Pantone expands matching system with 224 new shades as Sherwin-Williams names Celery its 2027 Color of the Year

Pantone broadens PMS with 224 colours and four trend palettes

Pantone introduced 224 new colours, including four new trend palettes, to the Pantone Matching System on September 17, 2026, pushing the library to nearly 9,000 entries. The release is positioned as a response to designers' appetite for "saturated pinks, citrus greens, aquatic blues," and the four palettes move from spun-sugar pinks to neon greens, opulent reds and a purple that, according to one designer, changed his mind. For practitioners, the immediate workflow change is straightforward: specifiers and brand managers now need to reconcile PMS swatch references across packaging, print and digital, while print production teams must update fan decks and brand books before any colour brief is closed.

Designers converting between PMS and screen values can speed that step with the HEX to RGB Converter and prepare files for offset output via RGB to CMYK for Web Design: Prep Colors for Print.

Sherwin-Williams crowns Celery as 2027 Color of the Year

On the same day as the Pantone release, Sherwin-Williams named Celery, a "light and airy herbal green" carrying the code SW 6421, as its 2027 Color of the Year. " The pick lands in a paint-fashion cycle already populated by earthy and smoky-blue announcements, giving interior designers a green-leaning anchor for 2027 specifications on walls, cabinetry and accent surfaces. Practitioners mapping paint codes into digital palettes can validate foreground/background pairings against WCAG ratios with the Color Contrast Checker, and convert named paint shades to HEX via the RGB to HEX for Accessible Color Contrast guide.

Why the Pantone expansion matters for print and brand teams

The 224-colour addition is described by one outlet as "design's maximalist moment," a signal that brand owners working in fashion, cosmetics and packaging can move beyond the muted palettes that have dominated recent briefs. For production, the practical consequences include updated fan decks, new spot-ink mixes and revised tolerance targets when matching brand colours on uncoated stocks. Designers converting PMS targets into screen values for web previews can use the Convert CMYK to RGB for Screen Preview in Your Browser guide, while teams printing accessibility-critical material should review RGB to CMYK for Accessibility: Keep Contrast in Print before locking in spot colours.

Concrete next steps for designers and developers

Three actions follow directly from the September 17, 2026 announcements. First, download or request the updated PMS fan deck from Pantone and audit any in-flight brand work against the four new trend palettes before sign-off. Second, fold Sherwin-Williams Celery (SW 6421) into 2027 mood boards and contrast-check it against body text and UI components using the Color Contrast Checker before specifying it on interiors or product surfaces.

Third, when handing Pantone references to print vendors, validate the conversion path screen-to-substrate with the RGB to HSV Conversion and Accessibility Contrast guide and confirm spot-ink behaviour on the chosen stock. A pending release or follow-up announcement from Pantone has not been dated in the evidence, so further additions to the PMS are tracked qualitatively for now.