X-Rite Buys Pantone

Last week there was a big announcement in the world of color. X-Rite agreed to buy Pantone. X-Rite makes a number of devices for measuring and calibrating color in the computer and printing worlds. Pantone is best known for their PMS color matching system, and we are very familiar with having those palettes inside CorelDRAW. Pantone also makes the affordable Huey and Huey Pro devices for easily calibrating monitors.

OK, so that covers most of the facts of the deal. Now what does this really mean for us as CorelDRAW users? The Pantone palettes that are included in CorelDRAW are highly unlikely to change in any significant way beyond updates that have traditionally been made for new color formulations and palettes. From what I understand, the Pantone brand name will still be used. Basically, it is very doubtful that users will see any change in this arena. The bigger changes will probably happen on the hardware side. I'm sure that some of you are already using devices to calibrate your devices though I suspect it is a small percentage of users. We can only hope that this deal will continue to bring down prices of calibration equipment while improving the quality. Ease of use is also very important. I'm not sure we'll know if this is a success until a year or two have passed. I honestly don't know that the average user will see any effect at all from this deal.

Share