yes, we use a number of different printers and types of printers for the work we do, and after just talking to our main print shop (who also has designers), they don’t even use pantone connect because they either print cmyk or color match the pms ink to the spot color as needed (as long as they know the number). the designers design the same…
at this point, i think we are going to nix it. i need to talk to another designer here, but i have an hour to cancel and get a full refund.
thanks everyone. this is great information to have in any case. any more comments are welcome! 
Worth remembering that in the rare event you need to spec one of the newer PANTONE colors, the definition is only going to be available via PANTONE Connect.
You can always manually create a spot swatch with “PANTONE number C” as the name, but you’ll be guessing at the definition (channel values).
For work sent to your print shop that won’t matter (or shouldn’t matter) very much though.
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It matters if an actual ink mix isn’t being used. Like ink from a can and mixed.
We rely on the Pantone naming conventions as part of the digital profiles used for inkjet. For instance, if you want a Pantone color in wide format, you have to use Connect. Don’t ask me for the CMYK values. It doesn’t work that way.
Tools of the trade …
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Is that actually true though?
For us (all digital, wide format) as long as the PANTONE spot color name is in one of the RIP’s libraries, it doesn’t need to come from Connect or anywhere “official”. The RIP’s library contains the color values provided by PANTONE, and that’s good enough for a basic conversion.
It could also be that I’m thinking we’re classified as wide format when we aren’t.
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Yeah I haven’t used Pantone colours for years - I use CMYK and if the customer specifies a Pantone number I just look up the CMYK and use that.
[Edit] I know when it was -2008 because I started my own business and bought a new Pantone book. I used it once.
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well, apparently adobe cc doesn’t allow me to install an older version of indesign/illustrator back far enough to copy the pantone color bridge c/u libraries… 
anything before aug 2022 (when the change took place, i believe) is unavailable. (ID v.17 or before and IL v.26 and before)
anyone know of a location to download pantone+ color bridge c/u libraries from before 2022 (v26 and before)?
This might help
as long as the PANTONE spot color name is in one of the RIP’s libraries,
Yeah, sorry, that is true. But you have to have the current naming convention.
True too, that they haven’t changed the naming convention in years, but that doesn’t mean they won’t.
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Converting CMYK numbers to Pantone is rather risky. There are 1000s if not 10s of 1000s of CMYK number combinations. There are only 2390 solid color Pantones, and I think that includes the non-10K metallics and the fluoresents (some day I might learn to spell that…)
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anyone know of a location to download pantone+ color bridge c/u libraries from before 2022 (v26 and before)?
I think that question won’t get an answer since it is technically pirating Pantone software…
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Check out the Freetone Color Palette. It looks like you can import this color palette and then change the name from Freetone to Pantone.
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Thanks for the confirmation - was beginning to think I was off my rocker.
I should think as long as a given RIP supplier maintains appropriate relations & licensing with PANTONE, they’ll get libraries with updated naming conventions shortly after PANTONE changes them.
Of course, “shortly” could be “months”, whatever the RIP update schedule is like.
That may be, but designers without Connect won’t know the new name unless they work closely enough with their vendors to be able to ask.
As mentioned, I recently had a client ask me to apply pantones to their files.
We charge several times more dollars per hour for desktop time than Pantone charges per month.
Just sayin’
It was unbelievable (and infuriating!) to me that Pantone removed Adobe’s ability to include Pantone swatch libraries. After a couple days of fuming, I copied all the .acb files from an older version of InDesign and moved them into the appropriate folder in my current version. Problem solved, at least for now. This work-around won’t include future updates to the PMS color libraries, but for now this works.
I am NOT happy with Pantone. Not only did they pull this stunt against designers who have used Pantone swatches in Adobe apps for many years (and therefore upended our workflow), they also have degraded their color books. The last set I purchased was printed on much thinner paper with inferior printing–many of the uncoated swatches were muddy. In one of the books, half of it was printed upside-down, which Pantone later replaced. And if that wasn’t enough, they no longer list colors numerically by PMS number. To find a specific PMS color, I first have to use the index. This method is time-consuming and frustrating to compare several PMS colors because they’re scattered all over the place, necessitating reliance on the index. I find that I go to my old PMS books first.
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It never solved the issue of updated swatches.
Normally you buy the Pantone book and there is a url in the printed book to download the updated book.
I guess people don’t buy the printed book any more and just want the colours for free.
At the end of the day you make money out of it so why shouldn’t Pantone.
It’s about 60 quid a year.
Add an extra dollar to each job and you should make your money back in a month at minimum.
If you don’t make money then there are other options.
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Yeah, the Pantone chip book is Chromatic. After a while you can just look at the edge colors and go, “oh about there,” and the chip will be close. The four-digit numbers still stump me sometimes though. 
I have hated Pantone for a long time. But I have to use it, so I deal with it. The inconvenience of constantly having to sign in my PLUG-IN, along with the absolutely crappy interface makes my temper just that much shorter some days. I’ve written innumerable times to Pantone that I should not have to log in a plug-in, but they don’t seem to get it fixed.
Trust me, Connect is better than the alternative. But hey, I don’t mind matching your Benjamin Moore paint chips, but that costs even more than telling me to apply the Pantone colors to your files. You can pay Pantone, or you can pay me, or you can like whatever flops out the other end of the print machine. {shrug}
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@Ms.O, I don’t know if this will help you or not. I just stumbled across it today.
You can search by PMS number, and it will give you the hex, rgb and Lab equivalent (plus a few other formats).
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Their lab numbers don’t match what my RIP libraries use. Close, but not close enough for comfort.