These are not catalogues. Each page describes a manufacturer’s colour system — how it names and numbers colours, how big the range is, what it publishes on its own pages, and where to go for the authoritative value. Colourwise holds no licensed manufacturer colour data and reproduces none.
Two distinct traditions sit side by side here: small curated cards with names and numbers, and very large tinting systems where the code is what actually identifies the colour.
A name and a number, written together as "Hague Blue No. 30". The number is the stable identifier — names are occasionally reused across ranges and the number is not.
A deliberately small core palette of around 130 colours, revised rather than expanded. The restraint is the point of the brand and it makes the range unusually stable year to year.
A name, plus a colour code drawn from a hue/lightness/saturation notation for the mixing system. Retail tins and trade mixing use different identifiers for what is often the same colour.
Very large. The mixing system spans thousands of colours, of which only a curated subset appears on any retail colour card.
Names with a DH prefix code, e.g. a "DH" number distinct from the main Dulux notation. A separate system, not a subset of the main one.
A small curated range in the heritage-palette style — muted, historically-referenced colours, closer in size and intent to a Farrow & Ball card than to the main Dulux system.
A name and a number, similar in shape to Farrow & Ball's. Colours drawn from historical archives often carry a period attribution alongside the number.
A core card of roughly 130 colours plus several archive-derived collections, including ranges developed with heritage organisations.
Names, with codes used mainly in the trade and mixing systems rather than surfaced prominently on retail colour pages — so a Crown colour is usually identified by name alone in domestic use.
Large, spanning a retail card, a substantial trade range and a mixing system.
Names with an alphanumeric mixing code. The range is built around in-store tinting rather than a fixed printed card, so the code is the identifier that actually matters.
Extremely large — a tinting system running to many thousands of colours. Size here is a reason for caution rather than a selling point: a catalogue that big produces far more records than any of them are individually worth.
A colour family plus a two-digit number, written as "Teal 03" or "White 05". Unusually systematic, and unusually easy to search for.
Small and deliberately so, organised by family with a handful of colours in each.
Generally larger ranges with more systematic numbering, and more consistent publication of LRV and digital values than the UK brands manage.
A name and a number, with several parallel numbering systems in use across collections — the Classic Colors numbering and the Color Preview / Aura ranges do not share a scheme.
Very large, spanning several thousand colours across multiple collections that each carry their own numbering.
A name and an SW number, e.g. "SW 7008". The most consistent identifier scheme of the twelve — one number, one colour, stable across collections.
Very large, but with an unusually well-structured core numbering system beneath it, which is what makes the range navigable at that size.
A name and a numeric code, with the code used consistently at the in-store tinting machine — so the code, not the name, is what actually gets you the right tin.
Large and oriented around in-store tinting rather than a fixed card, so the practical range is whatever the machine can mix rather than what is printed.
A name and an alphanumeric code, with codes shared across PPG's professional tools.
Large, with a professional specification layer over it aimed at architects and designers rather than at retail customers.
A name and an alphanumeric code following PPG's shared conventions, which means a Glidden code and a PPG Paints code look alike without being interchangeable.
A mid-sized consumer range within the PPG group, positioned below PPG Paints and sold largely through general retail rather than trade counters.
12 brands assessed. 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.