Benjamin Moore to Pantone Converter
Pick a Benjamin Moore color to find the closest Pantone match. Matching uses Delta E 2000 against the full Pantone Solid Coated catalog (2,371 colors). Results are visual approximations only — always verify with a physical Pantone chip before committing to a print specification.
What is Benjamin Moore to Pantone conversion?
Benjamin Moore and Pantone are fundamentally different color systems. Benjamin Moore is an architectural paint brand: its colors are pigments applied to walls, trim, and exteriors. Pantone is a graphic-arts standard: its colors are printing inks applied to paper, packaging, and textiles. No official cross-reference exists, because the two systems were never designed to be interchangeable.
What this converter does is find the visually closest Pantone reference to a given Benjamin Moore color, using Delta E 2000. This is useful when a designer wants to reproduce a paint color in print — for a brochure that shows a photographed room, a brand identity that includes painted surfaces, or a packaging design that must match the environment it will be displayed in.
How the conversion works
- Convert the Benjamin Moore HEX to RGB, then to CIELAB.
- Compute Delta E 2000 between the Benjamin Moore LAB and each of the 2,371 Pantone Solid Coated colors' LAB values.
- Rank by lowest Delta E, returning the top five closest Pantone matches.
Delta E 2000 accounts for the fact that the human eye is more sensitive to certain hue regions than others, so a Delta E 3 difference in blues is perceptually comparable to a Delta E 3 difference in yellows. Older Delta E 1976 metrics do not have this property.
Accuracy and limitations
- Different media. Paint reflects light through pigment; ink absorbs light through paper. Even a "perfect" screen match will look different when printed vs painted.
- Sheen matters. Benjamin Moore offers the same color in multiple sheens. Under directional lighting, gloss versions look noticeably different from matte versions of the same color.
- Limited paint set. Our Benjamin Moore reference includes 40 widely-used colors, not the full ~3,500-color library. If your color is outside the reference set, use the HEX code directly in our HEX to Pantone converter.
Use cases
- Printed reproductions of painted spaces. A brochure with a photo of a room painted a specific Benjamin Moore color needs a Pantone approximation for print.
- Brand identity with paint and print. Companies with painted spaces plus printed collateral often need matching Pantone references for their paint colors.
- Interior design presentation. Pantone chips are compact, portable references for paint colors when physical samples are impractical.
- Set and packaging design. Props and packaging must match painted walls under photography — Pantone is the print-side specification.
Common mistakes
- Ordering Pantone inks from a screen match without physical proofing.
- Assuming the closest match is "the" Pantone equivalent — no such official equivalence exists.
- Confusing coated and uncoated Pantone — the same code prints differently on the two stocks.
- Ignoring sheen when matching to print — matte walls reproduce differently in print than glossy ones.
Frequently asked questions
How accurate is Benjamin Moore to Pantone matching?
It is a visual approximation, not an official mapping. Paint and ink are physically different media, and no two codes across Benjamin Moore and Pantone are perfectly identical. We use Delta E 2000 to find the closest perceptual match in the Pantone catalog. Verify with physical Pantone chips before relying on the match for production work.
What is the closest Pantone to Benjamin Moore Hale Navy (HC-154)?
HC-154 Hale Navy (#3B4656) is a deep, slightly muted navy. The closest Pantone codes are typically Pantone 296 C (#041E42), Pantone 282 C (#1A2333), and Pantone 533 C (#1F2A44), in the Delta E 5–8 range. Hale Navy is warmer and slightly more muted than these Pantones, so none is an exact match — but 296 C is the most commonly cited visual approximation.
Can I use this tool to specify Pantone for a print job?
Not directly. This tool gives a visual approximation, not a production specification. If you need to reproduce a Benjamin Moore color in printed material, get a physical Benjamin Moore chip, match it against physical Pantone chips, and verify with the printer. Screen-based matching is a starting point, not a print specification.
Why do the closest matches shift on uncoated paper?
Pantone publishes Solid Coated (C) and Solid Uncoated (U) libraries. The same code on coated vs uncoated paper looks meaningfully different — uncoated tends to be warmer, lighter, and less saturated. Our reference set uses Solid Coated (C) values. If your job is on uncoated stock, expect the actual printed result to shift slightly from what you see here.
Are Benjamin Moore color codes trademarked?
Benjamin Moore color names and codes are trademarks of Benjamin Moore & Co. This page is not affiliated with Benjamin Moore. The color values shown are widely published approximations and are used here for reference and comparison only.