CONTACT:
Ellen Pinto
Pantone, Inc.
201/935-5500
ellen_pinto@pantone.com

Pantone Releases HexVector;
Provides Hexachrome Support for Adobe Illustrator

Allows Illustrator Users to Design in Hexachrome and Create Six-Color
Separations Within Workflow

Carlstadt, NJ, June 7, 1999 Pantone, Inc. today announced the
availability of PANTONE HexVector, the first cross-platform
Hexachrome plug-in for Adobe Illustrator. HexVector allows graphic
designers, packaging designers, prepress and service bureaus to take
advantage of the expanded color gamut of Hexachrome with the ability
to design in Hexachrome and create six-color separations from within
Illustrator. Hexachrome is an ultra high fidelity process printing
technology that renders almost twice the number of colors than is
possible with traditional four color process printing. The new
plug-in enables designers to seamlessly integrate Hexachrome
capabilities into an Illustrator-based design workflow, allowing
image separations to be output at the touch of a button from
Illustrator or saved as EPS files for placement into page layout
programs such as QuarkXPress. Users can apply Hexachrome colors to
new artwork or convert existing artwork to Hexachrome.

"HexVector expands the capabilities of Illustrator by allowing users
to design and output using the industry-standard high fidelity color
system, PANTONE Hexachrome," said Richard Herbert, senior vice
president of Pantone. "Hexachrome eliminates the need to specify
multiple separately printed PANTONE Colors, providing packaging and
consumer product designers with significant cost savings without
having to compromise on quality or impact. The expansive Hexachrome
color reproduction capability also allows printers and their clients
to realize significant savings by ganging up and simultaneously
running a collection of similar or different images requiring a
variety of color choices. The resultant savings in reducing plates
and makeready can be significant."

"Packaging is the most likely and explosive market segment to embrace
Hexachrome for perfect product presentation in highly competitive
retail outlets," said Ernest Miller, Sr., president of PressReady
Imaging, a prepress corporation located in Portland, Oregon, who has
been providing Hexachrome separations (prepress services) for
national brand packaging corporations. "Hexachrome is a
cost-effective solution for reproducing real-life color and matching
corporate logo colors, all within the capacity of a six-color press."

According to Rick Zaleski, prepress systems analyst for Sells
Printing Company LLC in New Berlin, Wisconsin, "HexVector from
Pantone gives those of us in the prepress business the last tool we
needed to bring Hexachrome printing to a mainstream manufacturing
process. It works great. With HexVector, it is simple to convert
existing Adobe Illustrator files into Hexachrome files." Hexachrome -
An Ultra High Quality Printing Process PANTONE Hexachrome is an ultra
high quality printing process developed by Pantone, Inc. to provide
dramatically improved color range and accuracy over four-color
process printing with one pass on a six-color press. With Hexachrome,
it is possible to accurately reproduce the vibrant as well as subtle
colors which can be viewed on computer monitors but which previously
could not be duplicated in print. In addition to reproducing more
brilliant continuous-tone images, Hexachrome is capable of accurately
reproducing over 90% of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM Colors, almost
twice the number that can be achieved using conventional four-color
process printing.

Overcoming the Limitations of CMYK
Illustrator is the preferred application among graphic designers,
packaging designers and flexographic printers. PANTONE HexVector will
enable these users to overcome the limitations of traditional
four-color output and take advantage of the expanded color gamut of
Hexachrome in their designs by allowing them to:

o Design Original Artwork in Hexachrome
HexVector allows users to design original artwork using Hexachrome
colors with the three Hexachrome Libraries provided: more that 2,000
PANTONE Hexachrome colors on coated stock, over 2,000 colors on
uncoated stock and 938 PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM Colors from the
PANTONE Solid in Hexachrome library, consisting of PANTONE Colors
that have been optimized for Hexachrome printing to reduce the
dependency on spot color usage. Users can also create their own
Hexachrome colors either by entering numeric values or adjusting the
slider bars in the "Hexachrome Mixer." o Convert Existing Artwork to
Hexachrome Existing artwork can easily be re-purposed for Hexachrome.
One click of the "Convert All" button automatically converts existing
files into Hexachrome files.

o Create Six-Color Separations
Designers can output six-channel Hexachrome separations directly from
within the application, avoiding the time-consuming hassle of
converting files in other applications. Files are saved as EPS files
for maximum flexibility. Artwork can be output to film or plate
directly from within Illustrator or exported into a document created
in another page layout application such as Adobe PageMaker or
QuarkXPress for output.

Pricing, Availability and System Requirements PANTONE HexVector is
available immediately for a special introductory price of $99.00 (SRP
$129.00) from Pantones Web site at
www.pantone.com/catalog/hexvector_ss.htm. A trial download is
available free of charge. The plug-in is designed for Adobe
Illustrator 8.0 and is compatible with Macintosh and Windows 98.

Pantone, Inc., the leading global source of products for the
selection, control and accurate communication of color, is the
developer of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM, the PANTONE Process Color
System and the PANTONE Hexachrome six-color ultra high quality
process system. They provide three distinct global languages for
color specification and reproduction. PANTONE Color Systems have been
widely accepted and utilized by designers and printers since 1963 and
are currently in use in almost 100 countries throughout the world.
Pantone, Inc. is an ISO 9002 registered company. Visit our Web site
at www.pantone.com.