Yeah you have access to them. But what good is it really when the colors are no good? It makes for a nice background image on your iPhone I suppose

It is really ironic that we continue to have color (and font) challenges some two decades into electronic publishing. Color management will never be simple, but all the variables are known.

I can quickly determine that by picking one and then switching libraries on the iPhone – I happen to use Code Lines iPhone app – Color Expert – and not the myPantone app we are speaking about above.

http://www.code-line.com/software/colorexpert.html

I can tell you I also carry the Pantone swatchbooks which are useful when trying to SHOW someone a color, and I carry my ColorMunki when the client is trying to provide ME a color – but the Code Line Color Expert app is useful when all I have is my iPhone, and we want to figure out what that color is in BOTH Pantone systems – which is very tricky to do, even if you had both physical books with you.

My point is that the iPhone may not be able to be tune to represent the colors accurately, but I can select a color and figure out the pantone number for that color.

What is also neat is the idea that you can export that to an ASE swatch file and email it – so someone can use that swatch pallet in a design application.

People with a good background in color management know that you need a capable, calibrated screen to get an accurate color reference on a screen. But there still are many, many designers out there who don’t know that really basic stuff (and probably they aren’t reading this blog either). And chances are that they are using tools like the myPANTONE for iPhone as a reference. Which will hurt the printer eventually, because the designer will not admit he was wrong. With our tests, we try to reach those people who don’t have that basic knowledge, to educate at least a little bit. And by educating them, we try to prevent accidents at the printer.

@ Andy: the disclaimers are hard to find. On the product page on the PANTONE site, it’s not mentioned… In the Apple store, it’s there, but I think not that many people will look at that part of the page (below system requirements and in the ‘legal stuff’ part, which everybody should read, but reality is different). On the iPhone itself: it shows up only a few seconds when starting the app, you hardly have the time to read the first few words. In some parts of the user interface, it is there, but very small and hard to read. When you zoom in to a specific color, to get a really good look at it, it is not there. That is where it is needed. In my opinion of course.

And I have to say that the product information is at least confusion (if not misleading). It states: “Can’t remember what a color looks like, now you can have Portable Color Memory™”. This at least suggests that you can use it as a visual reference.

Also when it says that “you can get your color inspiration and create your color scheme”: what would the use of that be if you don’t have a good color rendering on the screen? Why would you create a color scheme on a screen that doesn’t have an accurate color rendering? Isn’t color 100% about the visual perception of it?

I think it is a great tool for putting a palette together at the start of an design and sure is less expensive…long term…than tearing bunches of swatches out of a book. My disappointment is not giving us the CMYK values of these swatches as the vast majority of work done now is digital in my environment and many others.