When PANTONE announced its 2022 Color of the Year and said the hue was symbolic of “the expansive possibilities that lie before us,” those might be words of comfort for itself too. That’s because in the early leg of the coming year, its swatches will no longer exist in the repositories of Adobe Creative Cloud.
According to a notice Adobe published in November, spotted by Printweek, the company revealed: “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.”
Adobe reassured that “an alternative solution” is on the way “to minimize the impact of this change.”
While there have been rumors that the decision was motivated by “a huge commercial falling-out” over license fees, PANTONE insists there is no conflict of interest between the two creative giants.
Marcie Foster, director of brand management and marketing communication at PANTONE, told Printweek that both companies “have been and continue to be long-standing partners.” The reason for the removal, Foster stressed, is the outdated implementation of the PANTONE library in Adobe apps, causing many newer colors to be missing.