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Where can I find computer readable RGB values, or equivalents, for brand name paints such as Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, and Behr paints?

[Edit] My interest was not so much about the specific color model of RGB, I basically needed some kind of quantitative description of available paint colors of big name brands. If RGB is not scientifically appropriate, whatever quantitative description is OK.

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Under what kind of lighting? Even if you find two paints from different brands with the exact same RGB under one kind of light, they could be different from each other under another kind of light. This is because there's a whole spectrum to consider, and RGB is just a perspective. – Skaperen Jan 10 '12 at 0:02
I ran across perbang.dk/rgb some time ago; it might be useful. – Niall C. Jan 10 '12 at 5:30

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

If your looking for the RGB equivalent of a paint swatch, your probably better off looking at Pantone colors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantone

You can buy Pantone swatches (I think their pretty expensive though) and then use Photoshop or something to find the equivalent RGB value.

If you go into Photoshop and click on the Color Picker in the toolbar, theres a Color Libraries button that'll show you a great many Pantone colors. Click the one that matches the printed swatch and when you go back to the color picker, you'll see the RGB value.

As wikipedia says, Pantone is pretty much an industry standard, used in painting, printing, etc...

I'm sure you can in turn give a Sherwin Williams or whoever and Pantone color code and have them mix paint for you (if thats what you want).

If you want to take photos of the room you want to paint, photoshop it with the color you want from a swatch, some of the websites (we used sherwin williams) have tools to do that also, but won't produce Pantone or RGB values :(

-Mario

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You can't. RGB is sufficient to describe the colors to be put out by a monitor, but it is not sufficient to describe the reflectivity of a surface.

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