HEX to Pantone®: Find the Closest Match
Enter a HEX color to see the five closest Pantone® Coated colors, ranked by CIEDE2000 ΔE — the perceptual difference between two colors. A ΔE under 1 is not visible, and under 3 is a good match. The result is an approximation for screens, not an official Pantone® conversion.
Your color
HEX to Pantone® examples
| HEX | Closest Pantone® | Pantone® ≈ HEX | ΔE |
|---|---|---|---|
| #FF0000 | Bright Red C | #F93822 | 3.3 |
| #0057B8 | 2935 C | #0057B8 | 0.0 |
| #00A86B | 3405 C | #00AF66 | 2.9 |
| #FFD700 | Yellow 012 C | #FFD700 | 0.0 |
| #800080 | 2612 C | #772583 | 3.6 |
| #FF69B4 | 211 C | #F57EB6 | 4.0 |
| #333333 | Black 7 C | #3D3935 | 3.8 |
| #F5F5DC | 7485 C | #D0DEBB | 8.5 |
How the match is found
The HEX value is converted to CIELAB, and its CIEDE2000 difference is calculated against all 1341 Pantone® Coated colors in our table. The smallest differences come first. CIEDE2000 is a standard formula in color science for judging whether two colors look the same to the human eye.
Why a HEX color rarely has an exact Pantone® twin
HEX describes light on a screen; a Pantone® color is a mixed ink on paper. Many bright screen colors, such as pure #00FF00, lie outside what ink can print, so even the best match can be visibly duller. Check the ΔE: above 6, the difference is obvious.
HEX to Pantone®: questions
- How do I convert a HEX color to Pantone®?
- Enter the HEX code above and pick the match with the lowest ΔE. For example, #FF0000 is closest to Pantone® Bright Red C (ΔE 3.3). The tool compares your color with 1341 Pantone® Coated colors using CIEDE2000, so the result is the nearest approximation, not an exact conversion.
- Is there an exact Pantone® equivalent for every HEX code?
- No. There are about 16.7 million HEX colors and only a few thousand Pantone® inks, and many bright screen colors cannot be printed with ink at all. Every HEX color has a closest Pantone® color, but the ΔE tells you how close: under 1 is near-identical, above 6 is clearly different.
- Which Pantone® guide do these matches come from?
- The matches are Pantone® Coated (C) colors, the most common solid-color guide for coated paper. Uncoated (U) versions of the same codes look lighter and duller, so if you print on uncoated stock, check the U swatch in a physical guide before approving the color.
Pantone® is a registered trademark of Pantone LLC. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by Pantone. All Pantone® values here are on-screen approximations from open community data; check a physical Pantone® guide before print work.