Print and pre-press professionals have expressed disquiet about the information gap around Adobe’s decision to remove Pantone Color Libraries from future versions of its Creative Cloud products.
Last month Adobe issued a technical bulletin about “changes coming to the Pantone Color Libraries”.
The software giant stated: “In March 2022, the Pantone Color Libraries that are pre-loaded in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Adobe Color, and Adobe Capture will be removed from future software updates.
“To minimize the impact of this change, we are working on an alternative solution for the affected products. Stay tuned for updates.”
The news has caused consternation among power users of Adobe products in print and graphic arts.
Colour management expert Paul Sherfield, owner and founder of The Missing Horse consultancy, told Printweek: “I’ve been talking to a number of my customers about it this week. It’s a rather disappointing example of two major companies that supply the graphic arts industry, not supporting this industry.
“You need a subscription to download the latest library, printers will have that but how many graphic designers and publishers will?,” he noted
“Fortunately there are workarounds.”
There is industry speculation that the situation is the result of “a huge commercial falling out” over licence fees.
Printweek has approached Adobe and Pantone for comment.
Marcie Foster, Pantone director of brand management and marketing communication, responded and said Adobe and Pantone “have been and continue to be long standing partners”.
“Unfortunately, the current implementation of the Pantone library within Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps are outdated with many missing colors as well as inaccurate information. In order to provide the best user experience for our users, the companies together have decided to remove the outdated libraries and continue to collaborate on a better in-app experience.
“In addition to Adobe, Pantone will continue to explore new partnerships with other digital design focused companies to ensure that users of Pantone can have easy access to our most up-to-date color libraries from whichever design application they enjoy using.”
Adobe had not commented at the time of writing.
Pantone is owned by Danaher, which also owns Esko, X-rite, Videojet and Linx.
Lire : Printweek du 10 décembre
Jean-Philippe Behr
