Are you fascinated by the shade of a flower, a piece of clothing, or even your favorite bag? With the Pantone Connect app and the Pantone Color Match Card, you can identify the exact Pantone color code in just seconds. Handy, right? Especially for designers and anyone who loves color!
The Pantone Color Matching System
Pantone is a household name among creatives — widely known as the most recognized and trusted color matching system in the world. Created in 1963, Pantone solved the complex problem of color consistency in the printing industry. It quickly became the easiest and most reliable way to categorize, communicate, and reproduce colors, using its fan-shaped color guide.
Each shade, across all hues and tones, was assigned a unique numeric code — setting the industry standard for color matching. Over nearly six decades, Pantone’s system has become essential not only in design but also in industries such as paint, textiles, and plastics.
Since 2000, the Pantone Color Institute has also announced the “Pantone Color of the Year” every December. This annual selection strongly influences trends across fashion, marketing, social media, and even politics.
The Newest Pantone Tool for Identifying Real-World Colors
Pantone continues to innovate with a new app paired with a physical tool that lets creatives capture colors directly from the world around them. It’s one thing to identify a color code on a computer screen — but replicating the exact shade of a real object has always been more challenging.
In the past, designers had to photograph the color, analyze the image, and digitally extract the shade — often with disappointing results due to lighting and image quality. Now, the process is as easy as capturing a digital color.
The combination of the Pantone Connect app and the Pantone Color Match Card makes it possible to find the closest Pantone color match for physical objects and surfaces. According to Pantone, under proper conditions, the Color Match Card delivers more accurate results than traditional color extraction from photos.
How Does It Function?
The Pantone Color Match Card is a credit card–sized tool featuring a range of Pantone colors and a central opening. To match an object, surface, or material to a Pantone shade, simply place the card over the desired color.
The app uses your phone’s camera and flash to capture the color under dual lighting — both flash and ambient light — ensuring greater accuracy. The smartphone then identifies the shade and provides matches across Pantone’s systems: PMS, FHI, CMYK, and the SkinTone Guide.
You can save identified colors to a custom palette for future projects and easily access them within Adobe Creative Cloud apps. The Pantone Color Match Card costs under 17 euros (about $18 USD) and works with both free and paid Pantone Connect accounts on iOS and Android.
The Smartphone as a Color Capturing Tool
Nick Bazarian, Pantone’s product manager for digital solutions, explains:
“Designers were already using their phones to capture Pantone colors from images, but accuracy was often limited by poor lighting or camera quality.”
With the Pantone Color Match Card and the Pantone Connect app, your phone becomes a precise color-capturing device — bridging the physical and digital worlds while improving workflow efficiency at a low cost.
While this innovation is a major step forward for creative professionals, it’s not entirely new. Back in 2017, Quebec’s DIY chain Réno-Dépôt launched a similar app called Live Swatches, which allowed users to match real-world colors with the SICO paint line — offering access to more than 1,800 shades.
Pantone’s latest development bridges the gap between reality and digital design, allowing you to capture the exact color of any object — even a breathtaking sunset — and find its Pantone match. Now it’s your turn to explore this new world of color!