Colour References

What are colour charts and why do I need them?

Colour guides are an important tool for any designer because they not only help you find the perfect colour, but they also ensure that your colour remains consistent. Using a colour guide allows you to speak in a universal language to ensure that the colour you choose is exactly what your team or clients will adopt and use.

Whether you're designing architecture, fashion, interiors or graphic design, it's important that you use a colour guide that best suits your needs. We've broken down our colour guide tips and tricks and recommendations to help you find the colour guide that best suits you and the way you work.

Which colour fan suits me?

NCS, the Natural Colour System , is the ideal colour system for designers working in architecture, paints and production. This system was developed to describe colours as the human eye sees them. It divides colour into shades and nuances and makes it easy for designers to determine the exact colour tone they want for painting buildings, for example.

RAL , the first company to standardise colours in Germany, is another provider of colour guides that, like NCS, is aimed at designers working in the fields of architecture and colour design. The RAL colour cards allow you to select and check colours according to international standards. They are based on a simple 4-digit code system that makes choosing colours easy and unambiguous.

For designers working in print, DCS is a great resource for FOGRA-certified colour checking and verification. Ideal for any type of print project, DCS colour guides offer a wide and easy-to-use selection, including a range of reference books printed on the most important substrates. Also available are colour test cards and high-precision measuring instruments, including typometers and lithometers , to ensure accurate colour reproduction in all work.



If your work is more focused on graphic design, then you will benefit from the Pantone colour guides . Since colour is one of the most important elements in product development, branding and digital design, it is important that you not only find the right colour, but that it is used correctly in all areas.

For confident colour management across multiple platforms, Pantone Colour Bridge products are the ultimate tool for online and offline design. This range of products allows designers to view the same spot colour alongside its industry-standard CMYK equivalent and convert HTML or RGB values ​​to the appropriate values ​​for digital design applications.



When creating digital designs, there are even more factors that can affect how the human eye perceives colours on screen. Any graphic designer knows that the same colour can look completely different depending on the screen you're looking at, the room you're viewing it in, or whether you're viewing the designs on mobile devices such as a phone or tablet.

This difference can be subtle or very obvious, but by using Pantone colour guides you can ensure that the final design (whether printed or displayed in the digital world) is the exact colour you or your client chose.

There are several Pantone colour guides , including some specifically compiled for metallic , pastel or even neon shades .



For fashion product design , Pantone offers a range of market-driven colours for fashion, home and interior design , ceramics, textiles, paints, cosmetics, fashion accessories and leather goods. As with any colour-based design, it is crucial to coordinate with clients and your team before the final design goes into production.

The 2625 Pantone FHI colours are available on cotton, polyester, and as pigment on paper. You can choose from a variety of print formats - from fan sets , cotton chips andswatches , to individual polyester and nylon swatches .

All Pantone FHI colours on cotton are also available as a lacquer coating, so you can match your textiles to coated buttons, zippers, trimmings and accessories. The most popular FHI colours are also available in plastic . These are also suitable for leather.

If you would like to know which colour standard is right for you, please contact our team of experts . If you would like to read more about why colour standards are so important, please click here .

If you need more help choosing the right Pantone product for you, please use our helpful guides: