Pantone PMS coated to approximate hex
Designers often need a rough on-screen equivalent of a Pantone PMS coated spot colour — for a website, a mock-up or a quick CSS value. Search by PMS number (for example 186, 286 or 354) or by a common name like “Reflex Blue”, and this tool returns an approximate sRGB hex from a curated reference table, ready to copy.
Why “approximate”?
Pantone is a proprietary physical ink system. Each PMS colour is a precisely mixed spot ink that is printed on press — it is not generated by blending RGB light. Many Pantone inks, including fluorescents and metallics, fall entirely outside the sRGB gamut that screens can display. Even colours within the gamut vary depending on:
- The viewing angle and backlight of the monitor
- The C (coated) versus U (uncoated) version of the same PMS number — the C version typically appears more vibrant and saturated on paper, which a screen approximation tries to reflect
- The paper or substrate the ink is printed on
This means no hex value can perfectly represent a Pantone colour. The values in this tool are curated best-fit sRGB approximations intended for digital reference — screen mock-ups, web design, and UI work — not print specification.
How the lookup works
The tool matches your query (a number or a name) against a built-in table of common PMS coated colours and shows the nearest entries with pre-computed sRGB hex values. Because there is no mathematical formula that converts Pantone to hex (Pantone’s official digital bridges are proprietary and paid), each entry is a fixed best-fit chosen to resemble how the ink looks on a calibrated monitor under standard viewing conditions.
The lookup runs entirely in your browser, with no network requests to any Pantone service.
Example reference values
| Pantone (coated) | Approx. hex | Common use |
|---|---|---|
| 186 C | #C8102E | Brand reds (classic football/sport kits) |
| 286 C | #0033A0 | Brand blues (corporate, banking) |
| 354 C | #00B140 | Brand greens |
| Reflex Blue C | #001489 | Deep cobalt blue |
| Yellow C | #FEDD00 | Bright process yellow |
| Warm Red C | #F9423A | Orange-red |
When to use this — and when not to
Use it for: digital mock-ups, website colour matching, communicating a rough brand colour to a developer in CSS, or quickly previewing what a brand’s PMS colour looks like on screen.
Do not use it for: specifying colour to a printer, approving press proofs, or any situation where physical colour accuracy matters. For print, always work from an official Pantone swatch book or fan deck under controlled lighting. Your printer will need the PMS code, not a hex value.
Click any swatch to copy its approximate hex to your clipboard. All lookups run entirely in your browser.