Although this software may seem as exciting as watching grass grow to some, to printers and designers who rely on consistent color, it's more exciting than finding El Dorado. Who hasn't wasted time and money matching colors by hand (and eye) only to find them a different shade on the final product? ColorReady is a collection of plug-ins that match colors for QuarkXPress, Macromedia FreeHand, and Adobe Illustrator. It provides a central location for access to all of the Pantone color libraries and allows you to either modify your shade of choice or, if you feel extra daring, create your own. Both the MacWorld review and the MacWEEK review of ColorReady found it to be impressive overall but in fairness, RAM hungry and lacking support for Photoshop and PageMaker. As the MacWEEK review put it, it's "primarily useful for Illustrator or FreeHand users who place files in XPress and use Pantone colors." Desktop Publishers Journal also summed it up nicely in their November/December 1998 review "It's not likely that anyone will be unable to live without ColorReady. But if you're one of those designers that expects technology to make your life easier, you may find that Pantone ColorReady is just what you need for matching colors in your designs." (www.dtpjournal.com/archives/9811rv5.html)

For those seeking sage advice in something other than online form, there is hard copy support: Pantone Web Color Resource Kit.

For a complete summary of Pantone ColorReady, visit our product page.