Designers’ Must-Have App Matches Colors in the Real World with Their Exact Pantone Swatches

Pantone has become more than just a system for identifying colors—it’s now a way of life. Food, art, and home decor has all taken inspiration from the iconic brand, and they’ve recently launched an endeavor that takes “living in color” to a whole new level. It’s an app called Pantone Studio that’s part color guide and trend forecaster, in addition to having a standout tool: an eyedropper that dissects your images and tells you what hues they contain.

With Pantone Studio, you can now precisely capture the colors you see in the real world by snapping a photo and having the app instantly assess its RGB, CMYK, and Hex breakdown. The program specializes in harmonizing colors and will add swatches based on a single hue, ensuring that you have the perfect palette.

Users of the Adobe Creative Cloud have an added bonus—the color information will be sent directly to their account, so when it’s time to design, the hues are already handy. There’s also a perk for fashion designers: a hue can go on a fabric swatch to demonstrate how it will change with the addition of texture and movement.

Like most apps, there’s a social component to Pantone Studio: you can save colors and palettes to share them with your friends either through the app or social media. Alternatively, you can browse through other user’s selections if you’re in need of color inspiration.

Pantone Studio comes with a subscription-based price tag. It costs $8 if you pay month to month, or you can buy a year up-front for $60 ($5/month). For digital designers or those who want to interpret their world through color, it’s now available on iOS.

Pantone: Website | Facebook | Instagram
via [Fast Company, It's Nice That]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled "Embroidered Life" that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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