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Finish simulator
A matte black never looks as black as a gloss one, and a deep blue loses depth when it is flat. The pigment has not changed; the surface has. Enter a colour to see how finish alone moves it.
Matte / flat#41506cL* 34 · chroma 18ΔE00 from the pigment: 8.2Satin / eggshell#334665L* 29 · chroma 21ΔE00 from the pigment: 4.5Gloss, seen away from the highlight#1f395dL* 24 · chroma 25ΔE00 from the pigment: 0.4Gloss, seen in the highlight#babfcaL* 77 · chroma 6ΔE00 from the pigment: 54.2
How this works
About 4% of light reflects off the top surface of a paint, plastic or glaze before reaching the pigment (Fresnel reflection at a refractive index near 1.5). That light is uncoloured.
Matte surfaces scatter that reflection in every direction, so it is added to the colour from any viewpoint. Gloss surfaces send it in one direction, so away from the highlight the colour arrives undiluted.
The pigment layer's colour is taken as the colour you enter; each view adds a share of the surface reflection in linear light, and the shift is measured with CIEDE2000.
Limitations
An illustrative model with fixed shares, not a measurement of any product. Real finishes vary with gloss level, texture, lighting geometry and the pigment's own scattering.
It ignores metallic and pearlescent finishes, whose colour changes with angle for different reasons.
Wet surfaces darken for a related but stronger reason — light trapped in the water film — so they go further than 'gloss away from the highlight'.