RAL Design System plus — hue 095

In the yellow-green part of colour space, perceptible colour differences lie close together. Two colours ten degrees apart in hue angle read as virtually the same colour in the blues and as two clearly different ones in this area. With an average hue angle of 96 degrees, 095 sits exactly in that narrow region. Without this hue the jump from yellow to yellow-green would feel larger than any other jump in the circle.

In practice that yields a finer control. If a yellow has to become slightly less yellow without already being green, 095 is the answer where 100 would go too far.

The range is 42 shades and does not begin until L\* 40. Below that there is nothing: the darkest shade is 095 40 20 (Forest green) with an LRV of 13.9. In saturation too the hue stops at 80 instead of the 90 of 090. Both limits have the same cause — in this area, colours that are very dark and saturated at the same time cannot be made opaque with the available pigments. The system shows what is reproducible.

All 42 colours in this group

RAL 095 40 10 — Shady greenView RAL 095 40 10 →RAL 095 40 20 — Forest greenView RAL 095 40 20 →RAL 095 40 30 — Bean greenView RAL 095 40 30 →RAL 095 50 10 — Dull oliveView RAL 095 50 10 →RAL 095 50 20 — Cabbage greenView RAL 095 50 20 →RAL 095 50 30 — Caper greenView RAL 095 50 30 →RAL 095 50 40 — Garden lettuce greenView RAL 095 50 40 →RAL 095 50 50 — Artichoke greenView RAL 095 50 50 →RAL 095 60 10 — Pale green greyView RAL 095 60 10 →RAL 095 60 20 — Pale greenView RAL 095 60 20 →RAL 095 60 30 — Cypress greenView RAL 095 60 30 →RAL 095 60 40 — Grape greenView RAL 095 60 40 →RAL 095 60 50 — Gooseberry greenView RAL 095 60 50 →RAL 095 60 60 — Guava greenView RAL 095 60 60 →RAL 095 60 70 — Romaine greenView RAL 095 60 70 →RAL 095 70 10 — Sand greyView RAL 095 70 10 →RAL 095 70 20 — Crocodile greenView RAL 095 70 20 →RAL 095 70 30 — Chicory greenView RAL 095 70 30 →RAL 095 70 40 — Banana greenView RAL 095 70 40 →RAL 095 70 50 — Star fruit yellow greenView RAL 095 70 50 →RAL 095 70 60 — Papaya yellow greenView RAL 095 70 60 →RAL 095 70 70 — Bronze greenView RAL 095 70 70 →RAL 095 80 10 — Sapphire light yellowView RAL 095 80 10 →RAL 095 80 20 — Pale oliveView RAL 095 80 20 →RAL 095 80 30 — Asparagus yellowView RAL 095 80 30 →RAL 095 80 40 — Pea greenView RAL 095 80 40 →RAL 095 80 50 — Williams pear yellowView RAL 095 80 50 →RAL 095 80 60 — Greenish yellowView RAL 095 80 60 →RAL 095 80 70 — Mimosa yellowView RAL 095 80 70 →RAL 095 80 80 — Sorbet yellowView RAL 095 80 80 →RAL 095 85 10 — Salsify whiteView RAL 095 85 10 →RAL 095 85 20 — Dull light yellowView RAL 095 85 20 →RAL 095 85 30 — Leaf yellowView RAL 095 85 30 →RAL 095 85 40 — Natural yellowView RAL 095 85 40 →RAL 095 85 50 — Sport yellowView RAL 095 85 50 →RAL 095 90 10 — Atlas whiteView RAL 095 90 10 →RAL 095 90 20 — Pearl yellowView RAL 095 90 20 →RAL 095 90 30 — Lemon ice cream yellowView RAL 095 90 30 →RAL 095 90 40 — Fresh yellowView RAL 095 90 40 →RAL 095 90 50 — Luminescent yellowView RAL 095 90 50 →RAL 095 90 59 — Dynamic yellowView RAL 095 90 59 →RAL 095 93 05 — Crepe silk whiteView RAL 095 93 05 →

More about hue 095

So anyone needing a dark colour here turns to 100, which does run down to L\* 20. That is a shift in hue of half a step and is barely noticeable in use; the alternative — forcing a dark shade that does not exist — costs more.

The official names in this hue are strikingly unanimous: 095 50 40 (Garden lettuce green), 095 60 50 (Gooseberry green), 095 70 40 (Banana green), 095 80 30 (Asparagus yellow). That is no accident of the naming but an indication of how the area is read. Yellow-green is the colour of young foliage and of unprocessed food, and that association is strong enough to give the colour a meaning of its own.

In retail and hospitality that is worked with deliberately: where freshness is the theme, this is the area people look in. Outside that context the same association works against you — in an office setting or a technical application, yellow-green is read as unintended rather than as chosen.

A colour from 095 carries two directions within it, and that makes it harder to place in a palette than a pure yellow or a pure green. Next to a warm neighbour it reads green, next to a cool neighbour yellow. Put it beside timber and you see the yellow side come forward; beside concrete or galvanised steel the green side instead.

The solution lies not in the colour but in the saturation. The weakly saturated shades, up to about C\* 20, are stable enough to keep the same impression in changing surroundings. From C\* 40 upwards the colour goes along with its neighbours and the palette around it has to be fixed, not just the colour itself.

Precisely because this hue is a half step, the difference from 090 and 100 is barely visible on a screen. Compare the three side by side on the fan deck or in the colour book while you are choosing, and for approval lay the A4 colour samples next to the material the colour will sit against.

Technical data

Hue: 095 · Shades: 42 · Lightness: L\* 40–93 · Saturation: C\* 05–80 · Lab values: per shade on the colour page · LRV: 13.9 to 83.0 · 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 090, RAL Design 100

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