X-Rite Pantone is excited to exhibit at Fakuma. Like many of you, digitization and sustainability are top of mind. We invite you to stop by our booth to see how an end-to-end lifecycle that focuses on color can help you: Fulfill your customers’ color demands Ensure color consistency with varying batches of recycled raw material Accelerate material color and appearance approval Minimize color surprises at delivery Actively decrease your global footprint The Key t...

This time of year, the internet is full of Top 10 Countdowns. It’s a tradition we’ve embraced since 1940 when the Billboard published its first chart ranking the top selling recorded songs. Since then, others have jumped on the bandwagon to highlight the most popular trends of the previous year.   We’ve been publishing our top-read blogs since 2016, and we’re happy to see some educational topics like color perception, tolerancing, and spectrophotometers continue to r...

When customers are just getting started with color management, they often ask, "What is the difference between a spectrometer and a spectrophotometer?". With such a minute spelling difference, it's easy to make a quick typo and get the wrong answer for this color question. So...what's the difference? Spectrometers vs. Spectrophotometers    What is a Spectrophotometer? A spectrophotometer is a color measurement device that is used to capture and evaluate color on just about anything, in...

Color measurement is used to specify, quantify, communicate, formulate, and verify color quality for color critical work. Because everyone perceives color differently, color measurement is more precise than visual evaluation.  How to Measure Color Wavelength To measure color, a color measurement device called a spectrophotometer shines light onto a sample and captures the amount of light that is transmitted or reflected in the 380 nm to 780 nm wavelength range, which is the wavelength rang...

Learn about light, reflection curves, optical brighteners, and more.     Illuminants Electro magnetic radiation in the wavelength range from 380 nm to 730 nm is seen as light by our eyes. Low wavelengths show as blue light, then the spectrum continues from green to yellow, orange, and red. UV radiation is located in the range below 380 nm; the range above 730 nm is called infrared radiation. The visual impression of a colored body changes by the composition of the incoming light. ...

People often ask how X-Rite got its name and how we came to be a leader in the art and science of color. It’s really a great story – one that focuses on innovation, entrepreneurship and determination. What’s in a name? X-Rite was founded in 1957 by a group of engineers and business entrepreneurs who had a desire to start a business based on innovation. The members brainstormed new product ideas ranging from can openers to sheet metal tools to collapsible car cots. After buildin...

Durable goods and consumer electronics are no longer destined to be white, gray, and black. In fact, consumers are moving towards more classic colors and special effect finishes like metallics. To capitalize on this trend, brands need to bring innovative designs in new colors faster to market than ever before.   One trending color, the PANTONE Color of the Year 2020, is sure to capture the attention of durable good and consumer electronic brands. It is a simple, timeless, elegant, and endur...

For the last few Decembers, we’ve provided you with a list of “top color measurement blogs” for that respective year. As we reviewed this year’s list, we noticed that your favorite/ the most-read blogs could be categorized into a few buckets. So, without further ado, here’s 2018’s top blog topics!  2018’s Most Popular Color Measurement Topic: Tolerancing Not to our team’s surprise, Tolerancing – what it is/what it means for your busines...

Each year, Pantone announces its highly anticipated “Color of the Year”. The selection is intended to serve as a strategic direction for design and color-conscious industries as well as a conversation piece around our culture, where it is going and what we collectively need…and it certainly gets everyone talking about color!  Color is no longer just something we see and appreciate - it enhances and influences the way we experience life. Color, as a strategic element of d...

Like geographic coordinates – longitude, latitude, and altitude – L*a*b* color values give us a way to locate and communicate colors. What’s the history of L*a*b*? In the 1940’s, Richard Hunter introduced a tri-stimulus model, Lab, which is scaled to achieve near uniform spacing of perceived color differences. While Hunter’s Lab was adopted as the de facto model for plotting absolute color coordinates and differences between colors, it was never formally accepted as...

