Colourwise holds no manufacturer paint catalogue, and this page explains why that turns out to be the more useful arrangement. Bring the value from the manufacturer’s own colour page and the engine will tell you what it will do on a wall, what light will do to it, and what to reach for if you want the same idea lighter, deeper, warmer or quieter.
All 12 manufacturers assessed restrict reuse of their colour data. Colourwise therefore publishes no manufacturer colour names, codes, digital values or LRVs. It publishes descriptions of how each brand identifies its colours, links to the manufacturer, and its own colour arithmetic on values you supply. The full data-rights position is here.
Nine different questions, because “what is closest” is usually not the one you meant. Each names what it changes and what it holds constant.
Minimises the total perceptual difference. The right question when you want the nearest thing available and are not trying to change anything.
Holds the hue and the saturation and moves the lightness up. Use this when a colour is right but the room cannot afford how much light it absorbs.
Holds the hue and the saturation and moves the lightness down. Use this when a colour is right but reads as too weak on a large surface.
Holds the lightness and the depth and shifts the undertone towards yellow and red. Use this when a colour goes cold under the light you actually have.
Holds the lightness and the depth and shifts the undertone towards blue and green. Use this when a colour reads yellow or pink in a way you did not want.
Holds the hue and the lightness and takes saturation out. Use this when a colour is the right idea but too loud across a whole wall.
Holds the hue and the lightness and puts saturation in. Use this when a colour disappears in place and needs to actually register.
Ignores hue entirely and matches how light the colour is. This is the useful one for substituting inside an existing scheme, because lightness is what sets a room's structure.
Ignores hue family and matches warmth. Undertone is what governs whether a colour sits comfortably beside a given wood or metal.
Not catalogues — descriptions of each brand’s colour system. How it names and numbers colours, how large the range is, what the manufacturer publishes on its own pages, and what Colourwise is permitted to say about it.
Light Reflectance Value is measured off a physical painted surface, so no digital tool can compute it — including this one. 5 of the 12 brands assessed publish it on their own colour pages, which is where to go for it.
A digital colour value is a good way to narrow a decision and a poor way to make one. Everything Colourwise computes is arithmetic on three numbers; the paint is a physical material in a specific room under specific light.
Three of the eight steps matter most when you are comparing one colour against another, which is what everything else on this page is for:
A sample card is printed or painted on smooth white stock. Your wall is a different texture over a different base colour, and both change how much light comes back and how even it looks.
Simultaneous contrast means a colour is partly defined by what sits next to it. A grey beside an orange-toned oak floor is a different grey.
Every display has its own white point, gamut and calibration, and none of them account for the spectral behaviour of a physical coating.
The full guide to testing a paint sample covers the rest — how large to make the patch, how long to leave it, and what to judge it against.
Manufacturer and product names are used here only to identify each company's own products. Colourwise is independent: it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, approved by or connected to any paint manufacturer, and holds no manufacturer colour data under licence. All trade marks belong to their respective owners.