[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"nav-categories":3,"article-how-pantone-turns-color-into-a-profitable-empire":70},{"data":4},[5,37,57,64],{"name":6,"slug":7,"categories":8},"Productivity","productivity",[9,13,17,21,25,29,33],{"id":10,"title":11,"slug":12},17,"Branding","branding",{"id":14,"title":15,"slug":16},19,"Marketing","marketing",{"id":18,"title":19,"slug":20},20,"Work","work",{"id":22,"title":23,"slug":24},34,"Community","community",{"id":26,"title":27,"slug":28},21,"For newbies","for-newbies",{"id":30,"title":31,"slug":32},24,"Investment","investment",{"id":34,"title":35,"slug":36},22,"Finance","finance",{"name":38,"slug":39,"categories":40},"Tech","tech",[41,45,49,53],{"id":42,"title":43,"slug":44},28,"Technology","technology",{"id":46,"title":47,"slug":48},32,"Artificial Intelligence","artificial-intelligence",{"id":50,"title":51,"slug":52},26,"Security and protection","security-and-protection",{"id":54,"title":55,"slug":56},31,"YouTube Blog","youtube-blog",{"name":58,"slug":59,"categories":60},"News","news",[61],{"id":62,"title":58,"slug":63},18,"quasanews",{"name":65,"slug":66,"categories":67},"Business","business",[68],{"id":69,"title":65,"slug":66},16,{"post":71,"published_news":95,"popular_news":153,"categories":218},{"title":72,"description":73,"meta_title":72,"meta_description":74,"meta_keywords":75,"text":76,"slug":77,"created_at":78,"publish_at":79,"formatted_created_at":80,"category_id":69,"links":81,"view_type":84,"video_url":85,"views":86,"likes":87,"lang":88,"comments_count":87,"category":89},"How Pantone Turns Color Into a Profitable Empire","We've all heard of Pantone—the company famous for announcing the \"Color of the Year\" every December, influencing everything from fashion trends to home decor.","We've all heard of Pantone — the company famous for announcing the \"Color of the Year\" every December, influencing everything from fashion trends to home decor.","Pantone doesn't sell colors per se; they sell a guarantee of uniformity. Your brand's signature hue will look identical on any material, from a business card to a massive billboard","\u003Cp>We've all heard of Pantone — the company famous for announcing the "Color of the Year" every December, influencing everything from fashion trends to home decor. But do they really get paid just for picking a trendy shade once a year? Not quite. The reality is far more intriguing and complex. While color as a natural phenomenon is free, Pantone has built a multimillion-dollar business by monetizing its codification and standardization in industries where consistency is king.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp>\u003Cimg alt=\"\" class=\"image-align-left\" height=\"300\" src=\"https://quasa.io/storage/photos/00/photo_2026-02-16_12-47-27.jpg\" width=\"300\" />\u003Ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4HfxwzdCNg\">Pantone doesn't sell colors per se; they sell a guarantee of uniformity\u003C/a>. Your brand's signature hue will look identical on any material, from a business card to a massive billboard. This is crucial for companies that rely on color recognition for branding. Think about it: a mismatched shade could confuse customers or dilute a brand's identity.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp>Take Kodak as a classic example. Back in the day, their iconic yellow varied from batch to batch — bright and vibrant on some film boxes, dull and faded on others. Consumers often assumed the darker ones were expired and avoided them (I remember thinking the same as a kid). Pantone solved this headache by creating a system where any printer worldwide knows that Pantone 123 C is *exactly* the yellow you need, no variations allowed.