

Tim Bray: How Pantone missed the chance to become the color of the Internet - nickb
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2007/08/26/Pantone

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trekker7
This isn't directly related to the article (sorry), but reading about how
Pantone's CEO didn't recognize the opportunity with the Web did make me think
of something else.

It seems like every decade or so a new product/technology comes up that has a
gravitational pull for a lot of other products and innovations; a lot of other
stuff comes out that revolves around a central product. In the 80s, the
central product was PCs. In the 90s, the product was the Internet, and later
in that decade the Web.

Is there such a central product/technology area right now? Is it the concept
of Web 2.0, or is something else lurking around the corner?

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iamwil
I think it's in the transition right now. For the past couple years, it mostly
has been an exploration of different forms of the web.

A lot of people anticipate mobile platform to be next, but things are pretty
grim so far--but people make due. RFIDs are another thing that has people
excited, as well as 3D printing.

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mhb
How does Pantone make money?

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michaelneale
licensing to adobe, microsoft I would expect. That or those little color
swatch thingies ;)

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joshwa
Those "little color swatch thingies" are an international color matching
standard for print. Every prepress shop and printing press on the planet has
those swatch books so they can communicate spot colors consistently.

However, the rise in recent years of cheap 4/C digital presses and ICC
profiling has made Pantone systems less indispensable.

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michaelneale
Can I still call them "swatch thingies" ?

