Pantone is the most recognized color matching system in the graphic arts community. Numbered swatches are used as reference colors. Pantone books are costly because each swatch is a separately mixed color rather than one made up of the traditional four-color process. In 2007 after the Pantone acquisition by X-Rite, added 2,098 new color swatches in a new Goe System bringing the total number of available colors to 9,000. Selecting colors generally requires a Pantone swatch book. Many professional computer graphics programs include the Pantone library as one of their color selection features. Many programs and printers have yet to embrace the Goe System. Therefore, many prefer to make selections from the traditional Pantone color library.
CMYK printing can approximate many Pantone colors. Others, like Reflex Blue, cannot be replicated. Before digital file preparation became common, it was often more cost effective to print with two or three Pantone colors than CMYK. Now it's the other way around. CMYK is most common for offset printing. Pantone is occasionally used as an additional solid fifth or sixth color.
The 12-ink large-format inkjet printer includes certified Pantone color matching. However, even with 12 inks, some colors may deviate on various papers. For critical matching, Reactive Imaging can print a 9" x 12" Pantone emulation swatch chart with up to 4 key colors each page to reveal possible deviation on the target paper. Adjacent colors appearing on the same page of Pantone color guides are printed with the key color. This allows customers to evaluate in advance whether it is possible to match critical colors or to select an alternate paper if necessary.