Color System

RAL Reichsausschuß für Lieferbedingungen und Gütesicherun

Munsell
NCS Natural Color System
Pantone Pantone Matching System (PMS)
AFNOR Association Francaise de Normalisation
DIN
GCMI NKS BOMARK INC.

RAL (color space system)

RAL CLASSIC

In 1927 the German Reichsausschuß für Lieferbedingungen und Gütesicherung" (State Commission for Delivery Terms
and Quality Assurance) invented a collection of 40 colors under the name of "RAL 840". Prior to that date manufacturers
and customers had to exchange samples to describe a tint, whereas from then on they would rely on numbers.

In the 1930s the numbers were changed uniformly to four digits and the collection was renamed to "RAL 840 R" (R for
revised). With tints constantly added to the collection, it was revised again in 1961 and changed to "RAL 840-HR", which
consists of 210 colors and is in use to this day. In the 1960s the colors were given supplemental names to avoid confusion
in case of transposed digits.

As "RAL 840-HR" covered only matte paint the 1980s saw the invention of "RAL 841-GL" for glossy surfaces, limited to
193 colors. A main criteria for colors in the RAL CLASSIC collection is to be of "paramount interest". Therefore most of the
colors in it are used on warning and traffic signs or are dedicated to government agencies and public services (for example:
RAL 1004 - Swiss Postal Service, RAL 1021 - Austrian Postal Service, RAL 1032 - German Postal Service). The first digit
relates to the shade of the color:

ƒ 1xxx Yellow RAL 1000 Green Beige - RAL 1034 Pastel Yellow (27)
ƒ 2xxx Orange RAL 2000 Yellow Orange - RAL 2012 Salmon Orange (12)
ƒ 3xxx Red RAL 3000 Flame Red - RAL 3031 Orient Red (22)
ƒ 4xxx Violet RAL 4001 Red Lilac - RAL 4010 Telemagenta (10)
ƒ 5xxx Blue RAL 5000 Violet Blue - RAL 5024 Pastel Blue (23)
ƒ 6xxx Green RAL 6000 Patina Green - RAL 6034 Pastel Turquoise (32)
ƒ 7xxx Grey RAL 7000 Squirrel Grey - RAL 7047 Telegrey 4 (37)
ƒ 8xxx Brown RAL 8000 Green Brown - RAL 8028 Terra Brown (19)
ƒ 9xxx White/Black RAL 9001 Cream - RAL 9018 Papyrus White (12)

Munsell color system

In colorimetry, the Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on three color dimensions: hue,
value (lightness), and chroma (color purity). It was created by Professor Albert H. Munsell in the first decade of the 20th
century and adopted by the USDA as the official color system for soil research in the 1930s.

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Several earlier color order systems had placed colors into a three dimensional color solid of one form or another, but
Munsell was the first to separate hue, value, and chroma into perceptually uniform and independent dimensions, and was
the first to systematically illustrate the colors in three dimensional space.[1] Munsell’s system, and particularly the later
renotations, is based on rigorous measurements of human subjects’ visual responses to color, putting it on a firm
experimental scientific basis. Because of this basis in human visual perception, Munsell’s system has outlasted its
contemporary color models, and though it has been superseded for some uses by models such as CIELAB (L*a*b*)
and CIECAM02, it is still in wide use today. [2]

Hue

Each horizontal circle Munsell divided into five principal hues: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple, along with 5
intermediate hues halfway between adjacent principal hues.[4] Each of these 10 steps is then broken into 10 sub-steps, so
that 100 hues are given integer values. Two colors of equal value and chroma, on opposite sides of a hue circle,
are complementary colors, and mix additively to the neutral gray of the same value. The diagram below shows 40
evenly-spaced Munsell hues, with complements vertically aligned.

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Value

Value, or lightness, varies vertically along the color solid, from black (value 0) at the bottom, to white (value 10) at the
top.[5] Neutral grays lie along the vertical axis between black and white.

Several color solids before Munsell’s plotted luminosity from black on the bottom to white on the top, with a gray gradient
between them, but these systems neglected to keep perceptual lightness constant across horizontal slices. Instead, they
plotted fully-saturated yellow (light), and fully saturated blue and purple (dark) along the equator.

