RAL Design System plus — hue 060

At saturations 05 and 10 this hue yields colours which in practice are given not a colour name but a category: 060 60 05 *Screed grey*, 060 80 10 *Soft greige*, 060 40 10 *Moor oak grey*. They are greys with a minute warm direction, and that is exactly why they are usable where a pure grey turns out too hard.

That is bound up with simultaneous contrast. A neutral grey next to warm timber or next to a yellow brick looks cool and often greenish; a grey from this hue compensates for that difference and only then really reads as neutral. Anyone looking for a neutral impression in warm surroundings ends up here more often than on the grey axis.

In this hue the saturation runs up to C\* 80, with 060 60 80 *Accent orange* at the outer edge. In this case the name is an instruction for use: this is a colour for a limited surface in an otherwise muted palette — a push button, a handrail, a machine part that the hand has to find.

All 48 colours in this group

RAL 060 20 05 — Industrial blackView RAL 060 20 05 →RAL 060 30 05 — Vehicle body greyView RAL 060 30 05 →RAL 060 30 10 — Nutria fur brownView RAL 060 30 10 →RAL 060 30 20 — Peat brownView RAL 060 30 20 →RAL 060 30 27 — Cassiterite brownView RAL 060 30 27 →RAL 060 40 05 — Zinc greyView RAL 060 40 05 →RAL 060 40 10 — Moor oak greyView RAL 060 40 10 →RAL 060 40 20 — Coffee bean brownView RAL 060 40 20 →RAL 060 40 30 — Brazilian brownView RAL 060 40 30 →RAL 060 40 40 — Plane brownView RAL 060 40 40 →RAL 060 50 05 — Chinchilla greyView RAL 060 50 05 →RAL 060 50 10 — Sandstone greyView RAL 060 50 10 →RAL 060 50 20 — Mushroom brownView RAL 060 50 20 →RAL 060 50 30 — Mustard brownView RAL 060 50 30 →RAL 060 50 40 — Camel brownView RAL 060 50 40 →RAL 060 50 50 — Date fruit brownView RAL 060 50 50 →RAL 060 50 60 — Elm brown redView RAL 060 50 60 →RAL 060 50 70 — Dry clayView RAL 060 50 70 →RAL 060 60 05 — Screed greyView RAL 060 60 05 →RAL 060 60 10 — Oak brownView RAL 060 60 10 →RAL 060 60 20 — Light topaz ochreView RAL 060 60 20 →RAL 060 60 30 — Cognac brownView RAL 060 60 30 →RAL 060 60 40 — Maple syrup brownView RAL 060 60 40 →RAL 060 60 50 — Turmeric redView RAL 060 60 50 →RAL 060 60 60 — Bitter orangeView RAL 060 60 60 →RAL 060 60 70 — Gold orangeView RAL 060 60 70 →RAL 060 60 80 — Accent orangeView RAL 060 60 80 →RAL 060 70 05 — Cement greigeView RAL 060 70 05 →RAL 060 70 10 — Putty greyView RAL 060 70 10 →RAL 060 70 20 — Peanut butterView RAL 060 70 20 →RAL 060 70 30 — Peach yellowView RAL 060 70 30 →RAL 060 70 40 — Candle yellowView RAL 060 70 40 →RAL 060 70 50 — Topaz yellowView RAL 060 70 50 →RAL 060 70 60 — Melon orangeView RAL 060 70 60 →RAL 060 70 70 — Indian yellowView RAL 060 70 70 →RAL 060 80 05 — Light chamois beigeView RAL 060 80 05 →RAL 060 80 10 — Soft greigeView RAL 060 80 10 →RAL 060 80 20 — Biscuit beigeView RAL 060 80 20 →RAL 060 80 30 — Mild orangeView RAL 060 80 30 →RAL 060 80 40 — Apricot orangeView RAL 060 80 40 →RAL 060 85 05 — Champagne roseView RAL 060 85 05 →RAL 060 85 10 — Cornmeal beigeView RAL 060 85 10 →RAL 060 85 20 — Dough yellowView RAL 060 85 20 →RAL 060 85 30 — Light saffron orangeView RAL 060 85 30 →RAL 060 90 05 — Grain whiteView RAL 060 90 05 →RAL 060 90 10 — Vanilla creamView RAL 060 90 10 →RAL 060 90 15 — Apricot creamView RAL 060 90 15 →RAL 060 93 05 — Wool whiteView RAL 060 93 05 →

More about hue 060

Between those two extremes lies the middle area with shades such as 060 60 60 *Bitter orange* and 060 70 30 *Peach yellow*. There the hue is usable on larger surfaces, because the saturation stays low enough not to keep tugging at the attention.

Yellow-orange is sensitive to the light source. Under warm artificial light this hue gains saturation and moves towards orange; under cool light it loses warmth and the low-saturation shades tip towards grey. The difference is greatest with precisely those greige tints where the colour direction is minimal to begin with: a choice that is right under workshop light can turn out neutral grey or visibly beige in the final situation.

Two shades that look the same under one light source and not under another — metamerism — moreover occur more often in this area than in saturated hues, because there are several pigment combinations that give the same weak effect. So assess under the light of the final situation.

The range runs from L\* 20 to L\* 93, with light reflectance values from 6.2 to 84.7. The darkest shade, 060 20 05 *Industrial black*, is a brown-black; the lightest, 060 93 05 *Wool white*, an off-white. Within that spread, lightness determines the perceived weight of a surface: dark weighs, light recedes. That works here almost as purely as on the grey axis, because at the lowest blocks the saturation hardly plays a part.

With the near-neutral shades of this hue in particular, the difference between two neighbouring positions is small — too small for a screen and too small for a fan-deck sample on a large wall. Choose with the fan deck or the colour book and approve on the A4 colour samples as the colour standard, next to the material the colour will sit against.

Technical data

Hue: 060 · Shades: 48 · Lightness: L\* 20–93 · Saturation: C\* 05–80 · Lab values: per shade on the colour page · LRV: 6.2 to 84.7 · Included in: RAL D4 A4 colour samples (colour standard), RAL D2 fan deck, RAL D3 colour book, RAL D4 atlas, RAL D6 and D8 boxes

Neighbouring hues

RAL Design 050, RAL Design 070

Loose colour samples from this group

Click a colour for the available formats, or see the full product range in the shop.

To the RAL Design System plus shop