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp>Everything changed in 1956 when Lawrence Herbert joined a small printing firm called Pantone. He quickly spotted the inconsistency issues plaguing the industry and,\u003Ca href=\"https://www.thefashionlaw.com/the-business-of-being-pantone\"> by 1963, developed the Pantone Matching System (PMS)\u003C/a> — a standardized color-matching framework.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp>By the late 1960s, Herbert had bought out the company entirely, transforming it from a modest printer into a global authority on color standards. Pantone shifted focus to selling proprietary formulas for inks, ensuring precise replication across mediums.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp>Today, Pantone boasts over 3,000 standardized colors in its core PMS, plus specialized collections for fashion, interiors, plastics, and more — \u003Ca href=\"https://www.pantone.com/\">totaling more than 15,000 shades overall\u003C/a>. Their revenue streams are diverse but revolve around this ecosystem of consistency.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Chr />\n\u003Ch4>\u003Cstrong>Physical Color Guides: The Bread and Butter\u003C/strong>\u003C/h4>\n\n\u003Cp>\u003Cimg alt=\"\" class=\"image-align-right\" height=\"169\" src=\"https://quasa.io/storage/photos/00/image - 2026-02-16T125320.057.jpg\" width=\"300\" />\u003Ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4HfxwzdCNg\">About half of Pantone's income comes from selling physical color references, like fan decks, swatch books, and chips\u003C/a>. These aren't cheap knick-knacks; a basic formula guide starts at around $200-$300, while professional sets can cost $2,000-$9,000. For instance, the Limited Edition Pantone Color of the Year 2026 Formula Guide retails for $226, and similar products for fashion and home interiors go up to $286. Designers, printers, and manufacturers buy these to ensure accuracy in their work.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca href=\"https://www.multiply.co/insights/how-pantone-sold-the-rainbow-and-why-you-keep-buying-it\">\u003Cstrong>What's clever is the built-in obsolescence\u003C/strong>\u003C/a>: colors in these guides can fade or shift over time due to exposure, so professionals must update them regularly — often annually — for optimal precision. This creates a steady recurring revenue stream.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Chr />\n\u003Ch4>\u003Cstrong>Digital Tools and Subscriptions: The Modern Twist\u003C/strong>\u003C/h4>\n\n\u003Cp>\u003Cimg alt=\"\" class=\"image-align-left\" height=\"343\" src=\"https://quasa.io/storage/photos/00/image - 2026-02-16T125241.513.jpg\" width=\"230\" />In the digital age, Pantone has expanded into software and online services. Their Pantone Connect platform, a digital color library, allows users to pick shades, extract matches from images, convert between formats (like RGB, CMYK, or Hex), and even measure colors via a mobile app.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp>It used to be bundled with Adobe products, but since 2022, it requires a separate subscription costing $15-$21 per month, depending on the plan. This ensures digital designs match physical outputs perfectly, bridging the gap between screens and prints.