NYTimes.com: In the early 1960s, as Lawrence Herbert drove to work in a blue Cadillac with cherry red seats, he mulled over a problem: How to create a “universal language” of color. Herbert, the owner of the Pantone printing company, had just produced a retail display card that helped shoppers choose pantyhose. He had to hand-mix the subtle beiges of each swatch, because it was so difficult to buy the exact shade he wanted from an ink manufacturer. Each company defined colors differently, and when you ordered “wheat” or “taupe” or “cream,” you couldn’t predict what you’d get.
1 comment:
Huh. Color chips was never a thing that I thought about needing to be invented, but I suppose someone had to. I wonder entirely how universal this actually. Do the color chips by the various paint companies match up with the Pantone chip system, even though their colors have different names? I also wonder, because I think I remember reading about the fact that not everyone can tell the difference between shades, if this can help us discover new colors.
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