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Show HN: Find matching acrylic paints for any HEX color

acrylicmatch.com

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Re: Show HN: Find matching acrylic paints for any HEX color

#2

Post by Dwedit »

Paint is subject to the effects of radiance. How paint looks changes depending on the surrounding lighting in the room, including the colors of other walls and objects which the light bounces off. So even if you could pick out a color from a perfectly calibrated display, then look at it under ideal white light and see that it matches, it won't look the same when painted on actual walls.

Re: Show HN: Find matching acrylic paints for any HEX color

#3

Post by esafak »

Dwedit wrote: post #2

Paint is subject to the effects of radiance. How paint looks changes depending on the surrounding lighting in the room, including the colors of other walls and objects which the light bounces off. So even if you could pick out a color from a perfectly calibrated display, then look at it under ideal white light and see that it matches, it won't look the same when painted on actual walls.

Don't downrate, (s)he's right. If you are going to paint something, paint a sample foamboard or something and view it in the right context. It is remarkable how the color of paint can be affected by its surroundings as it refracts and reflects. It will look rather unlike the pictures in the catalog if your lighting conditions are different.

Re: Show HN: Find matching acrylic paints for any HEX color

#6

Post by o11c »

nick238 wrote: post #5

Matching additive colors (RGB) to subtractive (CMYK, though even in mixed paints there are dozens of tints) feels fraught with peril.

More like "fundamentally impossible". Even ignoring the limited colorspaces due to choices of primary (i.e. the fact that no laser's color can be emitted by a screen), and assuming you calibrate your "white" (most screens are overbright these days), it turns out the pigments are really bad at "reflect exactly this pure-ish wavelength and absorb everything else", which is very frequently done by emitters.

Re: Show HN: Find matching acrylic paints for any HEX color

#7

Post by snibsnib »

Dwedit wrote: post #2

Paint is subject to the effects of radiance. How paint looks changes depending on the surrounding lighting in the room, including the colors of other walls and objects which the light bounces off. So even if you could pick out a color from a perfectly calibrated display, then look at it under ideal white light and see that it matches, it won't look the same when painted on actual walls.

I used to work in a paint lab. Things things that also affect perceived color include:

- Undercoat color

- Number of coats

- Gloss Level

- Size of colored area

- Surrounding Colour

- Combination of tinters used by each brand. (Different tinters can make colours metameric)

- Light Source (Incandescent, D65, LED, Fluorescent)

- Monitor Color Space (sRGB, DCI-P3)

- Color Space / Model used for conversion (Lab, Luv, Lch)

- Colour Difference dE Model Used (CIE76, CMC, CIE00)

- Precision and spectral range of the spectrophotometer used.

Etc

Re: Show HN: Find matching acrylic paints for any HEX color

#10

Post by schobi »

It would be interesting to learn how this was created.

Did you buy all these colors and paint and scan them? Did you analyze the shopping images of the bottles and classify them into hex colors? Or maybe just group by the color names given in the storefront listing?

Vastly different efforts, different "accuracy", but still, each methods has its use. But knowing what to expect would be nice.

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