NEW YORK (EeTail 2001) – August 1, 2001 – Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the graphics, fashion, interior and industrial design industries, and TrueSpectra, Inc., the leader in high-performance dynamic imaging solutions, today announced their joint SHOP WITH COLOR initiative to enable businesses and consumers to search for products by color on the Web. By integrating their complementary technologies, Pantone and TrueSpectra enable retailers to easily implement a complete visualization solution for e-commerce efficiently and cost-effectively. Color coordination capabilities enable cross-selling opportunities to increase online sales never before available. SHOP WITH COLOR – the combination of PANTONE TheRightColor™ solutions and TrueSpectra’s ImageTone imaging software enables: Search by Color. Customers can now tailor their search by color preference. By viewing items in the color they intend to purchase, shoppers can quickly identify additional items of the same or complementary color using PANTONE Colors. Accurate Color Display. The customer has greater confidence purchasing online when the color of merchandise closely mirrors that of the actual product. The PANTONE Color Language delivers color continuity to ensure the shopper gets exactly what he/she expects. Cross-sell by Color. The retailer can increase online sales by generating color-coordinated product recommendations based on the customer’s color preferences. Providing the end user with the ability to visualize the complete range of color options gives the retailer a cost-effective merchandising tool to up-sell and cross-sell products. Color accuracy gives the customer the confidence to coordinate and purchase a complete outfit online. The Color Consistency Problem Apparel, home furnishings and cosmetic companies use the PANTONE Color Language to communicate accurate color in the design and manufacturing process. Color continuity, however, is often lost at the retail stage, where colors are subjectively named. For example, the manufacturer communicates a certain shade of blue as PANTONE 19-3951, but the retailer may rename it “navy,” “midnight” or “deep royal.” In addition, colors rendered in Web images tend to be inaccurate and are often misrepresented by monitors and applications. The inability to view products in their actual color values results in missed expectations, increased product returns and reduced confidence in shopping online. Boston-based analyst firm The Yankee Group says shoppers who buy women’s clothing on the Web return approximately 40 percent of merchandise because it falls short of expectations in terms of color, fit and quality – more than double that of brick-and-mortar shopping. Using SHOP WITH COLOR, the color of an item is identified using Pantone’s universal color language and specially developed RGB color values, ensuring the most accurate and consistent online color representation. With TrueSpectra’s ImageTone solution, a single image of the product can be rendered in as many PANTONE Colors as needed, eliminating the time intensive process of recapturing each color variation for the image. This allows end users to accurately visualize the full range of products available without the retailer needing to recapture each color variation. “The goal of PANTONE TheRightColor is to accurately communicate color across the supply chain, from the designer all the way to the consumer, across multiple retail platforms. Unfortunately, accurate color communication usually stops at the manufacturer or retailer level,” explained Richard Hebert, president of Pantone. “Our alliance with TrueSpectra will benefit the consumer as well as the retailer with the ability to shop and sell by color.” “Shopping by color preference is a powerful customer service that enables consumers to match products quickly and easily,” said Sasa Radulovic, CEO of TrueSpectra. “By working with Pantone, customers reduce time and costs by automating the process of managing images, while ensuring accurate color. Retailers can leverage the advanced functionality of TrueSpectra’s ImageTone to speed time to market and display all the various colors in their inventory efficiently and cost-effectively – a merchandising capability that was previously cost-prohibitive.” About Pantone, Inc. Pantone, Inc., developer of the globally accepted PANTONE Color Systems, is the leading source of traditional and electronic products for the selection and accurate communication of color. With more than 38 years of experience, Pantone is recognized as the worldwide market leader in color communication and color technology for the graphic design, printing, publishing, textile and plastics industries. Pantone products are used by leading apparel and home furnishings vendors such as Liz Claiborne, Lands’ End, Nike, Target and Pottery Barn. More information is available at www.pantone.com and www.therightcolor.com. About TrueSpectra, Inc. TrueSpectra, Inc. offers ImageTone, the only enterprise-wide dynamic imaging infrastructure for businesses that need a scalable and extensible imaging solution for eCommerce and supply-chain integration, as well as for internal access and sharing. With ImageTone, businesses can reliably extend dynamic images that are automatically tailored to the diverse needs of internal departments and divisions, as well as to customers, partners and suppliers. ImageTone also automates image publishing, sharing and repurposing for any Web-enabled device. Some of the company's customers include Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom.com, Sears Canada, Fortunoff, Excite Japan, NextMonet and Kinko’s. Founded in 1992, TrueSpectra's strategic partners include Digital Island, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Informix, Digimarc and Blue Martini Software. For additional information, please visit www.truespectra.com.