In December 2021, the creative apps firm revealed its plan to remove Pantone Color Libraries from products. Users will need to buy an additional license, Pantone Connect, to use them in their work. 

In August users saw those colours removed from InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop leaving many users seeing their designs in a subtle shade of black. This is particularly bad if you happen to have files from old projects.

The issue here is the subscription model which Adobe adopted and forced users to pay on a monthly basis. While this was costly and annoying, the fact that Adobe could just delete colour books to fleese users for more cash is going to make some users really cross. The fact that Adobe has the monopoly on this type of creative software makes matters worse (anyone who says GIMP is an acceptable replacement for Photoshop has not used either). 

Other issues involve complaints and assets not meeting branding guidelines. Many brands have specific Pantone colour listings which means that suddenly projects could go out wrong resulting law suits.

The only way around the programme is to shell out for the Creative Cloud All Apps subscribers product, which means more money and buying software you don't want or need.

Adobe said “Pantone’s licensing with Adobe was adjusted. Due to this change, customers will need to purchase Pantone Connect licenses to access Pantone colors in Adobe Creative Cloud products.”

The company also confirmed that after November 2022, only Pantone + CMYK Coated, Pantone + CMYK Uncoated, and Pantone + Metallic Coated color books will remain available.