X-Rite, a global leader in color science and technology, and its subsidiary Pantone, have announced the expansion of a PantoneLIVE cloud-based solution for digitally communicating color with the addition of six new color libraries for gravure printing. The company has also released PantoneLIVE Visualizer, a new software tool that helps graphic designers, brands and print suppliers better compare, evaluate and visualize colors across multiple substrates and printing technologies.

“PantoneLIVE was created to help share accurate and achievable colors across a package printing supply chain,” says Adrián Fernández, vice president, PantoneLIVE, X‑Rite. “In partnership with our customers, we are continuously evolving the platform to support a wide range of packaging applications and help designers easily visualize on-screen how color palettes will appear in production. PantoneLIVE now offers over 50,000 Pantone color choices and supports 80% of packaging applications. By increasing the depth and scope of PantoneLIVE, designers and brands are able speed up the entire packaging design process and get products to market on average four times faster.”

PantoneLIVE includes six new libraries for gravure printing technology ideal for flexible packaging and label applications. Two of the new libraries are designed to help brands and converters match color on increasingly popular metallized flexible packaging and label structures. In total, PantoneLIVE offers 28 libraries of Pantone solids and tints that are tailored to specific package printing applications and technologies such as folding cartons, labels, flexo and paper packaging. Expanding the color libraries gives PantoneLIVE users greater choices and flexibility to determine which packaging material and processes will help brands and suppliers achieve the best possible results.

To help designers and brands visually show the variability in color that is the result of changes in the base material, printing process and ink types, X-Rite has developed PantoneLIVE Visualizer. Available immediately at no additional cost to PantoneLIVE users, Visualizer delivers an on-screen visualization of Pantone Master colors and achievable PantoneLIVE Dependent colors. The results can be exported into print-ready PDF documents that can be shared across the supply chain to better communicate design intent.

Sometimes, due to the realities of production materials and processes, the desired Pantone Master Standard color cannot be achieved with the target substrate and printing technology. Pantone Dependent Standards are designed to represent desired Master Standards in these cases, and are the Pantone-approved best match to the Master standards. With PantoneLIVE Visualizer, users can now visually compare and assess color selections in a variety of production scenarios.

PantoneLIVE Visualizer works with the X-Rite eXact handheld spectrophotometer, allowing users to measure the spectral color data from existing physical materials and objectively compare multiple materials on-screen. Using the spectral data, the software will also convert local color samples to specific Pantone and PantoneLIVE references for precise color communication across suppliers.