Thursday, March 29, 2012

PMS (As in Pantone Matching System.)

 The other day, I received a curious text from The Jean Martha,
who was out on a flea market bender and wanted to know
if PMS color numbers change with each new edition.
(She was holding an old one in her hot little hands for 50 cents.)


 The answer is... NO! 
That would be like changing the Art Director's
Periodic Table of Elements. (Talk about PMS.)
The answer is: They do update their system for new colors,
new technology, etc. but the price for a new book is hefty. ($260 ?)

This prompted me to check which edition I have,
and I was shocked. 4th Edition. 1986.

Oy, what this book has been through....
the mechanicals, the repro, the color changes....
5th colors, neon, coated, uncoated. Metallics!
Oh, the secrets it heard, sitting next to my Rolodex all those years.
The designs & redesigns.

Also: I'm pretty sure that if it's from 1986,
I must have *borrowed* it from Success Magazine.
And for that, I apologise.

2 comments:

Jean Martha said...

The man said 25 cents but then I saw the sign on the box that said "50 cents" so I gave him 50 cents...then I felt guilty so I bought 2 more books and he got a buck.

Dahlila said...

50 cents for a Pantone chart!! You're killin' me! (In running to beat @thejeanmartha for best thrifty finds. She's in the lead with that one.) Damn! ;-)