The various color systems and their codes can be a real labyrinth for laymen. Which one is used and when? What do these codes show us if we don’t see the color itself? Without limitation, here is a short guide about it, using Duck Egg Blue as an example.
RGB (Red Green Blue): this is a color mixing standard used by monitors, displays and TV screens. It shows the amount of these three components (red, green, blue) in the mixed color. This is an additive color mixing method. Their value can be between 0 and 255. If all the three is 0, the result is black, if all the three is 255, that gives white. The RGB code of one of the shades of duck egg blue is: 165, 186, 177.
CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow Key): it is used in pressed materials, it is a subtractive color mixing method (the mix of the similar amount of the colors effects black). The individual colors are applied on the paper as small dots in a grid. Mixing is solved by traversing the grids. This way the dots just partly cover each other. The code contains these traversing angles. Duck egg blue is: 11 0 5 27 in this system.
NCS (Natural Color System): it is used for mixing wall paints, colors are programmed in the mixing machine by this protocol. It contains numbers which mean rates in %: first pair of numbers=darkness (how close the given color is to black), second pair of numbers=color intensity/saturation, third pair of numbers=the rate of the second color in the mix. It contains letters which mean the contained colors: B=blue, R=red, Y=yellow, G=green and N=neutral. The S=standard at the beginning of the code. Example: S 3010-B90G (duck egg blue). 30=darkness, 10=saturation compared to the main basic color, B=blue, 90=%G, G=green.
PMS (Pantone Matching System): it is the standardized color system of Pantone company, it is general and universal, namely by using this code, the color of any product (fabric, plastic, paint etc.) will be the same as the desired all over the world. Logos of greater companies, flags of countries, symbols of associations etc. are defined by this method. It is different from the above mentioned that it contains completely artificial colors also, for example neon colors or metallic colors. All the colors get a three or four digit number code beside their fantasy name. The color is similar to duck egg blue: 5507 C
RAL (Reichs-Ausschuß für Lieferbedingungen und Gütesicherung): it is a German color system used in Europe. Its code is a four digit number. The first number indicates the color group to which the given color belongs: 1xxx yellows, 2xxx oranges, 3xxx reds, 4xxx purples, 5xxx blues, 6xxx greens, 7xxx greys, 8xxx browns, 9xxx whites/blacks. For example, colors of traffic signs are defined by this, but most of the producing companies (door, window, radiator etc.) use this when defining their color range. The RAL color nearest to duck egg blue is 7038.
Ask for help of an interior designer for choosing the proper colors for your home.