Pantone to LAB Converter
Select any Pantone Solid Coated color to see its CIELAB (L*, a*, b*) values. All 2,371 Pantone colors are included. LAB is the color space professional color-management systems use internally ” Adobe, X-Rite, and every ICC profile work in LAB because it is perceptually uniform, meaning numerical distance corresponds to perceived difference. Use these values for Delta E calculations, color matching, or ICC workflow handoff.
What is Pantone to LAB conversion?
Pantone is a print specification system ” each code specifies an exact ink mix. CIELAB is a device-independent, perceptually uniform color space. The conversion runs Pantone code ’ catalog HEX approximation ’ exact RGB ’ exact LAB via the sRGB ’ XYZ ’ LAB transform. LAB itself is lossless from RGB (mathematically, no precision is lost), so the values shown are exact for the RGB values in our catalog; what they approximate is the printed Pantone ink.
LAB is the right target space for any work involving color measurement or matching. If you are comparing two Pantone colors with Delta E, entering the values into a spectrophotometer workflow, or handing off to a color-management system, LAB is the space to work in. RGB and HSL are display spaces; LAB is the measurement space.
Understanding L*, a*, b*
The three channels of LAB are less intuitive than RGB or HSL but they are what make perceptual color matching possible:
- L* (lightness) ” 0 is black, 100 is white, 50 is mid-grey. Intuitive.
- a* (green ” red) ” negative is green, positive is red, 0 is neutral on this axis.
- b* (blue ” yellow) ” negative is blue, positive is yellow, 0 is neutral on this axis.
| Color | L* | a* | b* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pure white | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| Pure black | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mid grey | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| Pure red (sRGB) | 53 | 80 | 67 |
| Pure green (sRGB) | 88 | ’79 | 81 |
| Pure blue (sRGB) | 32 | 79 | ’108 |
| Yellow (sRGB) | 97 | ’22 | 95 |
Notice that pure sRGB red is `L=53, a=80, b=67` ” not `a=100, b=0` ” because sRGB primaries are placed by display technology, not by LAB's perceptual design. Also notice that pure sRGB yellow has a very high L* (97) ” yellow is the brightest color in sRGB, which is why a "pure-looking yellow" is nearly white in LAB lightness.
How the conversion works
The conversion is the standard sRGB ’ XYZ ’ LAB transform. First, RGB channels are normalized to 0“1 and de-gamma'd to linear sRGB. Then a 3—3 matrix converts linear sRGB to XYZ (D65 white point). Finally, the standard CIE formula converts XYZ to LAB: fy = (Y/Yn)^(1/3) if Y/Yn > 0.008856 else (7.787 — Y/Yn + 16/116), and similarly for fx and fz, then L = 116 — fy ’ 16, a = 500 — (fx ’ fy), b = 200 — (fy ’ fz).
The D65 white point is used because it is the standard daylight illuminant for sRGB. Some print workflows use D50 instead, and colors converted under D50 have slightly different LAB values. If you are comparing our values against a D50-based system (e.g. a spectrophotometer calibrated to D50 for print measurement), small differences (typically ”E < 1) are expected and are due to white-point choice, not a conversion error.
Use cases
- Color management. LAB is the interchange space for ICC profiles, so getting a Pantone code into LAB is the first step for any color-managed print workflow.
- Delta E comparison. To compute the perceptual difference between two Pantone colors, or between a Pantone color and a measured color, you need both as LAB ” then Delta E 2000 is a straightforward formula on those values.
- Spectrophotometer verification. If you measure a printed sample with a spectrophotometer, you get LAB out. Comparing that LAB against the Pantone color's LAB (which this tool provides) tells you how accurately the print matched.
- Cross-media matching. When translating a Pantone color across different print processes (offset, digital, flexo), LAB is the common reference that all processes can be measured against.
- Color science work. Any project involving perceptual color space manipulation (dithering, color quantization, perceptual palettes) will typically need LAB values for its inputs.
