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[Music]
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welcome to design domination where
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you'll gain confidence Clarity and a
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Competitive Edge in a crowded
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Marketplace so you can dominate your
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competition
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hi and thanks for tuning in I'm Colleen
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grotzer and in this episode of design
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domination I am talking about the color
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chaos that has been going on in the
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graphic design industry specifically the
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Adobe Pantone breakup stay tuned to find
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out what you need to know how this will
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affect you and what you can do about it
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I had heard about this earlier but I
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wanted to wait and see how this would
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play out and I also decided to do some
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more research on it as well now for
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decades I mean since the 80s graphic
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designers have relied on Pantone for
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consistent color output in printing
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using their spot or their CMYK Swatch
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books and then selecting the colors from
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within the Adobe programs and being able
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to select Pantone colors in Adobe
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software has always been important
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especially for print designers so
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graphic designers everywhere are in an
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uproar over this divorce because we're
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the ones left footing the bill from two
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companies with a monopoly in the
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industry as of August 2022 Pantone
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colors started being phased out from
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future updates to Adobe Creative Cloud
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software and after November 2022 this
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month the only Pantone color books that
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are going to be available within Adobe
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programs are Pantone plus CMYK coded
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Pantone plus CMYK uncoated and then
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Pantone plus metallic coated that's
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actually one of my favorite ones but if
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you want to have access to all of the
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Pantone color books after that date
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you're gonna have to purchase a premium
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Pantone connect license and install a
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plug-in using Adobe exchange so Pantone
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now has jumped on the subscription
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bandwagon like everyone else much to our
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dismay I mean Creative Cloud already
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costs a lot as it is and now this so
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what is this Pantone connect well it's
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available as an Adobe Creative Cloud
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extension website or mobile app and it
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gives graphic designers access to more
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than 15 000 Pantone colors as of right
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now the cost for an individual
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subscription is 14.99 USD per month or
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89.99 USD per year which is a 50
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discount when you pay for the year up
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front the price of Pantone connect
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actually went up a hundred and fifty
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percent between August and November
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there is a free trial available but it's
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only a measly seven days and if you go
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to the Pantone connect download page it
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has been inundated with angry graphic
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designers I mean justifiably so giving
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it a one star rating and sharing their
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thoughts on this whole situation I must
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have had to hit the load more reviews at
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least 10 times to get to any that didn't
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have a one star review many of the
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designers say the extension doesn't even
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work
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some of them say it keeps crashing or it
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refuses to load and that the ux is
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horrible and some have commented that it
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doesn't work on Macs with the M1 M2
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processors
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and then others say that the free plugin
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doesn't allow you to do what it says it
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should many designers question how Adobe
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can continue to charge what they do for
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their Creative Cloud subscription since
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they've removed an important feature
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from it so why are Pantone colors being
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removed from Adobe software in the first
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place well some graphic designers are
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saying this is all about greed and Adobe
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refers to the Pantone licensing is
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simply adjusted and that Pantone decided
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to change its business model
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well Pantone told creative Pro that they
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were unable to actively update the
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library to correct any changes to the
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color data or to update it with new
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colors but what I can't understand is
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that being able to choose Pantone colors
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is like free advertising for them I mean
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Pantone makes money off designers
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specifying their colors for a print job
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and already Pantone gets money from the
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sale of their color swatch books too
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which kind of makes me think how is it
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any different than going into Home Depot
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or to Lowe's or some other paint store
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to pick up some of those printed paint
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swatches that you take home until you're
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ready to buy the paint now adobe's
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website says that all app versions
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before August 2022 will continue to have
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all previous Pantone color books
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pre-loaded and available however
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illustrator InDesign and Photoshop will
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be affected differently and specific to
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InDesign in illustrator Adobe says that
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those files that have Pantone color
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swatches in them will function the same
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as they have when they're opened or
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placed in InDesign but about Photoshop
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files with any spot channels that have
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been placed within InDesign and
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illustrator those are going to show as
