Paint mixing systems

[Dave Fawthrop]

I am trying to get a paint to match one of the colours present in my wood effect PVC windows. Just been to the local B&Q warehouse and found that both the B&Q system and the Dulux system only produce standard if wide ranges of colours, none of which are what I want. The Dulux system has a system which scans a sample, but can only recommend and produce one of the wide range of Dulux colours.

Clearly it would be possible to produce a system which would give an infinite range of colours, one of which would produce a match for my PVC windows.

Does such a system exist?

[EricP]

Remembering the extensive advertising for these systems in the past, I am staggered that they don't do exactly what you wanted. I thought that was the point of having them and the large plant to deliver the paint. You took your funny colour in, they scanned it and that colour came out of the spout into the tin.

This is bad news for me.

[Andy Cap]

Outside chance but you can these BS 381c colours mixed at decent paint suppliers. Probably nothing suitable though.

[Stuart Noble]

It should be accurate matching one emulsion paint to another, but it can't handle different textures. I seem to remember someone scanning a sycamore leaf, and the results it came up with were laughable.

[Peter Ashby]

What is bad news for us is that in our rolling program of redecorating, having painted two radiators with appropriately tinted radiator paint on the last trip to Homebase (the B&Q doesn't do it) we were informed they were phasing it out. We were tempted to precipitately decide on the lounge wall colour there and then. Sanity however prevailed. The radiator in the small bedroom really disapears into the wall. The hall one is not as good as it is a double but it is a lot less obvious. And having taken it off and stripped the many layers of paint (at least one of which was NOT radiator paint) it no longer looks like an amorphous blob. It took two sets of Nitromors to get it reasonable.

Peter

[Dave Fawthrop]

|!EricP wrote: |! |!> On Wed, 16 May 2007 16:29:32 +0100, Dave Fawthrop |!> wrote: |!> |!> >I am trying to get a paint to match one of the colours present in my wood |!> >effect PVC windows. Just been to the local B&Q warehouse and found that |!> >both the B&Q system and the Dulux system only produce standard if wide |!> >ranges of colours, none of which are what I want. The Dulux system has a |!> >system which scans a sample, but can only recommend and produce one of the |!> >wide range of Dulux colours. |!> >

|!> >Clearly it would be possible to produce a system which would give an |!> >infinite range of colours, one of which would produce a match for my PVC |!> >windows. |!> >

|!> >Does such a system exist? |!> |!> Remembering the extensive advertising for these systems in the past, I |!> am staggered that they don't do exactly what you wanted. I thought |!> that was the point of having them and the large plant to deliver the |!> paint. You took your funny colour in, they scanned it and that colour |!> came out of the spout into the tin. |!> |!> This is bad news for me. |! |!What is bad news for us is that in our rolling program of redecorating, |!having painted two radiators with appropriately tinted radiator paint on |!the last trip to Homebase (the B&Q doesn't do it) we were informed they |!were phasing it out. We were tempted to precipitately decide on the |!lounge wall colour there and then. Sanity however prevailed. The |!radiator in the small bedroom really disapears into the wall. The hall |!one is not as good as it is a double but it is a lot less obvious. And |!having taken it off and stripped the many layers of paint (at least one |!of which was NOT radiator paint) it no longer looks like an amorphous |!blob. It took two sets of Nitromors to get it reasonable.

All is not *completely* lost. The Dulux range of mixed paints is as I said *wide* about 800,

trust colours on a computer screen get the shade cards.

[meow2222]

Varying monitor settings make these charts way off. Oxford blue looks black on here. The page doesnt even say what colour temp to view it with, let alone setting up the monitor right, correcting for gamma etc. Theres no way youre going to get a match using that, or even close.

I've had Dulux mix colours up a few times, and its always been either spot on or very close. Important to clean the sample before scanning it & clean the target wall too. Unfortunately I'm told that browns are the weakest area for dulux colour matching.

Might be difficult lugging your window down there though! The paper sheets with colours on may be your best bet.

I dont know what youre doing, but I have had car paints mixed to match as well.

NT

[Peter Ashby]

Never trust colours on a computer screen get the shade cards.

Matching a colour is not the problem. The problem is they no longer mix shades for Hammerite radiator paint. So you are limited to the limited off the shelf range of primaries. It's not much use having access to a paint mixing machine if they won't mix the colours into the base of your choice.

Peter

[Andy Cap]

That's true of course but the light grey I use for restoring telephone exchange equipment is pretty accurate on my screen. It would be always be possible to match something to the colour of the window, possibly from a selection of colour cards and take that along.

Andy

[Owain]

I thought telephone equipt was Elephant Grey or, vide the website, LightStraw.

Owain

[Andy Cap]

Certainly Light Straw, but Light Grey was the colour recommended in one of the interest groups, though I haven't the time at the moment to scan through them.

I'm not desperately concerned if the shade is slightly different and it's too late for me but I will make a point of checking, next time I get my hands on an old switch.

Cheers Andy

[meow2222]

You're lucky - some monitors wll be set right, and some wont but will match on a few colours anyway, but there are several variables all of which are routinely off to way off, so these charts should be treated with a hundredweight of salt.

NT

[Peter Johnson]

When I worked at Crown we were told that the scanner would match any colour* but that Dulux's matching system would only produce the nearest match(es) to a Dulux colour (or colours).

• actually it wouldn't do very dark reds/purples.

[Peter Ashby]

The problem is as someone pointed out if you present it with a textured or reflective surface it fails. This is actually because our visual system doesn't actually work on 'this wavelength of light is this shade'. It uses all sorts of other clues, including texture, reflectivity, speckle etc. Better to get a printed colour chart and hold both matching object and swatch together in the same light. It is also why apple green or grass green paint is never even close.

Peter