Adobe Wants $15 A Month To Use Some Colors

Adobe is charging an additional monthly fee to use particular colors in Photoshop. Some users have even seen parts of existing images turn black.

The seemingly bizarre policy is all to do with Adobe's commercial agreement with Pantone, a company that offers services helping businesses create a consistent color scheme, such as branding.

Historically, Adobe included more than 2,000 specific colors that are part of Pantone's "Color Matching Scheme". The idea of the scheme is to use a common reference that means any two uses of the color will look the same, no matter the origin or production method. The company asserts intellectual property rights over the specific colors.

Plug-In Required

Adobe announced last year it would remove the Pantone libraries from Photoshop but would offer a replacement solution. That turns out to be a plug-in called Pantone Connect that costs $14.99 a month or $89.99 a year. Some users report seeing a price of $21 a month, but this isn't replicated on Adobe's own site. (Source: adobe.com)

An even bigger surprise is that the licensing requirements appear to work retroactively. Some users have reported opening old Photoshop files that used a Pantone-matched color only to find that section of the image is now black.

The image is accompanied by a message reading "This file has Pantone colors that have been removed and replaced with black due to changes in Pantone's licensing with Adobe." (Source: kotaku.com)

Hard To Reproduce

It is possible to closely replicate the specific shades of Pantone colors using other Photoshop color tools. These include using particular combinations of red, green and blue, particular combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow and black, or one of 16 million hex codes that represent a specific color made up of red, green and blue.

The problem is that these aren't exact matches. That's because these methods all combine colors in the same way that computer monitors or printing combine pixel lights or inks respectively. A true Pantone color print uses a single ink, a little like buying a particular shade of paint.

What's Your Opinion?

Should a company be able to claim the right to a color? Is it right for Adobe to charge to use Pantone colors? Should the new rule affect files users created in the past?