Color accuracy may be the next hurdle for smartphone displays
Skin tones have been mentioned in passing during countless smartphone announcements over the years, but none had made accurate and authentic looking skin come across as a priority until Google announced Real Tone for the Pixel 6. Now that the subject is on the table, Pantone is challenging smartphone manufacturers to show people as they look in real life with its new SkinTone Validated program.
Most people may only know Pantone as the company responsible for the color swatches in the paint section at your local hardware store, but the company has been focused on highly accurate color reproduction in print and digital media for decades. Its first certification program, Pantone Validated, was designed to test displays and printers for faithful reproduction of the Pantone Colors.
With increasing calls for inclusivity, Pantone SkinTone Validated is a new certification program designed to verify devices can show people of all colors as authentically as possible. The test is based on Pantone’s SkinTone Guide, a set of 110 distinct colors based on thousands of measurements taken from people of different ethnicities and ages.
Devices that pass the certification are free to use the Pantone SkinTone Validated logo, a white checkmark set on top of a mosaic of skin tones. “We are extremely proud to be on the cutting edge of inclusivity in technology with our Pantone SkinTone Validated program,” said Iain Pike, Director of Licensing and Business Development at Pantone. “We look forward to working with companies across industries to realize skin tone color accuracy in their products and services for a better and more accurate experience with their technology.”
Pantone’s program operates a bit like the DxOMark certification process for cameras. Companies send their devices to be lab-tested; but unlike DxOMark, Pantone does not offer scores or rank competitors.
BenQ, a display manufacturer that’s well-known in the photography and design world, is the first company to adopt the new certification with its new DesignVue PD and PhotoVue SW models — both of which are currently on display at CES 2022.
Pantone hasn’t named any smartphone manufacturers as applicants for SkinTone Validated yet, but the company is aiming to make mobile devices a large part of its program in the future as consumers become more aware of color.
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