A Pantone® TCX code is a six-digit number plus a suffix. The first pair of digits is lightness (11 is the lightest, 19 the darkest), the middle pair is the hue's position around a color circle (01 to 65), and the last pair is chroma, from 00 for a neutral up to 64 for the strongest color. The suffix TCX says the standard is dyed on cotton, so a code like 19-4052 TCX reads as: lightness step 19, hue position 40, chroma 52, on a cotton standard.
That is the whole decoding. The useful part is knowing what the number can and cannot tell you, and how to write it so a dye house reads it the same way you do.
The three digit pairs, one at a time
Pantone's Fashion, Home + Interiors system (the textile system that TCX belongs to) places every color in a three-dimensional space of lightness, hue and chroma, and gives each of those attributes one pair of digits. The light-booth maker VeriVide sets out the scales in its explanation of the Pantone numbering system.
| Position | Attribute | Scale | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digits 1-2 | Lightness | 11 (lightest) to 19 (darkest) | How light or dark the color sits. A 12 is a pale tint; an 18 or 19 is a deep shade. |
| Digits 3-4 | Hue | 01 to 65, around the hue circle | Which color family it belongs to, as a position on the circle. |
| Digits 5-6 | Chroma | 00 (neutral) to 64 (brightest) | How strong or grayed the color is. Low numbers are muted; high numbers are vivid. |
| Suffix | Substrate | TCX, TPG and others | What the physical standard is made of: dyed cotton, paper, and so on. |
The hyphen sits after the lightness pair, so you always read the code as two digits, hyphen, four digits. The four digits after the hyphen are two separate pairs, hue then chroma, not one number.
Where the hue numbers sit on the circle
The hue pair runs around the circle in steps. VeriVide gives approximate anchor points: about 10 is yellow, 15 orange, 20 red, 30 purple, 40 blue, 50 blue-green and 60 green. Those are rough landmarks, not hard borders. A hue of 17 is somewhere between orange and red, and two colors with the same hue pair can still look quite different if their lightness and chroma differ.
In practice this lets you sanity-check a code before you look it up. If a brief describes a "soft blush" and the code starts with 19 and has a chroma pair in the 50s, someone has copied the wrong number. If two colors in a palette share the same middle pair, you know they are tints or shades of one hue, which matters when you plan dye lots or a tonal colorway.
What the suffix tells you
The same six digits can appear with different suffixes, and the suffix changes what the physical reference is. For fabric, this is the part people drop most often, and the part a mill cares about most. Our guide to TCX vs TPX vs TPG covers the libraries in depth; the short version:
- TCX (Textile Cotton eXtended): dyed on cotton. The production reference for fabric.
- TPG (Textile Paper Green): the same color numbers printed on paper. Handy for mood boards, not for approving dyed fabric.
- TPX (Textile Paper eXtended): the older paper edition, now retired. You will still meet it in old brand books.
- TSX and TN: VeriVide lists these for polyester and nylon standards respectively.
Ink on paper and dye on cotton are physically different things, so the same number can look different between a TPG chip and a TCX chip. When the color will be dyed, the TCX suffix belongs in the spec.
What the number does not tell you
The digits are a position in Pantone's own arrangement, not a measurement. Three limits follow from that.
You cannot calculate LAB, RGB or HEX from the digits. There is no formula that turns 19-4052 into a set of L*a*b* values. The measured values come from the physical standard, and Pantone publishes them through its own tools such as Pantone Connect.
Neighboring numbers are not always neighbors to the eye. The pairs are separate scales, and nothing in the numbering promises that a one-step change looks the same size everywhere. A step in hue and a step in chroma are different kinds of change, so comparing digits is no way to judge how close two colors look. If you need to know how far apart two colors really are, measure them and compare with ΔE (Delta E), the color-difference number mills use.
Screen conversions are approximations. Any HEX value you see next to a TCX code is a screen rendering of a dyed cotton chip, and screens emit light while fabric reflects it. Our post on converting HEX to TCX for dyeing explains why that gap exists and how to work around it.
How to quote a TCX code to a dye house
A code on its own is only part of a color specification. Dye houses work from a written standard, and the more of it you give them, the fewer lab-dip rounds you pay for. For every color, send:
- The full code with its suffix, written exactly: two digits, hyphen, four digits, then TCX. Never just the four digits after the hyphen.
- The fabric: fiber, construction, weight and finish, for example 100% cotton poplin at 120 gsm, mercerized. The same dye looks different on cotton, viscose and polyester.
- A tolerance: an acceptable ΔE, usually calculated with CIEDE2000. Under 2 is a common commercial tolerance; color-critical brand work often asks for under 1.
- The viewing light: D65 daylight for approval, plus the store's lighting (often a fluorescent such as TL84) if the product will be sold under it.
- The physical reference: if you have the TCX swatch, keep one yourself and send one with the order, so both sides compare against the same object.
Then ask for a lab dip before bulk, and approve it in a light booth against the TCX chip, not on screen.
Common mistakes when reading TCX codes
- Dropping the suffix. "19-4052" without TCX or TPG leaves the mill to guess which physical standard you meant.
- Sending a graphics code. Codes ending in C or U belong to Pantone's graphics system for ink on paper. They use a different numbering scheme and are not fabric references.
- Transposing digits. Because the pairs mean different things, swapping two digits moves a color to a different lightness, hue or chroma entirely. Read codes back from the swatch, not from memory.
- Quoting from a screenshot. A code copied from a website image is only as reliable as whoever typed it. Confirm references in Pantone Connect or a current physical guide.
- Keeping retired TPX references. Look up older references and add the TCX code before a brand book goes to a new supplier.
Where Texloom fits
Texloom does not contain Pantone colors and does not output Pantone codes. What its color tools do is give you exact numbers (LAB, RGB, CMYK and HEX) for the colors in your own artwork, so your palette stays consistent across files while you design. The Texloom Color Library tool takes a color or an uploaded image and shows each color's LAB and HEX values with an approximate CMYK, the nearest color in the Texloom Color Library with its ΔE, and a button that copies the HEX and opens Pantone Connect, where you find the official Pantone match yourself.
Texloom Color Library codes follow their own pattern, something like TX-B4-062: a family letter, a lightness step and a running number. It is a separate library of working colors for textile palettes, not a Pantone cross-reference. The guide to working to Pantone with Texloom shows how the two fit together on one brief.
Once a palette is settled, Texloom's Recolor Studio can recolor a layered artwork to it, with an option to snap colors to the nearest library color, so every colorway of a print uses the same documented values.
A quick next step
Take the color list from your current tech pack and check every entry against the table above: full six digits, a hyphen in the right place, TCX as the suffix for anything that will be dyed, and a fabric and tolerance next to each code. Fix the gaps before the next lab dip goes out.
