The best-selling RAL colours: white and grey top the list
By Mark Kotterink · · 2 min read
In brief:Which RAL colours are ordered most? As an official RAL distributor we share our top 10 of individual colour samples, with a striking conclusion.
Many websites publish lists of "the most popular RAL colours". Those lists are usually an opinion. We can measure it. RAL-Shop is an official RAL distributor for the Benelux. We see which colour samples our customers order. That gives a different picture from most lists.
The top 10
These are the ten RAL Classic colours of which we supply the most individual colour samples, in order:
- RAL 9010 Pure white
- RAL 9002 Grey white
- RAL 7044 Silk grey
- RAL 7006 Beige grey
- RAL 6021 Pale green
- RAL 1019 Grey beige
- RAL 9016 Traffic white
- RAL 7032 Pebble grey
- RAL 1013 Oyster white
- RAL 9001 Cream
Just outside the top 10 are RAL 7021 Black grey, RAL 7016 Anthracite grey, RAL 7039 Quartz grey and RAL 9003 Signal white.
What stands out
Nine of the ten colours are white, grey or beige. The only exception is RAL 6021 Pale green. It is a light, strongly muted green that leans towards grey. It is a colour from mechanical engineering, one that behaves calmly as a large surface. Bright colours do not appear in the top 10.
That is no coincidence. Among whites and light greys the differences are small. RAL 9010 and RAL 9016 lie close together. On a screen you cannot see the difference. On a window frame you can. That is exactly why people order a sample of these colours. A colour sample is the only way to be sure.
Most used is not most chosen
Many lists name the traffic and signal colours as the most popular RAL colours: traffic yellow, traffic orange, traffic red, traffic blue and traffic green. In paint and coatings these may well be widely used colours. But in our sales of RAL colour samples they rank near the bottom.
The explanation is simple. Whoever applies traffic red does not choose. The colour is fixed in a specification. There is nothing to compare, so no sample is ordered. Whoever gives a window frame, façade or machine a colour does choose. And then it is almost always white or grey.
Further reading
- Which white? RAL 9010, 9016, 9001, 9002 and 9003 compared
- Which light grey? RAL 7044, 7032, 7035 and 7038 compared
- RAL 7016 or RAL 7021: the difference
- Why do we choose grey and white so often?
- RAL Classic is an industrial fan deck, not an interior fan deck
Want to compare for yourself? Order individual RAL K4 colour samples of the colours you are considering, or directly via the colour page of each colour above. Or order the RAL K5 fan deck, with all 216 RAL Classic colours at one colour per page.
Source: sales figures for individual RAL colour samples at RAL-Shop.