In today's world of computerized colorizations, selecting a color can be as easy as specifying different color intensities for Red and/or Green and/or Blue, the "primary" colors of light. Each intensity typically has a numerical range from 0 (darkest) to 255 (brightest) --or, in hexadecimal numbers, from 00 to FF.

Very often the resulting color is referenced by those hex numbers only, such as #C0C0C0, where the first two digits are for Red, the second pair is for Green, and the last pair is for Blue (this particular color is a light gray).

Artists know that colored pigments, such as are used when mixing paint, interact with light differently from the RGB system. Pigments *absorb* colors, and reflect what they don't absorb. The RGB system is related to the *emission* of colored light. The "primary" *pigment* colors are, therefore, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow.

Nevertheless, computers can easily translate RGB color codes to CMY color codes --and actually something like that *must* happen, when color data goes to any ordinary color ink-jet printer, since they use the CMY system.

I was in a paint store today, and became aghast at all the different names and numbers, assigned by different paint manufacturers, to the varieties of paint they offered. This Needs To Be Standardized!

And a CMY color-numbering system seems to me to be the way to do it.
-- Vernon, Aug 04 2011

Pantone paint colour selector http://pantone.co.u.../paintselector.aspx
Pretty close [nineteenthly, Aug 05 2011]

RGB to Pantone http://www.netfront...rvices/rgb2pantone/
[MechE, Aug 05 2011]

XKCD http://xkcd.com/927/
[MechE, Aug 05 2011]

accurate, even from just a small spot of color taken into them http://www.sherwin-..._matching/index.jsp
I like the idea of some standardization in color selection from differing suppliers - also http://www.sherwin-williams.com/do_it_yourself/paint_colors/paint_color_palette/ [Sir_Misspeller, Aug 07 2011]

Pantone. Done

Getting everyone to use it, well that's a "let's all".
-- MechE, Aug 04 2011


What [MechE] said. Baked and Widely Known To Exist.
-- 8th of 7, Aug 04 2011


[8th of 7], really? Then why were there no such markings on the gallons of paint at the paint store? Or even on the color-sample cards?
-- Vernon, Aug 05 2011


I've seen Pantone in catalogues before.
-- nineteenthly, Aug 05 2011


//I've seen Pantone in catalogues before.//
Mostly in Christmas hamper catalogues for Italians.
I'll get me coat.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Aug 05 2011


Most paint stores now give the color code when you purchase paint. My dining room walls are being painted with:
Medium base
B...............18
C...........1 Y 20
F.................8
The chair rail is being painted with:
Accent base
KX..........1 Y 18
B............1 Y 16
AXX.........7 Y 46
F................1 Y
My paint store tells me that this is a standard paint code and that any paint store can match this code and color. [-]
-- Klaatu, Aug 05 2011


[Klaatu], now tell me how, if I use an architecture computer program to design a room, INCLUDING COLORING IT, how to take the chosen RGB colors to the paint store, and get exactly those colors in actual paint? THIS is where a CMY system would be most useful, because, as I wrote in the main text, RGB color codes can be easily converted to CMY color codes.
-- Vernon, Aug 05 2011


Vernon, it will never be exact, because CMYK depends heavily on the surface, lighting, thickness, base paint, etc.

However, see link. Again, this is baked and WKtE, what it isn't is standard (see XKCD).
-- MechE, Aug 05 2011



random, halfbakery