paint matching. Once you have the colour target (standard) you need to identify a paint wholesaler with colour mixing equipment. They can measure the colour, formulate the pigments required and mix paint to match the specific colour.

Please head over to our Trend Forecasting section, where you will be able to purchase the latest Pantone trend books. The latest issue of VIEWPOINT COLOUR is currently avaliable, which contains Autumn/Winter 2022/2023 colour forecasts, trend-led colour changes and much more, for only £75. The Pantone View Home & Interiors is a trend book published annually; it is usually launched in March and contains the trends for the following year. The 2022 volume is available to buy now  and features a portable colour card highlighting colour direction, a USB drive of forecast imaging and a download of Pantone Connect providing access to digital data for all Pantone colours for your design software. Please email us at colourstandards@verivide.com if you would like to purchase the latest trend book.

Yes, the Pantone View Home & Interiors Kit also includes small strips of the cotton swatches in the trend colours used in the book. This costs £375.00 ex VAT and delivery. The colours are also referenced in the book and so individual SMART swatches of the colours can also be purchased separately for you to send to clients or suppliers.

Yes, you can use a Pantone Formula Guide to match fabrics, however dyers, fabric suppliers and mills will find it much more difficult to produce a good colour match to this Pantone book. The Formula Guide coated version is particularly a problem because of the shiny appearance of the paper. The Fashion, Home & Interiors range of colours have been specifically developed because they are achievable on fabric whereas the Formula Guide coated is for Graphic Designers to use for logo colours and printing on clear film and white paper and many of the colours are too saturated (bright) to be achievable on fabric. The Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors range also contains colours more suitable for clothing and home textiles. We advise that you select colours from the Pantone Fashion, Home & Interiors books and then send your suppliers individual SMART swatches for them to use as a colour standard. The only exception to this would be printing of licensed artwork onto fabric as most licences artwork colours are specified using the Formula Guide Coated numbers.

If you are using mixed materials to create a homeware or accessory range there is a challenge to colour match the hard and soft goods to match or coordinate. The mixed materials in the Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors colour range facilitates excellent colour matching. When producing soft and hard goods for the same range we recommend that the soft goods are matched to cotton TCX SMART swatch standards and the hard goods to Pantone Plastic Standard Chips which replicate the cotton TCX colour range on large Polypropylene chips. The same colours are available in both materials. Pantone Plastic Standard Chips are available in the Fashion, Home + Interiors colours as well as the Graphics Coated colours and can be purchased individually, for more information please contact pantone@verivide.com. Alternatively the Fashion, Home & Interiors range also includes the Pantone TPG paper books which can also be used for specifying the colour of non-fabric goods, these are in the same colour range as the cotton swatches and are created by coating the non optic paper rather than printing for a truly opaque finish. Individual colours are also available as large TPG sheets. Please note applying the same colour to different materials may cause different colour appearances due to surface construction, reflectance and other variables.

The Pantone Fashion, Home + Interior system uses a numbering system based on the position of the colour in LCH colour space, therefore, each colour is assigned a six-digit number which defines its position in the 3d colour space. Each pair of digits has a specific meaning: the first pair of digits refers to the lightness or darkness of the colour on a scale between 11 (lightest) and 19 (darkest).
The second pair of digits specifies the hue on a scale between 01 and 65 going around the hue circle, where approximately 10 is yellow, 15 is orange, 20 is red, 30 is purple, 40 is blue, 50 is blue/green and 60 is green. The third pair of digits describes the chroma level of the colour on a scale of 00 for a neutral to 64 for the brightest colour.
In the Pantone Graphics PMS system the majority of the colours are referred to using a three- or four-digit number followed by a C or U. There are also a small number of named colours, such as the 18 base colours like PANTONE Reflex Blue or PANTONE Orange 021 which are named after the pigment which Pantone are replicating.
Metallic colours are 3 or 4 digit numbers beginning with an 8, Packaging Metallic colours are 5 digit numbers beginning with 10 and Pastel & Neon colours are 3 or 4 digit numbers beginning with 8 or 9.
The letter suffix refers to the paper stock on which it is printed: a "C" for coated or gloss paper or a "U" for uncoated paper. Metallic and Packaging metallic colours are only available on coated paper.

To find the closest Pantone colour to CMYK/RGB/HTML/L*a*b* values use a physical book or Pantone Connect software. If your supplier provides CMYK, RGB, Hex or L*a*b* values to colour match instead of a colour standard you can convert to the closest Pantone colour. It is possible to look up some data in Pantone Graphics books. The Pantone CMYK Guide provides CMYK values for every colour in the Guide. Likewise the Pantone Color Bridges provide RGB and HTML codes for the Pantone PMS spot colours and CMYK values for the closest colour match to these in 4-color process printing. For digital design Pantone Connect enables the conversion, you can search, sort, and filter efficiently through all Pantone colours and libraries and convert RGB, Hex, CMYK, and L*a*b* values to closest Pantone matches. Pantone Connect allows import of all Pantone libraries into Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. Once the colours are imported it is possible to search for the closest colour to the supplied data. Photoshop will default to the closest mathematical colour. The steps to do this are as follows:

1. From the main toolbar, click the foreground/background colour square to launch the Adobe Colour Picker
2. Type the desired values into the text boxes provided. Note the change in colour on the picker window.
3. Click the Colour Libraries button
4. Select your desired Pantone library from the drop list
5. Photoshop will display a range of seven colours, with one colour outlined with a black border. This is the default colour which is closest to the values entered
6. It is important to note that the above results are mathematical, and are also dependent upon the colour settings used in Photoshop. Results should always be compared to a current Pantone guide or book to ensure accurate colour.

With Pantone Connect you are able to integrate Abode design software with Pantone Colours from every Pantone library easily into your design files. Some features in the Pantone Connect software are free but cross referencing between ranges and import of colours into Adobe requires a Premium licence. Use of Pantone Connect requires a user to sign up for an account which is then available to them on all of their devices. With Pantone Connect it is possible to: Search, sort, and filter efficiently through all Pantone colours and libraries Convert RGB, Hex, CMYK, and L*a*b* values to closest Pantone matches Cross-reference between Pantone Colour Systems Create and share colour palettes with your team to facilitate better colour communication and collaboration

No, fabric swatches are only available for colours in the Pantone Fashion, Home +Interior range, all of the other Pantone ranges (e.g. Coated and Uncoated) are produced on printed paper not fabric. The Pantone Fashion, Home +Interior range colours have 6 digit numbers and they are available on three different substrates: 2626 colours are available as Cotton swatches where the numbers have 6 digits and are suffixed TCX e.g. 11-0601 TCX, purchase Cotton fabric swatches 203 unique colours are available as Polyester swatches where the numbers have 6 digits and are suffixed TSX e.g. 14-1906 TSX, purchase Polyester swatches 21 unique colours are available as Nylon swatches where the numbers have 6 digits and are suffixed or are suffixed TN e.g. 16-2150 TN, purchase Nylon swatches We try to maintain stock of at least 2 swatches (more of popular colours) of every one of the 2850 FHI colours ready for same day despatch if orders are placed before 12.30pm. To purchase fabric swatches (and cut down variations of these) see the swatch ordering page of our website.