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp>Also read:\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cul>\n\t\u003Cli>\u003Ca href=\"https://quasa.io/media/top-5-ai-opportunities-this-week-from-quasa\">Top 5 AI Opportunities This Week from Quasa\u003C/a>\u003C/li>\n\t\u003Cli>\u003Ca href=\"https://quasa.io/media/google-s-pixel-phones-persisting-in-a-smartphone-market-dominated-by-giants\">Google's Pixel Phones: Persisting in a Smartphone Market Dominated by Giants\u003C/a>\u003C/li>\n\t\u003Cli>\u003Ca href=\"https://quasa.io/media/mini-scandal-erupts-on-kalshi-over-bernie-sanders-rally-bets\">Mini-Scandal Erupts on Kalshi Over Bernie Sanders Rally Bets\u003C/a>\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ul>\n\n\u003Chr />\n\u003Ch4>\u003Cstrong>Licensing and Consulting: The High-Margin Plays\u003C/strong>\u003C/h4>\n\n\u003Cp>The other half of Pantone's revenue stems from licensing and consulting. They license their color formulas to ink manufacturers, fabric mills, and software companies worldwide, allowing them to produce and use Pantone-approved shades. Big brands pay hefty fees for custom colors—like Tiffany Blue or UPS Brown — to maintain exclusivity. Additionally, the Pantone Color Institute offers consulting on trends, helping clients with color strategies for branding and product development.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp>Pantone has also dipped into merchandising, partnering for lifestyle products like mugs and notebooks, but this is a smaller slice of the pie.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp>\u003Ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-26/how-pantone-is-still-turning-color-into-money\">In essence, Pantone has cleverly monopolized the color standardization market\u003C/a>. By creating an indispensable system and charging for access in multiple ways, they've turned something as intangible as hue into a robust business model. As industries continue to prioritize brand consistency in a globalized world, Pantone's empire shows no signs of fading.\u003C/p>","how-pantone-turns-color-into-a-profitable-empire","2026-02-16T11:55:21.000000Z","2026-02-27T06:49:00.000000Z","27.02.2026",{"image":82,"thumb":83},"https://quasa.io/storage/images/news/FaOX6lwLDSTdDUeAXxQDQYhST3eyERAY4WNbuIwN.jpg","https://api.quasa.io/thumbs/news-thumb/images/news/FaOX6lwLDSTdDUeAXxQDQYhST3eyERAY4WNbuIwN.jpg","small",null,569,0,"en",{"id":69,"title":65,"slug":66,"meta_title":90,"meta_description":91,"meta_keywords":92,"deleted_at":85,"created_at":93,"updated_at":94,"lang":88},"Quasa Media - Growth Hacking in Business","Business is a battlefield. In QUASA MEDIA you will find all the most useful articles on how to do business and not screw up.","Business, earn money, business strategy, business process","2021-08-03T10:59:17.000000Z","2024-08-25T15:45:11.000000Z",[96,109,120,131,142],{"title":97,"description":98,"slug":99,"created_at":100,"publish_at":101,"formatted_created_at":102,"category":103,"links":104,"view_type":84,"video_url":85,"views":107,"likes":87,"lang":88,"comments_count":87,"is_pinned":108},"Cyberpunk Is Already Here – People Are Building Their Own Cyberdecks","It’s 2026, and the future we were promised in the ’80s has quietly arrived — not in gleaming megacorps or neon megacities, but in thrift-store clutches and repurposed makeup cases.","cyberpunk-is-already-here-people-are-building-their-own-cyberdecks","2026-04-10T14:54:06.000000Z","2026-04-12T11:46:00.000000Z","12.04.2026",{"title":27,"slug":28},{"image":105,"thumb":106},"https://quasa.io/storage/images/news/Otp0HUdKOuJbAlgb3pXghHe6iqqYPctRRsj49Flm.jpg","https://api.quasa.io/thumbs/news-thumb/images/news/Otp0HUdKOuJbAlgb3pXghHe6iqqYPctRRsj49Flm.jpg",27,false,{"title":110,"description":111,"slug":112,"created_at":113,"publish_at":114,"formatted_created_at":102,"category":115,"links":116,"view_type":84,"video_url":85,"views":119,"likes":87,"lang":88,"comments_count":87,"is_pinned":108},"Why