TCX vs TPX vs TPG: Pantone Textile Formats Explained
Three suffixes, one numbering system, and a lot of confusion. This guide explains what each Pantone textile format is, which are current, and which one belongs on your tech pack — with a TCX lookup tool if you just need a colour's values.
This page is mostly a guide — the lookup is here so you can check a colour's values while you read.
HEX
What are TCX, TPX and TPG?
All three belong to Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors — the colour library for apparel, home textiles and interiors, and a completely separate product from the PMS numbers used in graphic design and printing. Within FHI, the six-digit number identifies the colour and the letter suffix identifies the physical material the colour is supplied on. The number never changes between formats; the substrate does.
TCX stands for Textile Cotton eXtended. The colour is supplied as a swatch of dyed cotton fabric, and it is the format dye houses and mills work against, because you cannot reliably judge a lab dip against a printed chip. It is the current standard for anything that will be dyed, and the format most tech packs should specify.
TPX stood for Textile Paper eXtended — the same colours printed on paper, offered for situations where a fabric swatch was impractical or too expensive. Pantone discontinued TPX in 2019. TPG, Textile Paper Green, replaced it: the same paper-based idea, reformulated with an environmentally improved ink set. Because the ink set changed, some TPG chips are a visible step away from the TPX chip carrying the same number, which is why old TPX references circulating in archived tech packs cause real problems.
The practical rule is simple. Specify TCX when the colour will be dyed onto fabric. Use TPG when you need an affordable paper reference for design, presentation or a printed application. Treat any TPX reference you inherit as a legacy code to be re-approved against a current TCX or TPG standard rather than trusted as-is.
Pantone vs Pantone TCX: how they differ
| Pantone (PMS) | Pantone TCX | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Textile Cotton eXtended (TCX) | Textile Paper eXtended (TPX) → Textile Paper Green (TPG) |
| Substrate | Dyed cotton fabric swatch | Printed paper chip |
| Status | Current | TPX discontinued in 2019; TPG is the current paper format |
| Primary use | Dyeing, lab dips, bulk production approval | Design, presentation, printed applications, budget reference |
| Who works from it | Mills, dye houses, garment manufacturers | Designers, studios, buyers, anyone specifying on paper |
| Relative cost | Higher — physical dyed fabric | Lower — printed chips |
| Colour identity | Same six-digit number as the paper formats | Same six-digit number as TCX |
| Do they look identical? | No — cotton scatters light differently from paper | No — and TPG differs slightly from the TPX it replaced |
What the suffix actually tells you
The six digits identify the colour. The suffix identifies the physical object you are being asked to match — and that is the part people get wrong.
- 19
- Lightness band, from 11 at the lightest to 19 at the deepest.
- 4052
- Hue family and chroma. The 40xx range sits in the blues.
19-4052 is Classic Blue whether it arrives as TCX, TPX or TPG. The colour identity does not change with the format.
- TCX
- Textile Cotton eXtended. A swatch of dyed cotton. Current, and the format dye houses match against.
- TPG
- Textile Paper Green. Printed on paper with an environmentally improved ink set. Current — this replaced TPX.
- TPX
- Textile Paper eXtended. The earlier paper format, discontinued in 2019 and superseded by TPG.
Same colour, three substrates. Ask which one your supplier holds before you write a code onto a tech pack.
The common mistake is treating the suffix as decoration and dropping it. "19-4052" alone does not tell a supplier whether to match cotton or paper, and the two do not look identical side by side.
Worked TCX → HEX conversions
Each Pantone colour above is shown with the HEX values this tool computes for it. Unlike a cross-standard match, this conversion is a calculation rather than a nearest neighbour — there is no ΔE, because nothing is being approximated.
Who converts TCX to HEX?
Knowing which format to name saves a sampling round, and knowing which are current stops you specifying something nobody sells any more.
- Writing a garment tech pack — Specify TCX. The mill lab-dips against dyed cotton, and a paper reference gives them a substrate they cannot judge a dye against.
- Inheriting an old tech pack — A TPX code means the pack predates 2019. Re-approve the colour against a current TCX or TPG standard rather than assuming the reference still holds.
- Building a seasonal palette on a budget — TPG chips cost a fraction of cotton swatches and are fine for internal design and presentation work — just not for production sign-off.
- Home textiles and upholstery — Fabric goods are dyed, so TCX applies exactly as it does to apparel. The format question is the same regardless of end product.
- Printed textile applications — Where a design is printed onto fabric rather than dyed, TPG is often the more relevant reference because both are printed processes.
- Briefing a supplier in a new market — Ask which format they hold before specifying. A supplier without TCX swatches will convert your code themselves, and that conversion is out of your control.
How to use this TCX to HEX converter
Say you have picked up a tech pack from a previous season that specifies “19-4052 TPX” and you need to reorder. TPX was discontinued in 2019, so do not simply pass it on: look the colour up here to check what you are dealing with, then re-approve it as 19-4052 TCX against a current physical cotton swatch before the mill starts dyeing.
- Identify which format the code you are holding uses — the suffix after the six digits.
- If it says TPX, treat it as legacy. The format was discontinued in 2019 and the paper replacement, TPG, uses a different ink set.
- Decide what the colour is actually for. Dyed onto fabric means TCX; design reference, presentation or a printed application means TPG.
- Ask your supplier which format they physically hold before you write the code onto a pack.
- Write the code in full, including the suffix. "19-4052" alone leaves the substrate ambiguous.
- Use the lookup above to check a colour’s screen values while you work — but approve production against the physical swatch, not the HEX.
Accuracy — read before you specify a colour
This page is a guide to formats rather than a production tool, and the values in the lookup carry the same caveat as everywhere on this site: they are sRGB approximations of physical Pantone standards, covering 213 of roughly 2,625 FHI colours. No screen value can stand in for a dyed cotton swatch or a printed chip. The format guidance here reflects Pantone's published product structure, but check the current Pantone catalogue before making a purchasing decision — product lines change.
No ΔE is reported on this page, because the lookup performs an exact arithmetic conversion rather than a nearest-neighbour match. Where ΔE does matter in textile work is between a lab dip and its standard: agree that tolerance with your supplier in writing before sampling, measured on the physical fabric with a spectrophotometer. A ΔE*00 under 1 is a tight commercial tolerance; 1–2 is a common working range for apparel.
In short: conversion values on this page are approximate, because the two systems use different colourants and cover different gamuts. Verify against the official physical colour standard before committing to production, tooling or a signed-off brand spec.