Data sources

Colourwise’s curated catalogue draws its reference hex values from CSS/web-standard named colours (a W3C standard, freely usable), common design-industry reference values, and widely-cited pigment/gemstone reference shades. No proprietary colour-matching system (such as Pantone) data is used or claimed as equivalent.

Curated claims (mood, cultural, historical, interior, fashion and branding associations) are written from well-established, broadly-documented conventions — not scraped or reproduced from any single proprietary source. Some entries are still awaiting a fuller source review; see methodology for how confidence and review status are shown on each page.

How the catalogue is kept

Colourwise keeps an editorial watch on what readers look for and do not find, on how well each claim is sourced, and on the corrections readers send in. Nothing on a published page changes without a person reviewing it first.

What Colourwise does not hold

• Manufacturers’ own product colour data. No paint, ink or product colour catalogue is reproduced here; the paint pages explain how each brand names and numbers its colours instead.
• Photographed real-world colour examples beyond a small, individually reviewed set.

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