OpenAI’s Sora Crashed and Burned After Just 1.5 Years: The Video Slop That Ate Itself","It was supposed to be the future of creativity. In February 2024, OpenAI unveiled Sora — its text-to-video model that could turn a simple prompt into jaw-dropping, cinematic clips. Hollywood trembled. Creators cheered. Investors poured in.","why-openai-s-sora-crashed-and-burned-after-just-1-5-years-the-video-slop-that-ate-itself","2026-04-10T14:42:46.000000Z","2026-04-12T09:37:00.000000Z",{"title":65,"slug":66},{"image":117,"thumb":118},"https://quasa.io/storage/images/news/ljEQl4jsH2UcYjQm8HhZBuvbHANGblitMTcUocMr.jpg","https://api.quasa.io/thumbs/news-thumb/images/news/ljEQl4jsH2UcYjQm8HhZBuvbHANGblitMTcUocMr.jpg",40,{"title":121,"description":122,"slug":123,"created_at":124,"publish_at":125,"formatted_created_at":102,"category":126,"links":127,"view_type":84,"video_url":85,"views":130,"likes":87,"lang":88,"comments_count":87,"is_pinned":108},"How to Actually Benefit from the Flood of AI News (Without Burning Out)","Every day we’re hit with another wave of AI announcements: shiny new tools, powerful extensions for chatbots and agents, and the latest “must-try” features.","how-to-actually-benefit-from-the-flood-of-ai-news-without-burning-out","2026-04-10T14:32:32.000000Z","2026-04-12T06:21:00.000000Z",{"title":47,"slug":48},{"image":128,"thumb":129},"https://quasa.io/storage/images/news/q1cKdGRJ8kdte3kOVMGJshqBQ9cnyJwRrKGeTxpe.jpg","https://api.quasa.io/thumbs/news-thumb/images/news/q1cKdGRJ8kdte3kOVMGJshqBQ9cnyJwRrKGeTxpe.jpg",61,{"title":132,"description":133,"slug":134,"created_at":135,"publish_at":136,"formatted_created_at":102,"category":137,"links":138,"view_type":84,"video_url":85,"views":141,"likes":87,"lang":88,"comments_count":87,"is_pinned":108},"Three Ways to Burn Your AI Budget: Hard Lessons from 15+ AI Transformations","I’ve been involved in more than 15 large-scale AI transformations across different industries. Four of them failed.","three-ways-to-burn-your-ai-budget-hard-lessons-from-15-ai-transformations","2026-04-10T14:13:46.000000Z","2026-04-12T03:07:00.000000Z",{"title":47,"slug":48},{"image":139,"thumb":140},"https://quasa.io/storage/images/news/V4iWInVuKm0QkEz4NYriOX6CoNiiDnycWyLroF2S.jpg","https://api.quasa.io/thumbs/news-thumb/images/news/V4iWInVuKm0QkEz4NYriOX6CoNiiDnycWyLroF2S.jpg",75,{"title":143,"description":144,"slug":145,"created_at":146,"publish_at":146,"formatted_created_at":147,"category":148,"links":149,"view_type":84,"video_url":85,"views":152,"likes":87,"lang":88,"comments_count":87,"is_pinned":108},"What Is a Startup? Cutting Through the Hype to Find the Real Meaning","A few years ago, we published an article titled “What is a Startup?” that quickly climbed to the top of our most-read and most-shared pieces.","what-is-a-startup-cutting-through-the-hype-to-find-the-real-meaning","2026-04-11T18:25:56.000000Z","11.04.2026",{"title":27,"slug":28},{"image":150,"thumb":151},"https://quasa.io/storage/images/news/cona0PkrDQzH7eaLDaQhaWO0FsU3fDEdqJvVClN8.jpg","https://api.quasa.io/thumbs/news-thumb/images/news/cona0PkrDQzH7eaLDaQhaWO0FsU3fDEdqJvVClN8.jpg",122,[154,167,181,193,206],{"title":155,"description":156,"slug":157,"created_at":158,"publish_at":159,"formatted_created_at":160,"category":161,"links":162,"view_type":84,"video_url":85,"views":165,"likes":166,"lang":88,"comments_count":87,"is_pinned":108},"The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur","Entrepreneur is a French word that means an enterpriser. Enterprisers are people who undertake a business or enterprise with the chance of earning profits or suffering from