On Fri, 22 Jun 2001 11:08:04 -0600, you wrote: >Does Pantone charge money for those things? I have aways just >made my own colour checker when I feel the need to do any sort >of colour comparison. It would be nice to have something that >actually is an industry standard, of sorts. More than you ever wanted to know about Pantone color guides: As for prices, see www.pantone.com - prices are not cheap, but not out of line for business tools. https://www.pantone.com/ShopPantone/product.asp?ProductID=309 is the simple Matte guide for $49. It has enough "pages" to make your own color chart many times over. Many Pantone books consist of thin, long pages bound in one corner. The pages fan out from this point. Pantone color guides for printers last a few years, in my experience. Usability over time depends on exposure to light and dirt. Some of mine bought in 1990 are still usable. Others bought in 1999 are dirty and have faded pages. The "book" format allows one to close it after use to keep it clean and out of the light. There are many Pantone Color Guides at my plant. I've never used them in my photography. I'd have to tear one up and paste strips onto a base to make a decent photo chart. Each page has about seven printed color stripes. Only a couple of pages have many different hues. These are the 14 or so base colors. The base color pages have thinner stripes than the main pages. The original Pantone guide pages each had a solid color at the central stripe position. The upper stripes on each page were gradually lighter, because they contained increasing proportions of transparent white. The lower stripes were gradually darker because they contained increasing proportions of Mixing Black. Over the years, this format has varied some with the addition of new colors. But most of the current Pantone Color Guide for printers still has a base hue at the center stripe, then lighter and darker variations of the same hue above and below the center stripe. Thirty years ago, I could twist the arm of the ink supplier, and he would drop off a few Pantone guides imprinted with his logo. But back then they only cost a few dollars each. I think I have a Pantone guide from about 1974 stashed away somewhere around the house. There's an interesting history of Pantone's entry into the British market, and how a company that started small got big and squashed a successful distributor, but I'll save that for another book... -- Happy Trails, Texdance http://members.fortunecity.com/texdance http://members1.clubphoto.com/john8202 - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
