Sun Chemical and X-Rite introduced new metal packaging color libraries in the PantoneLIVE digital color ecosystem, giving brand owners and suppliers a way to visualize and communicate Pantone and brand colors on two-piece aluminum cans with metal deco inks in a matte finish. Available through the PantoneLIVE Production subscription for print and packaging, the libraries support aluminum beverage can production with both opaque and transparent inks for a matte effect, and complement existing gloss options to improve color predictability from design to shelf.
The expanded set adds more than 4,000 color options and extends PantoneLIVE support across metal decoration applications, including two-piece cans, monobloc aerosols, aluminum collapsible tubes, cartridges, and felt pen cases. By standardizing on validated Pantone colors for metal deco inks, brands and their supply chains can streamline development, reduce rework, and select production-ready colors for a variety of finishes. “By tapping into PantoneLIVE’s extensive library of validated Pantone colors specifically developed for metal deco inks, brands and their aluminum packaging suppliers can avoid time-consuming and costly custom color development,” said Eduardo Alegria, Global Champion Metal Deco Inks, Sun Chemical. “This minimizes delays, reworks, and ink laydown trials during new design production runs, resulting in a more consistent, efficient, and sustainable packaging workflow.”
PantoneLIVE integrates with X-Rite’s software and hardware, including ColorCert, Color iQC, Autura Ink, MeasureColor, the Ci64 handheld spectrophotometer, and NetProfiler, to enable an end-to-end, measurable color workflow. “As demand for metal packaging grows, it’s important to manage color expectations early in the design phase,” said Jason Campbell, Product Manager, X-Rite. “These new PantoneLIVE libraries combined with X-Rite measurement solutions give beverage companies and their suppliers the ability to preview and achieve consistent color across the full production chain, so the final product looks exactly as intended.”