The hand-held device displays its readings as the nearest Pantone colour and as CMYK breakdowns on its colour screen.

The firm envisages it being used to help select colours and build colour palettes by measuring objects as well as to identify the colours used in print jobs.

"We think it's a fantastic addition to the Pantone books, but it's not a replacement – there's no substitute to the colour guides," said Pantone European sales director Paul Graham.

Capsure is an update of the Color Cue. Unlike the Color Cue, which was a colorimeter, the Capsure uses a spectrophotometer, ensuring more accurate colour measurements, it also includes a digital camera and can be used to capture texture as well as colour details.

The £459 device can identify up to four colours in a sample.

For more on the Pantone Capsure see this week's PrintWeek (3 December).