The Color Science of Skin

Pantone® color scientists deliberately and diligently sought out an inclusive and wide variety of skin tone samples from volunteers around the world in order to update the new SkinTone™ Guide to be representative of the full spectrum of human skin types.

Scientific measurements were taken from different body parts with the use of a handheld X-Rite spectrophotometer, a precise color measuring instrument capable of separating out surface and appearance effects to measure only the color of an object.

That measurement data was then spectrally matched using paint on paper to produce scientifically accurate swatches on the richly pigmented SkinTone™ Guide.