Pantone COLORCUE2 New Instant Color ID Handheld Tool

by Pantone

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000AD6ODY
• Item model number: GEB103
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,298 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 25, 2005

Product Description

The new Color Cue™2 lets you identify the colors that inspire you and match PANTONE® Colors wherever you go. Combining two PANTONE Libraries in one hand-held device, the new Color Cue™2 enables you to cross match any material or surface to the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® and PANTONE for fashion and home or PANTONE for architecture and interiors color palettes. Move effortlessly from inspiration to realization. Integrating a desired color into your designs has never been easier. The sleek, new Color Cue™2 is ergonomically designed and loaded with features that make it easier to use.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful under the right circumstances, July 14, 2007

By 

K. Williams (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pantone COLORCUE2 New Instant Color ID Handheld Tool (Personal Computers)

RELIANCE UPON THE PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM
Bar none -- Pantone is the most recognized color matching system in the graphic arts community. Pantone books are costly because each swatch is a separately mixed color rather than one made up of the traditional four-color process. There are several Pantone swatch book color libraries so having a handheld electronic device that, for the price of a couple of books, identifies the closest certified color is a handy gadget.

Even when a project is to be printed using the offset 4-color process, it is reassuring to tell someone viewing a PDF with an uncalibrated monitor that the green they are looking at approximates Pantone 326. When digital files are sent to the printing company, a target for consistent color minimizes costly mistakes.

I erroneously assumed from the product description that the COLOR CUE 2 optionally identifies the exact CMYK breakdown in addition to the closest Pantone match. Instead, it provides the CMYK/RGB breakdown for the closest match. Did you catch the difference? More expensive spectrocolormeters specify exact values for sampled colors. If the COLOR CUE 2 closest color is inaccurate, the optional CMYK formulary of it will not be an exact match.

Suppose you are at a client's office and they mention that their favorite color on the wallpaper is what should be used on the printed piece. Normally, you would fan out a Pantone swatch book to find the closest match. Instantly you could see whether an identical color existed within the Pantone library. With COLOR CUE 2, you are never quite certain how close the indicated color is to what you sampled. Is it an exact match or a similar hue? The closest available Pantone swatch for a reddish clay color may be brown. With the book, you can compare and see it is out of range. With COLOR CUE 2, one assumes the displayed Pantone color is exact. When it isn't, returning with the printed piece in a different color may raise some eyebrows.

IMPROVING COLOR ACCURACY
The COLOR CUE 2 has options to specify color libraries such as solid coated (the default), solid uncoated, solid matte, or cotton paper for architecture and interior design. (The "Pastels" library is unsupported. Specialty Colors such as metallics, fluorescent, Double Impression, or mixed blacks are likewise unrecognized.) Originally, all Pantone colors were three-digits with the exception of a few named colors like Reflex Blue and Rhodamine Red. As a way to augment apparent color gaps, Pantone interwove four-digit colors. Hence, for example, 4635 is a slightly different shade of 463. COLORCUE2 may suggest such in-between colors which, in some cases are close even though they vary by a digit.

Ambient light options can have dramatic effects on perceived color when the end of the aperture facing you is open; most often COLOR CUE 2 is wrong. Regardless of the ambient light setting (daylight is the default), more consistent results are achieved by covering the side of the aperture facing you with your thumb. This makes me wonder why Pantone even left it open to begin with. It would be nice if they provided a black rubber cap to fill the 5/8" opening.

Sometimes the printed area to be sampled exhibits variances or scuff marks. Using the color-averaging feature enhances accuracy -- 2 or 3 sampled areas are averaged. Even when sampling apparently consistent color, using at least two samples results in better matches. One of the best tests for the COLOR CUE 2 is to sample swatches from an actual Pantone book. Note the following results with the light aperture opening covered. The sampling represents both common and difficult-to-distinguish colors (in-between hues).

