Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
FAQ: Converting RAL, Pantone, Munsell, CXF, and RGB Color Codes
We've received almost countless requests for such information as what is the Ral equivalent of Pantone 554 and 228C ... the Munsell equivalent of Ral 5020 and 5009 ... etc., etc.
We suggest that you see:
www.tradeprintsupplies.co.uk/shop/products_view.php?prod=121 for their conversion kit, and- www.dorncolor.com/RALMain.htm for all kinds of information and color decks for RAL colors, and
- www.pantone.com/pages/products/product.aspx?pid=711&ca=2 as a starting point for Pantone information
We also reprint here a few of the better replies to the inquiries from our finishing.com public forum --
There is probably an easier way, but in the past (converting RGB images to embroidery thread colours) I scanned a colour chart, then used the colour blocks to set up a custom pallet in Photoshop, then told photoshop to convert the image to the custom palet. Alternatively, scan the RAL colours and determine manually which has RGB values closest to yours.
Andy Pugh - UK
The RAL-site official colour-cards are supplied in USA by: DORN COLOR, Inc. Cleveland, OH [Ed. note: see URL near top of page].
Remmelt Bosklopper - Enschede, The Netherlands
All the years I have been working with colours I have never found an exact correlation between these two colour systems [RAL & Pantone]. The best way is to sit down with a RAL and a Pantone colour chart and look for similar colours. If you have a spectrophotometer test the colours on it. The Ral colour range is German. If you type in https://www.ral-farben.de/ral-farben.html?&L=1 this will tell you all you need to know about RAL colours. Alternatively if you just want a colour chart (not exact shade) with RAL colours on it, speak to a friendly paint supplier. (a European Industrial paint supplier is your best bet).
Drew Devlin - North Lincolnshire, UK
Actually RAL and Munsell are using different standard of colors. So no exactly the same color for both. But you can find the closest one. You can use Munsell Conversion color from http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=1061 then go to www.easyrgb.com/matching.php to find the closest RAL Code.
Rasawulan - Indonesia
Please feel free to follow up by posting any procedural questions you may have in our public forum at www.finishing.com/letters. Sorry, but we cannot post requests for specific color matches across systems because there are virtually an infinite number of combinations and we were getting several such requests every day :-)