Close up on RAL colours

RAL was introduced primarily to help development within the lacquer and pigment industries by standardising colour tone.

The RAL colour collection was first developed in 1927 in Germany by order of the state and industry.

RAL was introduced primarily to help development within the lacquer and pigment industries by standardising colour tone.

The original 40 colours from 1927 were quickly noted as being insufficient for the diversity of the market, and new colour tones were added to the system - most recently, magenta red and three new shades of grey.

Thirty of the forty tones from 1927 are still contained in the RAL colour charts, which are distributed today.

Nowadays, there are 194 individual RAL colours each of which has a four-digit designation, in which the first digit specifies the classification of a colour region.

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