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gray or black in InDesign Photoshop
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files that have spot channels for
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unavailable color books are going to
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display a color rendering error and
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that's evident by what Jeff Potter of
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creative Pro said in an article on this
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topic where he said users opening an
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existing duotone in the new release of
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Photoshop found themselves shocked by a
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dialog box that reads this file has
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Pantone colors that have been removed
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and replaced with black due to changes
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in pantone's licensing with Adobe now
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you can find out more about this in
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adobe's FAQs and there's really not that
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many of them surprisingly and I have the
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link to all of these that I've mentioned
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in the show notes so what the heck are
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we left to do here well if you find
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yourself needing to specify a spot color
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in an adobe program you don't have to
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Shell out the cost of a Pantone connect
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subscription I've got lots of
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Alternatives here for you so the first
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thing is that you could potentially
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create a spot color in the program and
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make sure it's set to spot and just give
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it a name and I did this many times in
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the past in InDesign when I didn't have
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the latest software with all the
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available Pantone colors to choose from
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now it may not show as accurately on
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screen but then again there is a
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difference anyway in color between the
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Pantone Swatch books and then how colors
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look on screens right even even between
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individual monitors another thing you
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can do and Mike Rankin of creative Pro
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did a great write-up on this hack for
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how to add swatches with the free
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version of Pantone connect so be sure to
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check that out again the link is in the
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show notes and then color consultant
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Paul Sheffield suggests backing up the
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Pantone color Library files which have
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the extension ACB and then re-importing
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them into the programs after Adobe
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completely removes them but at some
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point Adobe might be able to detect that
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those are Pantone colors and then not
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allow you to use them Andrew Bales
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Collins who used to work it enfocus
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suggests that you might be able to add
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new Pantone colors to an older PDF file
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using InFocus Pitstop
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a designer named Stuart simple created a
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pantone-ish color palette that he calls
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free tone and that includes almost 1300
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colors Stuart has a video on his website
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about how to load the colors in
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illustrator and Photoshop and this looks
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like it's a really close alternative
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maybe the most seamless alternative you
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could also check out swatchos swatchos
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is a box that contains 129 cards that
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are swatches and each color has one
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color on the front and then the flip
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side has six colors with a lighter and a
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darker color showing larger on the left
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and the right sides and there are a
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total of 903 colors and then each color
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also has a CMYK value a hexadecimal code
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and a swatchos number you know similar
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to Pantone numbers and then they also
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have downloadable Swatch files that you
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can use in Adobe Creative loud and this
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one too sounds like it would be a really
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like a really close seamless alternative
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of as well now there's also the spot
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matching system again the link is in the
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show notes and that contains 869 colors
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so not as many but it looks like it
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could be a good alternative as well and
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then you might want to check out project
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bbcg a better brand color guide it's a
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free framework that you can use to
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create
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unambiguous brand color guides without
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any licensing fees and they have a
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tutorial about it on their website so
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what do you think of all this does this
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news affect you a lot or not so much
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will you pay for a premium Pantone
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connect license
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will you switch to another color book
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such as true match
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and will this give Affinity or Quark the
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lead in the industry I mean Affinity
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charge is a one-time fee for their
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software no subscriptions at all and
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right now they're offering all three of
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their apps for only 99.99 and again
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that's a one-time fee
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and for Cork Express that was my go-to
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before InDesign I mean I hated pagemaker
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so I wasn't looking forward to switching
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to it if it was going to be anything
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like pagemaker if you remember back then
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they said that InDesign would be the
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Quark killer and it was so I wonder if
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all this will be the nail in the coffin
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for Adobe and I also wonder how printers
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are going to be affected by this so let
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me know your thoughts and be sure to
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check out the show notes for links to
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all of these tools and articles I
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mentioned and of course please like
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share and subscribe if this was helpful
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to you
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support the podcast by buying me a
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coffee it might actually end up being a
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glass of wine or some tea but you can go
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to buy me a coffee.com creative food
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