Chroma

Chroma, measured radially from the center of each slice, represents the “purity” of a color, with lower chroma being less
pure (more washed out, as in pastels).[6] Note that there is no intrinsic upper limit to chroma. Different areas of the color
space have different maximal chroma coordinates. For instance light yellow colors have considerably more potential
chroma than light purples, due to the nature of the eye and the physics of color stimuli. This led to a wide range of possible
chroma levels—up to the high 30s for some hue–value combinations (though it is difficult or impossible to make physical
objects in colors of such high chromas, and they cannot be reproduced on current computer displays). Vivid soil colors are
in the range of approximately 8.

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Note that the Munsell Book of Color contains more color samples than this chart for both 5PB and 5Y (particularly bright
yellows, up to 5Y 8.5/14), however they are not reproducible in the sRGB color space, which has a limited color
gamut designed to match that of televisions and computer displays. Note also that there are no samples for values 0 (pure
black) and 10 (pure white), which are theoretical limits not reachable in pigment, and no printed samples of value 1.
Specifying a color

A color is fully specified by listing the three numbers for hue, value, and chroma. For instance, a fairly saturated purple of
medium lightness would be 5P 5/10 with 5P meaning the color in the middle of the purple hue band, 5/ meaning medium
lightness, and a chroma of 10 (see the swatch to the right).

Natural Color System

The Natural Color System (NCS) is a proprietary perceptual color model published by the Scandinavian Colour
Institute (Skandinaviska Färginstitutet AB) of Stockholm, Sweden. It is based on the color opponency description of color
vision, first proposed by German physiologist Ewald Hering. The system is usually used for matching colors (using printed
reference cards), rather than mixing colors.

The underlying physiological mechanisms involved in color opponency include the bipolar and ganglion cells in the retina,
which process the signal originated by the retinal cones before it is sent to the brain. A model like RGB describes what
happens at the lower, retinal cone level, and thus is very well fitted for the task of "fooling the eye" as done by TV
sets and computer displays. The NCS model, for its part, describes the organization of the color sensations as perceived
at the upper, brain level, and thus is much better fitted than RGB to deal with how humans experience and describe their
color sensations (hence the "natural" part of its name); but it would be useless, for example, for describing the behaviour of
mixing lights and pigments.

The NCS is based on the six elementary color percepts of human vision--the psychological primaries--as described
by color opponency—white, black, red, yellow, green, and blue—which are difficult to define perceptually in terms of
others (for example, one cannot describe color red as looking "like a yellow and magenta mixture", even though you will in
fact get a red pigment by mixing yellow and magenta pigments). These six elementary colors are frequently chosen to
paint educational toys, or for designs that try to appeal from their simplicity (such as the Olympic flag and the Microsoft
Windows logo). All the other perceptual colors are composite perceptions that can be defined in terms of those six (for
example, turquoise looks like "blue-green", orange like "a color that is both reddish and yellowish", and brown looks like "a
very dark orange", that is, like a mixture of red, yellow and black). This all means the appearance of a color can be readily
predicted from its NCS notation, whereas its notation in systems such as RGB often looks unintuitive (for example, yellow
does not look like "a reddish-greenish color" at all, even though the yellow on an RGB monitor is obtained by mixing red
and green lights). Note also that, under normal viewing circumstances, there is no hue that must be described as a mixture
of opponent hues; that is, as a hue looking "redgreen" or "yellowblue" (see note in the color opponents article).

Colors in the NCS are defined by three values, specifying the amount of blackness (darkness), chromaticity (saturation),
and a percentagevalue between two of the colours red, yellow, green or blue (hue). The blackness and the chromaticity
together add up to less than or equal to 100%--their remainder from 100%, if any, gives the amount of whiteness. The
complete NCS color notations can also be tagged with a letter giving the version of the NCS color standard that was used
to specify the color.

Two examples of NCS color notation—the yellow and blue shades of the Swedish flag:

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ƒ Yellow - NCS 0580-Y10R (= 5% darkness, 80% saturation, 90% yellow + 10% red = very slightly darkish mostly
saturated yellow with a slight orangish tinge)
ƒ Blue - NCS 4055-R95B (= 40% darkness, 55% saturation, 5% red + 95% blue = somewhat dark rather
unsaturated blue with a very slight purplish tinge)

The NCS is represented in 19 countries and is the reference norm for color designation in Sweden (since
1979), Norway (since 1984) andSpain (since 1994). It is also one of the standards used by the International Colour
Authority, a leading publisher of color trend forecasts for the interior design and textile markets.