loss.","the-anatomy-of-an-entrepreneur","2021-08-04T15:18:21.000000Z","2025-12-14T06:09:00.000000Z","14.12.2025",{"title":65,"slug":66},{"image":163,"thumb":164},"https://quasa.io/storage/images/news/mVsXPTMuHZuI7UXCsENgL1Qwp1uSOf7Rz3uVPMfm.webp","https://api.quasa.io/thumbs/news-thumb/images/news/mVsXPTMuHZuI7UXCsENgL1Qwp1uSOf7Rz3uVPMfm.webp",69901,2,{"title":168,"description":169,"slug":170,"created_at":171,"publish_at":172,"formatted_created_at":173,"category":174,"links":175,"view_type":178,"video_url":85,"views":179,"likes":180,"lang":88,"comments_count":87,"is_pinned":108},"Advertising on QUASA","QUASA MEDIA is read by more than 400 thousand people a month. We offer to place your article, add a link or order the writing of an article for publication.","advertising-on-quasa","2022-07-06T07:33:02.000000Z","2025-12-15T17:33:02.000000Z","15.12.2025",{"title":58,"slug":63},{"image":176,"thumb":177},"https://quasa.io/storage/images/news/45SvmdsTQbiyc3nxgbyHY1mpVbisYyub2BCHjqBL.jpg","https://api.quasa.io/thumbs/news-thumb/images/news/45SvmdsTQbiyc3nxgbyHY1mpVbisYyub2BCHjqBL.jpg","large",69646,4,{"title":182,"description":183,"slug":184,"created_at":185,"publish_at":186,"formatted_created_at":187,"category":188,"links":189,"view_type":84,"video_url":85,"views":192,"likes":180,"lang":88,"comments_count":87,"is_pinned":108},"What is a Startup?","A startup is not a new company, not a tech company, nor a new tech company. You can be a new tech company, if your goal is not to grow high and fast; then, you are not a startup. ","what-is-a-startup","2021-08-04T12:05:17.000000Z","2025-12-17T13:02:00.000000Z","17.12.2025",{"title":65,"slug":66},{"image":190,"thumb":191},"https://quasa.io/storage/images/news/EOsQhSW3VXyG7a6NPdE1oZd00xfJXe3bjY5aJGb7.webp","https://api.quasa.io/thumbs/news-thumb/images/news/EOsQhSW3VXyG7a6NPdE1oZd00xfJXe3bjY5aJGb7.webp",67313,{"title":194,"description":195,"slug":196,"created_at":197,"publish_at":198,"formatted_created_at":199,"category":200,"links":201,"view_type":84,"video_url":85,"views":204,"likes":166,"lang":88,"comments_count":205,"is_pinned":108},"Top 5 Tips to Make More Money as a Content Creator","Content creators are one of the most desired job titles right now. Who wouldn’t want to earn a living online?","top-5-tips-to-make-more-money-as-a-content-creator","2022-01-17T17:31:51.000000Z","2026-01-17T11:30:00.000000Z","17.01.2026",{"title":19,"slug":20},{"image":202,"thumb":203},"https://quasa.io/storage/images/news/gP8kiumBPpJmQv6SMieXiX1tDetx43VwFfO1P4Ca.jpg","https://api.quasa.io/thumbs/news-thumb/images/news/gP8kiumBPpJmQv6SMieXiX1tDetx43VwFfO1P4Ca.jpg",41367,1,{"title":207,"description":208,"slug":209,"created_at":210,"publish_at":211,"formatted_created_at":212,"category":213,"links":214,"view_type":178,"video_url":85,"views":217,"likes":166,"lang":88,"comments_count":87,"is_pinned":108},"8 Logo Design Tips for Small Businesses","Your logo tells the story of your business and the values you stand for.","8-logo-design-tips-for-small-businesses","2021-12-04T21:59:52.000000Z","2025-05-05T03:30:00.000000Z","05.05.2025",{"title":15,"slug":16},{"image":215,"thumb":216},"https://quasa.io/storage/images/news/Wbx2NtS1CnTupgoQbpFMGspJ5jm4uob2hDOq33r0.jpg","https://api.quasa.io/thumbs/news-thumb/images/news/Wbx2NtS1CnTupgoQbpFMGspJ5jm4uob2hDOq33r0.jpg",40526,[219,220,221,222,223,224,225,226,227,228,229,230,231],{"title":23,"slug":24},{"title":47,"slug":48},{"title":55,"slug":56},{"title":43,"slug":44},{"title":51,"slug":52},{"title":31,"slug":32},{"title":35,"slug":36},{"title":27,"slug":28},{"title":19,"slug":20},{"title":15,"slug":16},{"title":58,"slug":63},{"title":11,"slug":12},{"title":65,"slug":66}]