Common mistakes
- Confusing LAB's a* with "red amount" only ” a* measures green vs red, so a* = ’40 is green, not "less red".
- Assuming L* = 50 means "medium brightness" in every context ” yellow at L=97 looks lighter than red at L=53, but both feel "mid-brightness" to most observers. That is the perceptual-uniformity property in action.
- Comparing D65-based LAB values (ours) with D50-based values from a print spectrophotometer ” differences up to ”E 1 are expected from white-point choice alone.
- Using these values as if they are the physical Pantone ink ” they are LAB values for the catalog RGB approximation, which itself approximates the ink.
- Using Delta E 76 instead of Delta E 2000 for perceptual comparison ” Delta E 76 produces misleading results in the blue/purple regions, which is why Delta E 2000 exists.
LAB vs RGB vs HSL
| Attribute | LAB | RGB | HSL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Device-dependent | No | Yes (sRGB) | Yes (sRGB) |
| Perceptually uniform | Yes | No | No |
| Used for | Color matching, ICC | Display, images | CSS, design tools |
| Best for | Pantone/print work | General display | Web colors |
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert Pantone to LAB?
Select a Pantone Solid Coated color from the dropdown. The converter reads the color RGB values from our catalog, converts them to CIELAB using the standard sRGB ’ XYZ ’ LAB transform with a D65 white point, and displays the L, a, and b values alongside the HEX and RGB values. LAB is the industry-standard space for color matching, so these values are what you would feed into a color-management system or into a Delta E calculation.
What is CIELAB?
CIELAB (also written L*a*b*) is a color space the CIE defined in 1976. L* is lightness (0 = black, 100 = white); a* is the green“red axis (’128 green to +127 red); b* is the blue“yellow axis (’128 blue to +127 yellow). Unlike RGB, LAB is device-independent and perceptually uniform ” a numerical distance of 10 units corresponds to roughly the same perceived difference anywhere in the space. That is why it is the standard interchange space for color matching and why Delta E is measured in LAB.
Are Pantone LAB values exact?
LAB values are exact derivations of the Pantone color RGB approximations in our catalog ” mathematically, RGB ’ LAB is a lossless transform, so there is no precision loss. However, the underlying RGB values are themselves approximations of the physical Pantone inks. So the LAB shown is accurate for the RGB values in our catalog, but those RGB values approximate the print color. For print-critical work, always verify against a physical Pantone chip or measure with a spectrophotometer.
What do the L, a, and b values mean?
L* is lightness: 0 is black, 50 is mid-grey, 100 is white. a* is the green“red axis: negative a* is green, positive a* is red, a* = 0 is neutral. b* is the blue“yellow axis: negative b* is blue, positive b* is yellow, b* = 0 is neutral. So L=50, a=0, b=0 is a mid-grey; L=53, a=80, b=67 is pure sRGB red; L=97, a=’22, b=95 is sRGB yellow.
Why use LAB instead of RGB for print work?
Because LAB is perceptually uniform and RGB is not. In RGB, the distance between (255, 0, 0) and (200, 0, 0) is 55, and the distance between (0, 255, 0) and (0, 200, 0) is also 55 ” but the human eye perceives those two differences very differently. In LAB, the same numerical distance corresponds to approximately the same perceived difference everywhere. This is why all professional color-management systems (Adobe, X-Rite, ICC profiles) work in LAB internally, and why Pantone matching uses Delta E 2000 in LAB space.
What is the D65 white point, and why does it matter?
The white point is the reference white used to convert between XYZ and LAB. D65 is the standard daylight illuminant (approximately 6500K) used by sRGB, and it is what our converter uses. Some print workflows use D50 (approximately 5000K) instead ” the difference matters because a color with the same RGB values can have slightly different LAB values depending on which white point is used. For sRGB screen work, D65 is the standard. For print proofing, D50 is often preferred.