Location of Munsell colors in the RAL Design System

Abstract

Color order systems are used in various areas concerned with color such as education, color design, and industry. Their nomenclature provides a reliable tool for specification and communication of color appearance. Two of the most widely used color order systems are the Munsell Color System and the RAL Design System. When using both color systems, it would be useful to convert the nomenclature from one to the other. The goal of this study is to define solely the location of Munsell colors in the RAL Design System and to obtain helpful data in case of use both color systems. In accordance with this purpose, the RAL equivalents of certain Munsell colors are determined and the possibility of naming RAL colors by unambiguous adjectives is researched. This study, is limited with the definition of RAL equivalents of certain Munsell colors, but it is obvious that it can be expanded easily by including RAL equivalents of a large number of Munsell color and vice versa. (C) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 30, 130-134, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).