We at X-Rite Pantone are excited to express our enthusiasm toward this year’s ArtPrize Nine competition. Beginning on September 20th, this event will cover downtown Grand Rapids with art, bringing color to the forefront of so many minds. As a proud, Grand Rapids-based company, we are looking forward to contributing to this creative and inspiring global competition. By expanding the range of X-Rite Pantone activity from the ever-popular Pantone® Pathways to activities like entering our ver...

FUSE 2017 provided a wealth of valuable industry insight by showcasing how today’s brands are not only surviving, but thriving. While each scenario presented unique challenges and obstacles, one constant seemed abundantly clear:  brands must create a human connection between themselves and their consumers. Humanizing brands reinvigorates (or, in some cases, generates) a level of trust from consumers that is currently eroding. Speakers at FUSE highlighted a few specific examples of ways companie...

K 2016 begins today in Düsseldorf and runs through October 26th. As the #1 trade fair for the plastics and rubber industries, it’s a huge event featuring industry news, product demos, and networking. We’ll be in Hall 8b / Stand H65 showcasing our end-to-end X-Rite Pantone workflow solutions to help rubber manufacturers, compounders, masterbatchers, and converters get consistent color in a plastics workflow. Don’t miss your chance to speak with our color experts! (Here...

We’re intrigued by color, and that’s no surprise. From starting conversations to subconsciously moving people to make decisions, color inspires and motivates people on a daily basis. As a company, we want to help our customers understand this impact. Through our work with artists, designers, brand owners, and manufacturers, we define and control color, and this event was a great opportunity to showcase this passion. That’s part of the reason we get so involved in ArtPrize as sponsors, volunteer...

Passionate about color? We are too. As a company that prides itself on its color knowledge and enthusiasm, X-Rite Pantone is excited about the various ways ArtPrize showcases the power of color. Each fall, ArtPrize installs over 1000 works of art in downtown Grand Rapids, attracting thousands of visitors. By using consistent colors in its guides, signs, banners, flags, and merchandise, ArtPrize creates a colorful map that helps both visitors and locals see the city through a different perspectiv...

ArtPrize®, the nation’s largest art competition, begins today. As a leadership sponsor and a proud Grand Rapids-based company, we are honored to contribute to this creative and inspiring community event. ArtPrize attracts artists from around the world who use a mix of colors, textures, and substrates to express themselves in unique ways. Their creations, often demonstrating the color challenges that color professionals have in their plants or print shops, are installed indoors and outdoors throu...

Each year Printing News asks their readers which new products made the most difference in their productivity. We’re excited to announce that our very own i1iSis 2 and i1iSis 2 XL are among the winners! These two automated chart readers are the latest members of the popular i1iSis solutions family for pre-press, pre-media, photo, and pressroom color management and profiling. In high production environments such as photo processing, large format, fine art and high-speed digital printing, frequen...

drupa 2016 was such a success! It’s not often we get to spend so much time talking one-on-one with our customers from around the world, and we enjoyed every minute! We met so many wonderful people and learned so many things. Although it’s hard to pick, here are a few of our favorite experiences from drupa 2016. 1 – THE SYNERGY! This time at drupa, we decided to join forces with Esko, Enfocus and Pantone to showcase our end-to–end color management solutions. Although the drupa orga...

Drupa starts tomorrow, and we couldn’t be more excited! This year X-Rite Pantone is teaming up with our partners Esko, Enfocus, and MediaBeacon to showcase a number of innovations around digital color communication. The move to digital can make a big impact on a company’s bottom line… read our recent blog to learn how. Covering 900-square meters in Hall 8b, stand A23, our booth includes six print and packaging inspiration zones that walk visitors through an ideal color workflow, from color inspi...

X-Rite Pantone® brings together the art and science of color to empower brands and packaging converters to deliver on design and color intent for their packaging. Last week we were in Atlanta at HOW Design LIVE 2016, introducing a few new tools that can help designers achieve color fidelity. HOW is a more than just a conference for designers and brands – it’s an inspiration-packed, global creative gathering of the industry’s best. This made it the best place for us to showcase Panton...

