RAL Design System plus — hue 085

This hue therefore splits differently from the hues before it. In 050 and 080 the division runs between muted and bright; here it runs between yellow and green. At low saturation the eye reads the green component and you end up at khaki, olive and sage; at high saturation the yellow drowns that component out completely.

That makes the hue useful for a palette that has to bridge a yellow and a green elsewhere in the scheme: a shade from 085 at medium-high saturation belongs to both and breaks the jump. At the same time it makes it risky in a conversation in which "yellow" has been agreed — many people no longer call the muted half yellow at all.

Of the three colour attributes, hue is the strongest predictor of whether people appreciate a colour, stronger than lightness and much stronger than saturation. In that research yellow-green consistently scores lowest of the whole circle, and 085 stands on the edge of that area.

All 39 colours in this group

RAL 085 40 10 — Mineral greenView RAL 085 40 10 →RAL 085 40 20 — Khaki greenView RAL 085 40 20 →RAL 085 40 30 — Moss brownView RAL 085 40 30 →RAL 085 50 10 — Coriander ochreView RAL 085 50 10 →RAL 085 50 20 — Pyrite slate greenView RAL 085 50 20 →RAL 085 50 30 — Sepia yellowView RAL 085 50 30 →RAL 085 50 40 — Marshy greenView RAL 085 50 40 →RAL 085 50 50 — Honey yellow greenView RAL 085 50 50 →RAL 085 60 10 — Matte oliveView RAL 085 60 10 →RAL 085 60 20 — Pond greenView RAL 085 60 20 →RAL 085 60 30 — Wood greenView RAL 085 60 30 →RAL 085 60 40 — Lichen greenView RAL 085 60 40 →RAL 085 60 50 — Mineral umberView RAL 085 60 50 →RAL 085 60 60 — Loden yellowView RAL 085 60 60 →RAL 085 70 10 — Raffia greigeView RAL 085 70 10 →RAL 085 70 20 — Feldspar greyView RAL 085 70 20 →RAL 085 70 30 — Hay yellowView RAL 085 70 30 →RAL 085 70 40 — Winter pear beigeView RAL 085 70 40 →RAL 085 70 50 — Autumn apple yellowView RAL 085 70 50 →RAL 085 70 60 — Pitmaston pear yellowView RAL 085 70 60 →RAL 085 70 70 — Immortelle yellowView RAL 085 70 70 →RAL 085 70 75 — Golden beryl yellowView RAL 085 70 75 →RAL 085 80 10 — Velvet beigeView RAL 085 80 10 →RAL 085 80 20 — Mineral beigeView RAL 085 80 20 →RAL 085 80 30 — Moonlight yellowView RAL 085 80 30 →RAL 085 80 40 — Table pear yellowView RAL 085 80 40 →RAL 085 80 50 — Fruit yellowView RAL 085 80 50 →RAL 085 80 60 — Adonis rose yellowView RAL 085 80 60 →RAL 085 80 70 — Barberry yellowView RAL 085 80 70 →RAL 085 80 80 — Dandelion yellowView RAL 085 80 80 →RAL 085 80 85 — Decor yellowView RAL 085 80 85 →RAL 085 85 10 — Alabaster whiteView RAL 085 85 10 →RAL 085 85 20 — Light blondView RAL 085 85 20 →RAL 085 85 30 — Willow-flower yellowView RAL 085 85 30 →RAL 085 85 40 — Light ginger yellowView RAL 085 85 40 →RAL 085 90 10 — Tulip whiteView RAL 085 90 10 →RAL 085 90 20 — Alpine berry yellowView RAL 085 90 20 →RAL 085 90 30 — China clay yellowView RAL 085 90 30 →RAL 085 93 05 — Vintage whiteView RAL 085 93 05 →

More about hue 085

That is no reason to avoid the hue, but it is a reason to weigh the choice of shade more heavily than elsewhere. The resistance sits in the middle range of saturation, where the green component is visible without coming across as intended. The very muted shades — which are read as khaki or a natural grey-green — and the strongly saturated yellows do not provoke that reaction.

On the weight scale this is moreover the heaviest corner of the circle: at equal lightness, yellow-green feels heavier than any other hue, while blue-violet feels lightest. In an interior where the colour has to recede, you compensate for that with lightness.

39 shades, from L\* 40 to L\* 93, with saturation up to C\* 85 and light reflectance values from 14.1 to 84.6. The series does not begin at L\* 20 or 30: dark shades in this hue cannot be made opaque, so the dark olive you may want for a façade colour is missing here. For that you are more likely to end up at RAL 6003 olive green or at the dark shades of 090 and beyond.

At the light end the range is in fact generous: 085 80 40 *Table pear yellow*, 085 90 10 *Tulip white* and 085 93 05 *Vintage white* provide the warm, slightly greenish off-whites that turn out calmer in an interior than a yellow off-white.

In this narrow transition area between yellow and green the risk of metamerism is the greatest in the warm half of the circle. The same colour can be built up with a yellow pigment plus a trace of blue or with a green pigment plus yellow; under the light source of the laboratory those coincide, under another they do not. A touched-up surface or a repeat delivery from a different batch can therefore be right in daylight and deviate under LED light, or the other way round.

So in this hue, assess under at least two light sources: standardised daylight and the light of the final situation. Record the approval on the A4 colour samples as the colour standard, not on a fan-deck sample.

Technical data

Hue: 085 · Shades: 39 · Lightness: L\* 40–93 · Saturation: C\* 05–85 · Lab values: per shade on the colour page · LRV: 14.1 to 84.6 · 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 080, RAL Design 090

Loose colour samples from this group

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