Colour organisational systems 1

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Level 2 Diploma in Painting and Decorating

Colour organisational systems

Unit 230: Creating and applying colour



Introduction

• There are many colour referencing systems available.

• This presentation will explain how two of the most widely used systems in the UK work and why they came into use.

• This will help you to understand these systems and give you the knowledge and confidence to use them.



BS 4800

•BS 4800 (BS 4800 paint colours for building purposes) is a range of paint codings (known as notations) developed to standardise and provide a consistency of colours used in the building and construction industry by the British Standards Institute in 1930.

•Prior to this, paint makers would just make up their own colours based on trends and demand.

•It began with just ten colours. In 1973 there were 88 colours, now there are 100, including black and white, which are taken from a larger range of colours.



The coding is made up of three parts:

1. An even number between 2 and 24 that denotes the hue.

2. A letter between A and E that denotes the greyness.

3. A second number between 1 and 56 that denotes the weight.

BS 4800 coding explained



Hues

The hues are tints and shades of the 12 colours that you will find on the colour wheel.

02 Reds/purples 12 Yellow/greens 04 Reds 14 Greens

06 Reds/yellows 16 Green/blues

08 Yellows/reds 18 Blues

10 Yellows 20 Purple/blues

22 Violets 24 Purples



Greyness• The greyness of a colour has nothing to do with how light or dark a colour is; it is simply a measure of how pure

it is.

• Generally speaking, colours prefixed with an A contain more white, black or grey and are the least pure.

• Colours that are prefixed with an E are the purest and often the strongest.

14-E-53 14-C-35 00-A-01



Weight

• The weight of a colour was introduced to overcome the problem of yellow/red and yellow.green colours looking heavy in relation to other similar colours.

• With a few exceptions, the weight of a colour is denoted by odd numbers.

An example of this is the difference between 12-E-51, which is a yellowy green.

and 12-E 53, which is purer green.



The Munsell system

• The Munsell system was developed from earlier studies by Albert H Munsell in America in the 1930s, in a bid to standardise colour referencing with a more rational approach to notations.

• It is similar to the BS 4800 system in as much as it is based on hue, greyness/value and weight but the colour references are based on the natual order of colour in a three-dimensional shape.

• The word chroma, which is an ancient Greek word for colour, replaces weight.



The colour tree

• As you can see here, the stronger, highly saturated colours are onthe outside of the tree, their value changing as they get nearer the centre.

• The higher the colours sit on the tree, the lighter or softer they become.

• The NCS (Natural Colour System) developed in Sweden in 1952 is built around a similar principle.

The Munsell Colour Tree

230.2



How the Munsell system works

Hue and chroma•The Munsell paint codes – or notations as they are formally known – are represented by the first letter, often principle hues (colours).

•Red is R Yellow is Y Blue is B

•The chroma (the strength and purity of a colour) is measured on a scale of 1 to 14 from the outside of the three-dimensional circle (which is the purest) to the inside (the greyest).



How the Munsell system works

Value•The value (the amount of white/black contained in a colour) is measured on a scale of 1 to 9 in the centre of the three-dimensional circle: 1 being black and 9 being white.

•The bright purple colour on the far right would have the notation of 5RP (red purple) 5/26.

A Munsell colour chart

230.1



Conclusion

• There are many different organisational systems for colour, the notations they use may all be different but the colours themselves are essential all more or less the same.

• The most important thing to remember is that they are all based on three basic principles – hue, weight/chroma and value.

• This will help you understand how each individual system works and give you an appreciation of the work that has gone into these systems over many years.



Any questions?

Colour organisational systems 1

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