Which Pantone color matches my RGB value?
The closest match depends on which Pantone colors you compare against. This tool takes an RGB triple such as rgb(200, 16, 46), measures how different it looks from each of 38 PANTONE coated reference colors, and returns the nearest, here PANTONE 186 C (#C8102E, nearest match). That one is an exact hit, because 200, 16, 46 is the table's value for 186 C.
PANTONE is a trademark of Pantone LLC, and nothing here is endorsed by it. The values in the table are approximations of physical inks, so use the answer as a reference point and confirm it with a printed guide.
How "closest" is measured
Raw RGB numbers are a poor guide to how similar two colors look: the eye is far more sensitive to some changes than others. So the tool converts both colors to CIELAB (using the sRGB standard's D65 white point), a space built so that equal distances look roughly equally different, and scores each pair with the CIEDE2000 formula from the CIE. The CSS Color Module Level 4 spec describes Lab as "intended to be perceptually uniform", and CIEDE2000 is the difference measure most color-matching software reports as ΔE. The implementation was checked against the published test data in Sharma, Wu and Dalal's 2005 paper on the formula.
As a rough scale, a ΔE00 under 2 is hard to spot side by side, and above 10 you're looking at a clearly different color. The tool shows only the winning name, not the score, so the tables below include it to show how close each match really is.
What's in the reference table
Knowing what the tool can choose from tells you how much to trust a result. The 38 entries break down like this:
| Hue family | Entries | Names in the table |
|---|---|---|
| White and grays | 7 | White, Cool Gray 1, 5, 9, 11, Warm Gray 1, 5 |
| Blacks | 2 | Black C, Black 6 C |
| Yellows | 4 | Yellow C, 108 C, 116 C, 123 C |
| Greens | 3 | 375 C, 355 C, 348 C |
| Teals | 2 | 3275 C, 320 C |
| Blues | 5 | Process Blue C, 285 C, 2935 C, 286 C, 072 C |
| Purples | 3 | Violet C, 267 C, 2597 C |
| Pinks and magentas | 3 | Rhodamine Red C, 219 C, 213 C |
| Reds | 4 | 1785 C, 186 C, Red 032 C, 1795 C |
| Oranges | 3 | 1655 C, 021 C, 158 C |
| Metallics | 2 | 871 C, 877 C |
The table leans toward strong, saturated colors and neutrals. It has no browns, tans, olives, navies darker than 286 C, burgundies, or pastel tints. For colors in those gaps, even the best match is a long way off.
The two metallics come from Pantone's Metallics Coated library (871 C on pantone.com), not Solid Coated, and a flat RGB value can't show their sheen. When one of them wins, the output says so: 138, 141, 143 returns PANTONE 877 C (#8A8D8F, nearest match, Metallics Coated).
Worked examples
| RGB input | Result | ΔE00 | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
200, 16, 46 |
PANTONE 186 C | 0 | Exact table value |
0, 128, 0 |
PANTONE 348 C | 7.2 | Sensible green match |
255 215 0 |
PANTONE 108 C | 0 | Exact table value |
100, 149, 237 |
PANTONE Process Blue C | 11.4 | Right family, lighter and softer than the ink |
128, 0, 128 |
PANTONE 2597 C | 4.4 | Close purple |
139, 69, 19 |
PANTONE 1795 C | 19.7 | A brown with no brown to land on |
255, 192, 203 |
PANTONE Warm Gray 1 C | 20.3 | Pale pink, and the table has no pastels |
The last two rows are the ones to watch. A ΔE00 near 20 means the tool found the least-bad entry, not a match: saddle brown 139, 69, 19 ends up on a red because the table has nothing brown, and light pink ends up on a pale warm gray because there are no tints. If the HEX in brackets looks clearly different from your color, assume you've hit one of these gaps.
How to use it well
- Paste your color in almost any numeric form:
rgb(30, 144, 255),30, 144, 255,30 144 255,30-144-255,rgb(12% 56% 100%)or the modernrgb(30 144 255 / 80%). - Click Convert and read the name and the table HEX in brackets.
- Compare that HEX with your own color. If they look clearly different, you've hit one of the gaps above.
- Look up a few neighbors in the same family with the Pantone to RGB converter to see which is closer by eye.
- Confirm the final choice in a printed Pantone guide before sending it to a printer.
Input rules and the error message
The parser grabs the first three numbers in the box, so extra text around them is ignored, as is anything after the third number (an alpha value or a second color). Decimals like 30.5 are accepted, and a hyphen between two numbers is treated as a separator. A number with a % sign is read the CSS way, as a share of 255 (CSS Color Module Level 4), so rgb(100% 0% 0%) is pure red.
You'll get "Enter valid RGB values (0-255)" if fewer than three numbers are present, a value is negative (-30, 144, 255), a plain number is above 255 (256, 0, 0), or a percentage is above 100%.
Related conversions
If you also need your color as a HEX code for the brand sheet, use the RGB to HEX converter. For a rough four-color print build alongside the spot ink, the RGB to CMYK converter uses the standard formula. Already working from a CMYK build? The CMYK to Pantone matcher runs the same nearest-match search after converting your percentages.
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