I was watching the owner of a small makeup brand describe her process on TikTok. First, the product is conceptualized: wouldn’t it be cool if there was a really good, really bright waterproof liner? Then the manufacturer must be contacted: is such a formula possible? If it is, the next steps are getting samples made, figuring out the packaging, and figuring out the initial color line. It was at this point she got a comment to the effect of “I like your products, but I’ll never support you because you use Pantone”.
Seems reasonable. As noted in the art programs article, Pantone started charging users for a product that used to be free, holding works they’d already made hostage. As a consumer, you should be able to boycott companies you don’t like, even if they’re further up the supply chain than the retailer. You should, as a consumer, be able to choose a better option than Pantone, right? But you can’t – not in this case.
The owner hated Pantone too (as a small business owner, she is one of the people with the most to lose if she’s screwed over by Pantone) but there’s no good substitute in the makeup world. Few manufacturers take hex codes, and the ones that do cannot make things as consistently as the Pantone color, which is critical when producing makeup, even moreso than when making prints. If she wants to sell a consistent product worth the trust of her customers, she has to use Pantone. Pantone has effectively commanded a monopoly. Herein lies the issue!
Pantone grew huge. Pantone incorporated with many other companies. Pantone waited until there were limited options for alternatives, and then Pantone started charging money. It would be called predatory pricing if the laws could keep up with the computer age! Even if sued, it would take years to get a resolution, and then on top of that, it would take years to get a replacement better than hex codes. Even if one were to appear tomorrow, would manufacturers be able to match it like they do with Pantone? Hex codes are pretty accurate, and yet that doesn’t make them a viable solution because the manufacturer can’t match them, either on screen, in person, or even between batches. What’s possible to fudge on paper becomes a lot harder to fudge on human skin. It’s terrible.
Until a better solution appears, Pantone has made itself inescapable for people looking to accurately relay color.
Source: https://creative-boost.com/adobe-removing-pantone-colors/
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/25/nx-s1-5049706/does-pantone-have-a-monopoly-on-colors-is-that-bad