From May 31 to June 10, nineteen exhibition halls in Düsseldorf, Germany will come to life for the print industry’s leading global trade fair – drupa. Those who are lucky enough to attend will get to see and experience new color technologies and innovative concepts. X-Rite Pantone will be among the exhibitors, showcasing our latest print and packaging solutions. Since we know not everyone will be able to attend this event, we’ll keep you updated on what’s happening here, on the blog. Digital mod...

Today is Earth Day. You know the buzz phrase – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – but do you know what it means for your manufacturing process? Designed by Freepik Here are the top three places in a color workflow that can sabotage a company’s sustainability efforts. Not monitoring color throughout production, which leads to expensive rework and wasted raw materials. Incorrect colorant formulation. Are you using too much? Are you wasting the leftovers? Sending color samples back and forth and long approv...

Sharing a strong passion for how color can transform a face, mood or even an attitude, Pantone® has once again partnered with Sephora, the leading beauty specialty retailer, to create another extraordinary PANTONE Color of the Year cosmetic collection. Launched on December 26th, the SEPHORA + PANTONE UNIVERSE collection includes a 24-color eyes palette, a matte lipstick in each color, and a 5-piece lip gloss set. The first SEPHORA + PANTONE UNIVERSE collection was released in 2011 with Tangerine...

Julie Shaffer is Vice President of Education and Marketing Strategies at Printing Industries of America. Each year the PIA organizes a color management conference to bring industry professionals together to learn the latest trends and technologies, network with fellow attendees, and discover how to communicate color effectively. We were lucky enough to sit down with Julie at Color ’15 to learn more about the conference and some of the color challenges printers face today. Listen in as she shares...

The Color Management Group is a blend of certified consultants and resellers who provide products and services to many industries around the world, including graphic arts, photography, textile, and printing and packaging. CMG members have years of experience and a long list of industry certifications. They also have a reputation for providing fast and effective solutions to help businesses of any size implement color management, process control, and standardization. The Color Management Group wa...

The Fundamentals of Color and Appearance – FOCA for short – is a very popular one-day seminar for anyone who deals with color. From the best way to communicate color so everyone is speaking the same language, to tips for judging the smallest color differences, you’ll learn everything you need to know to measure, view, and understand color data in any industry. Whether you’re dealing with plastics, textiles or paints, or using dyes, inks or other colorants, the basics of color are very similar. B...

As ArtPrize Seven comes to a close, I wanted to thank everyone involved in this year’s event, including the artists, visitors, venues, volunteers, sponsors and event organizers, for making this such a colorful and engaging art experience. It brought excitement to our community, and inspired visitors from around the world. As a leadership sponsor and Grand Rapids-based company, X-Rite Pantone was honored to be such a big part of ArtPrize Seven, an art event like no other. Much of the X-Rite Pant...

Over the past few weeks, X-Rite Pantone has profiled some of this year’s ArtPrize Seven artists who use color as a way to express their creativity and encourage viewers to think about art differently. If you are not from the Grand Rapids area, ArtPrize is an international art competition that spans 10 miles and includes over 1,500 artists. As a leadership sponsor, X-Rite is using this event to highlight the intersection of the art and science of color in our everyday lives. Our last artist profi...

As a sponsor of ArtPrize, X-Rite Pantone has been taking the opportunity to explore color – how it affects us emotionally, and how it impacts the decisions we make. So far we have profiled two artists – Anne Lemanski, who uses color to portray the imagery of science and nature, and Ruben Ubiera, whose creative use of metallic paint and light gives the impression of movement in his outdoor murals. Today we’re showcasing the work of artist Michael Peoples, who has been experimenting with colorful ...

ArtPrize hired Grand Rapid’s own Conduit Studio to design theme ideas for this year’s event. Together, they selected Celebration of Color to highlight the importance of color in our everyday lives, and to inspire visitors to explore and discuss the creativity of the event. Last week, X-Rite Pantone contributed a guest blog for ArtPrize that walked through the process to select the color palettes  that would define each neighborhood and give the event a unified feel. Today we’ll link art and scie...