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For this exercise I used a tool that from Microsoft called PowerToys 'Color Picker' to give me the hex code for a point on my screen.
I then visited the Pantone website to translate this to a Pantone swatch code.
Taking a point from the main yellow area of the above container...
HEX: ae8d00
Pantone swatch code: 12-0650 TCX Summer Sun
Taking a point from the main green area of the above container...
HEX: 4d974a
Pantone swatch code: 16-6340 TCX Classic Green
Taking a point from the top of the blue cap of the above container...
HEX: 0286b7
Pantone swatch code: 17-4435 TCX Malibu Blue
I have to confess that I thought I was being really clever using Microsoft's 'Color Picker' and honestly thought that this would lead me directly to an exact match with Pantone.
No.
Every colour had multitudes of matches (the blue had 152!) and I was left to look between my photo and the colours on the web page to find the closest match.
That will teach me to try and be clever!
I found that there were different ranges (?) of colours depending on their usage, e.g. fabric or paper. I decided to simply go for the first range ('cotton') for each colour, so if nothing else, there would be consistency.
I also found that the longer you stared at a group of similar colours, the less you became able to differentiate them. To counter this, I tried to pick my match as quickly as possible. My logic being, if a computer program can't narrow down a match to less than 152 possibles, that this was not an exact science and my guess was as good as anyones.
© Kevin Warren - fibrocreativity (fc)
