How is the nearest Pantone found?

It compares your hex against a curated table of common Pantone PMS coated colours using a perceptual colour-distance metric (a luminance-weighted "redmean" distance) and ranks the closest five matches.

No, it is an approximation. Pantone spot inks cannot be reproduced exactly from a screen colour, so treat the result as a starting point, not a guarantee.

Why does it show five results instead of one?

Several Pantone colours often sit close to a given hex, and the "best" one depends on whether you care most about hue, lightness, or saturation. Showing the top five lets you pick the one that matches your intent.

What does the match percentage mean?

It is derived from the colour distance — 100% would be an identical colour, and the percentage falls as the nearest Pantone drifts further from your hex. It is a relative guide, not a print-accuracy figure.

Why is a "redmean" distance used instead of plain RGB distance?

Plain RGB distance treats all channels equally, which does not match how the eye perceives colour. The redmean formula weights red and blue by the average red level, giving results that look closer to human judgement than raw Euclidean RGB.

Is my colour sent to a server?

No — everything is computed in your browser against a built-in table, with no network requests.

Hex to Pantone (Approximate)

Closest Pantone PMS coated to a hex colour

When you have a brand or design hex value and need a rough Pantone PMS coated equivalent, this tool ranks the closest matches from a curated reference table, with an approximate match percentage. It is handy for briefing a printer or checking whether a screen colour is near a known spot ink — but it is a digital reference, not a substitute for a physical book.

How it works

The tool parses your hex into RGB, then measures the distance from that colour to every Pantone entry in its built-in table using a luminance-weighted “redmean” metric. This formula weights the red, green and blue differences according to the average red level of the two colours, which tracks human perception better than a plain Euclidean RGB distance. The five Pantone colours with the smallest distance are shown, ranked, each with a swatch and an approximate match percentage. Click a result to copy its code.

Example

Enter #0057B8 (a strong blue). The tool returns the nearest coated blues from its table — for instance a PMS like 285 C or 2935 C near the top, with the closest showing the highest match percentage and a side-by-side swatch so you can judge the difference by eye.

Step	What happens
Parse	#0057B8 → R 0, G 87, B 184
Compare	Redmean distance to every Pantone entry
Rank	Five smallest distances, by match %

Pantone is a proprietary spot-ink system, so the result is an approximation for digital reference — always confirm against a physical swatch book before committing to print. Everything runs in your browser.