Pantone
Pantone Inc. is a corporation headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA.[1] The company is best known for its Pantone
Matching System(PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, primarily printing, though sometimes in
the manufacture of colored paint, fabric, and plastics. Pantone's current general manager is Ron Potesky.

Original Pantone Color Matching System

The Pantone Color Matching System is largely a standardized color reproduction system. By standardizing the colors,
different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct
contact with one another.

One such use is standardizing colors in the CMYK process. The CMYK process is a method of printing color by using four
inks—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. The vast majority of the world's printed material is produced using the CMYK
process, and there is a special subset of Pantone colors that can be reproduced using CMYK. Those that are possible to
simulate through the CMYK process are labeled as such within the company's guides.

However, most of the Pantone system's 1,114 spot colors cannot be simulated with CMYK but with 13 base pigments (15
including white and black) mixed in specified amounts.[6]

The Pantone system also allows for many 'special' colors to be produced such as metallics and fluorescents. While most of
the Pantone system colors are beyond the printed CMYK gamut, it was only in 2001 that Pantone began providing
translations of their existing system with screen-based colors. (Screen-based colors use the RGB—red, green,
blue—system to create various colors.)[7] The Goe system has RGB and LAB values with each color.[8]

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Pantone colors are described by their allocated number (typically referred to as, for example, 'PMS 130'). PMS colors are
almost always used in branding and have even found their way into government legislation (to describe the colors of flags).
In January 2003, the Scottish Parliament debated a petition (reference PE512) to refer to the blue in the Scottish
flag (saltire) as 'Pantone 300'. Countries such as Canada and South Korea and organizations such as the FIA have also
chosen to refer to specific Pantone colors to use when producing flags. U.S. states including Texas have set legislated
PMS colors of their flags.

AFNOR Standards (Association Francaise de Normalisation)

DIN - 德國標準協會

GCMI INKS

Standard These inks are intended for use on presses equipped with 165 line anilox rolls. These presses typically print
165 Line standard industrial type packaging or "brown box" type work.
These inks are intended for use on presses equipped with anilox rolls ranging from 185 line to 200 line.
Supreme
When used on 165 line rolls, the colors are vibrant and can take significant viscosity reduction and still have
Line
colorbook strength.
These inks are intended for use with anilox rolls ranging from 200 to 250 line. They exhibit bright, vibrant
200 Line
color and can withstand viscosity reduction.
These inks are intended for use with anilox rolls ranging from 360 to 400 line. These inks run very clean and
300 Line
perform extremely well for fine line screen printing and printing on "high holdout" liners.
This is our top line of flexo ink. These highly pigmented inks run extremely well with anilox rolls up to 550 line,
400 Line with screen printing up to 125 line. These inks are formulated to dry rapidly on a wide variety of substrates,
yet as with all of our inks, contain very low levels of V.O.C.
Our 900 Series, our latest line of flexo inks was developed for the new ultra sophisticated flexo printers
900 Line equipped with anilox rolls up to 900 line. These super strong, high gloss, fast drying inks are formulated for
the high end corrugated box converter.

SPECIALTY INKS
This fast-drying ink is specially formulated for LCL and KEMI liner board where evaporation
BK-1996 LCL BLACK
is key and absorption is minimal.
Our most popular special black is a strong, dense black that is great for full coverage and
BK-1527 MIGHTY BLACK trap work. This black can also be used when you need a non-conductive black for
electronics packaging.
BK-1783 FAST DRY DENSE
BLACK Excellent for process work and high holdout liners where drying speed is critical.

BK-2103 CORRUGATOR
A heat resistant dense black that is ideal for wide web full coverage applications. This ink is
BLACK
normally applied with a Printco or Rod Coater on a corrugator.

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 BK-1859 BLACK BASE
COAT A wax-free black for printing prior to U.V. coating.

BK-1021 BLACK
CONCENTRATE A perfect solution for working off excess or return inks into workable press ready black.

OTHER SPECIAL INKS

BINGO DAUBBER INKS
We offer a full line of Bingo Daubber inks in any color you request.

AQUAGRAPHX TAG AND

LABEL A high gloss ink system for tag and label printing.

METALLIC INKS A wide range of gold, silver, and copper shades that feature excellent printability and shelf
life.
FLUORESCENT INKS
A wide variety of fluorescent shades are available for bright, vibrant printing.

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