Show HN: Find matching acrylic paints for any HEX color | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Find matching acrylic paints for any HEX color

acrylicmatch.com

56 pointsdotspencer19 comments

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.

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

Yup. It’s called “metamerism.”

With most paints, the medium used can affect color, as well as aging. I used to use Ph Martin watercolor dyes, and they were notorious for fading after a relatively short time. The illustrations that I colored with them, are now monochrome. I’m sure they’re better, now. Pigment science has come a long way. Acrylic was always a lot longer-lasting.

Also, context matters. Our perception changes, based on surrounding colors. There’s a bunch of optical illusions that leverage this.

But I think this is kind of a cool project.

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.

I pulled out the RGB values from the solid color areas of the swatch images on the manufacturers' websites for each of the colors.

It's definitely just an approximation of the real-world color, but I figured that if that's the RGB value the manufacturer used, it's probably pretty close.

Then I calculate the euclidean distance between the RGB value from the provided hex and each of the paints, and show the two closest matches from each brand.

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.

Perhaps OP is offering a first approximation and not attempting an impossible platonic ideal?

Yeah the goal was simply to find the closest paints for specific RGB values from a reference image for a pointillism project I was working on.

I wasn’t trying to do the impossible and find the absolute perfect real-world color match. Just something close given the limited palette of acrylic paint brands I could find locally.

So this is nice, you seem to be covering the acrylic brands you see in a craft store. I’ve had to pick nearest colors in the past, and end up buying several each time. This should help, thanks! Are there artists brands in there too?

For those who don’t know, the main difference between craft store paints and artist grade paints are:

- ratio of pigment to binder (craft store paints have less pigment)

- pigment quality (craft store paints are usually larger grain and may sometimes use unsafe pigments)

- color purity and consistency (craft store paints may contain traces of unintended pigments and may vary between batches)

- color variety (craft store paint manufacturers are NOT going to be paying extra for rare pigments)

- lightfastness (craft store paints may fade quicker due to lack of UV protectant additives)

- binder quality (craft store paints may use cheaper, more toxic binders)

Otherwise they are the same stuff, it’s kinda hard to screw up mixing acrylic binder with a pigment.

Check that your paint has the ACMI Approved Product seal.

https://www.acmiart.org/acmi-seals

Yeah so far I've only added brands you can find in craft stores (FolkArt Matte, Apple Barrel, and DecoArt Americana)

Any specific artist brands you'd want to see added?

You know what would make this more awesome? Getting Citadel and Vallejo on there.

I am absolutely sure putting a ```<div class="wash" style="background-color: nulnoil"></div>``` over your entire page can make any website look good

Also, try IONIC paints, they are awesome

So much love for this comment

I can definitely try to make that happen!

i would definitely try to get yourself on affiliate programs, this looks like a useful tool and just adding your code to the end of Amazon redirects could earn you a (admittedly small) cut

damn, i was looking for army painter and citadel ranges :p

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