Pantone Warm Red C (2x) = Warm Red C (exact match)
Pantone 169 C (3x) = 169 C -- Light orange (exact match)
Pantone 271 C (3x) = 271 C -- Lavender (exact match)
Pantone 2727 C (3x) = 2727 C -- Medium blue (exact match)
Pantone 290 C (3x) = 290 C -- Pale blue (exact match)
Pantone 326 C (3x) = 326 C -- Green (exact match)
Pantone 500 C (3x) = 500 C -- Mauve (exact match)
Pantone 5315 C (3x) = 5315 C -- Pale Lavender (exact match)
Pantone Green C (3x) = Green C (exact match)
Pantone Process Black C (3x) = Process Black C (exact match)

Pantone Process Cyan C (3x) = 639 C (Process Cyan listed close)
Pantone Rhodamine Red C (3x) = 225 C (Rhodamine Red listed close)
Pantone 1345 C (3x) = Pantone 148 C -- Yellow-gold (1345 listed close)

Pantone 409 C (3x) = Warm Gray 7 C -- Warm Gray (408 listed close)
Pantone 4625 C (3x) = 497 C -- Dark brown (4975 listed close)
Pantone 4665 C (3x) = 4675 C -- Beige (4985; 726 listed close)
Pantone 685 C (3x) = 684 C -- Pale mauve-pink (678 listed close)
Pantone Process Magenta C (3x) = 213 C (Rubine Red listed close)
Pantone Reflex Blue C (3x) = 287 C (661 listed close)
Pantone Blue 072 C (3x) = 2736 C (2738 listed close)

Note that in some instances, the exact color is listed (among others) as an alternative "Close" match. Depending on how much credit is issued for close calls, I find about 77 percent accuracy from this small sampling (5 points for exact; 4 for correct alternate; 3 for close suggestion). Though a few of the color identification numbers appear divergent, they are often reasonable -- sometimes near identical alternatives. If it were not for the fact that I was sampling a named color, the suggested swatch, in most cases, would appear to be correct. When the light aperture is left wide open, results are tremendously inconsistent -- especially with light colors and reflective surfaces.

"On" by default, preferences allow close colors to be listed as alternates. Options allow these alternates to vary by light/dark, Red/Green, and Yellow/Blue. It's a good idea to leave all three on and scroll through them when comparing with the swatch book.

MINOR GRIPES
Considering how long it takes to power up (about 10 seconds), the auto-off timer shuts down too quickly. The Saved Color function is not entirely intuitive when it comes to managing results. There is no way to group them and there are only options to either delete all or one at a time. After deleting one, the unit returns to the main screen requiring navigation back to the settings again to get to the Saved Colors list. The USB port would be more useful if it did more than just provide auxiliary power; it would be nice to create libraries for import into Adobe Creative Suite or bring up comparisons on the computer monitor which has better fidelity than the screen included on the device.

CONCLUSION
The COLOR CUE 2 is not a true spectrocolormeter and does not claim to be. It is a digital version of a swatch book that does not entirely eliminate the need for a swatch book as verification. It may be useful in determining whether color shifts are occurring on a long digital print run. In other uses, if you have a Pantone book and a specific color in one location, you can use the COLOR CUE 2 to sample, record the swatch, verify it with the book, then go to another location to (hopefully) find matching ink, paint, or fabrics.

P.S. Please read posted comments.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not accurate for cotton textile swatches., September 27, 2007

By 

E. Murphy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pantone COLORCUE2 New Instant Color ID Handheld Tool (Personal Computers)

I was hoping this item would accurately identify textile colors using the PMS as it is marketed to do so. Unfortunately, it is not very accurate for textile swatches regardless of the swatch size. My results in using the color cue ranged from close results to very inaccurate results. It was very inconsistent. Pantone should make sure this item can identify their own colors. It was not very accurate on textile swatches, so I am returning it.

Also, I would like to say that their marketing is misleading. In the marketing they say this, "Place the Color Cue2 on any surface and it instantly reads the color and identifies the closest PANTONE Color." In their product manual they say the color cue is only to be used as a starting point and should not be relied upon with out checking against an actual pantone color sample... If a swatch is needed against the original anyways, then what is the point? If pantone would have made this clear before I bought it, I would not have bought it.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pantone Colorcue 2 has helped us considerably!, March 8, 2007

By 

J. Chadwick - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pantone COLORCUE2 New Instant Color ID Handheld Tool (Personal Computers)

Quick, easy, accurate, consistent, this device is very helpful to our design team. They now can get the correct PMS of most anything in seconds. Be sure to place your thumb over the top of the lens during the capture or the color will not be correct. Otherwise it's perfect for our needs!