Adobe and Pantone are going to start charging subscriptions for… colors. BTW Pantone alone isn’t to blame.

ms-demeanor:

pancakeke:

Adobe and Pantone are going to start charging subscriptions for… colors.

BTW Pantone alone isn’t to blame.

Adobe replacing old Pantone spot colors with black when you load files using them | Boing Boing

Welp.

Here’s Cory Doctorow getting to the meat of why this is possible for these companies to do and why it’s difficult for designers to get away from this system:

Adobe customers can’t even switch to its main rival, Figma. Adobe’s just dropped $20b to acquire that company and ensure that its customers can’t punish it for selling out by changing vendors.

Pantone started out as a tech company: a way to reliably specify ink mixes in different prepress houses and print shops. Today, it’s an “IP” company, where “IP” means “any law or policy that allows me to control the conduct of my customers, critics or competitors.”

That’s likewise true of Adobe. The move to SaaS is best understood as a means to exert control over Adobe’s customers and competitors. Combined with anti-competitive killer acquisitions that gobble up any rival that manages to escape this control, and you have a hostage situation that other IP companies like Pantone can exploit.