RAL Design System plus — hue 100

Perceived weight in colour is determined first of all by lightness: dark weighs, light recedes. But the hue modulates that, and within that modulation yellow-green is the extreme — it feels heavier than any other hue at the same lightness, with blue-violet as the lightest at the other end. Hue 100 sits at that maximum.

In use you notice this on large surfaces and on elements overhead. A yellow-green ceiling or a yellow-green upper border presses down visibly more than a blue or a violet of the same lightness. If you want a light effect here, you have to get it entirely from the lightness and can expect nothing from the hue. In mechanical engineering it works the other way round, to your advantage: a yellow-green base or plinth stands more firmly than a neutral one.

Of the three colour attributes, hue is the strongest predictor of whether people find a colour attractive. In that research blue consistently scores highest and yellow-green consistently lowest — and 100 lies in that trough. That is a fact to reckon with rather than to avoid: colour preference predicts how a colour will be received, not whether it does its job.

All 49 colours in this group

RAL 100 20 05 — Night greenView RAL 100 20 05 →RAL 100 30 05 — Volcanic stone greenView RAL 100 30 05 →RAL 100 30 10 — Vermilion greenView RAL 100 30 10 →RAL 100 30 20 — Uniform greenView RAL 100 30 20 →RAL 100 40 05 — Doves greyView RAL 100 40 05 →RAL 100 40 10 — Slick greenView RAL 100 40 10 →RAL 100 40 20 — Broccoli greenView RAL 100 40 20 →RAL 100 40 30 — High forest greenView RAL 100 40 30 →RAL 100 40 40 — Brussels sprout greenView RAL 100 40 40 →RAL 100 50 05 — Forest floor khakiView RAL 100 50 05 →RAL 100 50 10 — Lapwing grey greenView RAL 100 50 10 →RAL 100 50 20 — Green woodpecker oliveView RAL 100 50 20 →RAL 100 50 30 — Steppe greenView RAL 100 50 30 →RAL 100 50 40 — Faience greenView RAL 100 50 40 →RAL 100 50 50 — Tool greenView RAL 100 50 50 →RAL 100 60 05 — Smoky grey greenView RAL 100 60 05 →RAL 100 60 10 — Olivine greyView RAL 100 60 10 →RAL 100 60 20 — Grey-headed woodpecker greenView RAL 100 60 20 →RAL 100 60 30 — Cardamom greenView RAL 100 60 30 →RAL 100 60 40 — Lettuce greenView RAL 100 60 40 →RAL 100 60 50 — Art Nouveau greenView RAL 100 60 50 →RAL 100 60 60 — Smoothie greenView RAL 100 60 60 →RAL 100 70 05 — Smoky whiteView RAL 100 70 05 →RAL 100 70 10 — Anise grey yellowView RAL 100 70 10 →RAL 100 70 20 — Sand brownView RAL 100 70 20 →RAL 100 70 30 — Hippie greenView RAL 100 70 30 →RAL 100 70 40 — Linden greenView RAL 100 70 40 →RAL 100 70 50 — Dill greenView RAL 100 70 50 →RAL 100 70 60 — New greenView RAL 100 70 60 →RAL 100 80 05 — Natural greyView RAL 100 80 05 →RAL 100 80 10 — Pale beigeView RAL 100 80 10 →RAL 100 80 20 — Soft greenView RAL 100 80 20 →RAL 100 80 30 — Silver greenView RAL 100 80 30 →RAL 100 80 40 — March tulip greenView RAL 100 80 40 →RAL 100 80 50 — Light oliveView RAL 100 80 50 →RAL 100 80 60 — Advertisement greenView RAL 100 80 60 →RAL 100 80 70 — LED greenView RAL 100 80 70 →RAL 100 80 80 — March greenView RAL 100 80 80 →RAL 100 85 05 — Celery whiteView RAL 100 85 05 →RAL 100 85 10 — Palm heart creamView RAL 100 85 10 →RAL 100 85 20 — Beige greenView RAL 100 85 20 →RAL 100 85 30 — Crystal yellowView RAL 100 85 30 →RAL 100 90 05 — Brilliant yellowView RAL 100 90 05 →RAL 100 90 10 — Elderberry whiteView RAL 100 90 10 →RAL 100 90 20 — Designer cream yellowView RAL 100 90 20 →RAL 100 90 30 — Boxwood yellowView RAL 100 90 30 →RAL 100 90 40 — Primrose yellowView RAL 100 90 40 →RAL 100 90 50 — Spring yellowView RAL 100 90 50 →RAL 100 93 05 — Fog whiteView RAL 100 93 05 →

More about hue 100

So where acceptance matters — a wall in a canteen, a façade in a residential street — this is the hue that needs the most explaining. Where standing out matters, that very same thing is a quality. A colour not everyone finds attractive is a colour everyone sees.

How lively and eye-catching a surface looks is determined almost entirely by saturation. Within 100 it runs up to C\* 80, and the difference across that range is large: 100 20 05 (Night green) is a virtually black colour with an LRV of 6.7, while 100 80 60 (Advertisement green) sits at an LRV of 59 and earns the name it has. Between those two, 100 50 50 (Tool green) and 100 60 60 (Smoothie green) mark the area that is usable in mechanical engineering and product design.

The bulk of the range sits in the middle and the upper part of the lightness scale, where yellow-green takes saturation best. Towards the dark end only weak saturation remains — in this part of the circle, dark and intense do not go together.

The lightest shade, 100 93 05 (Fog white), has an LRV of 84.2 and is barely recognised as a colour on a large surface. That makes this corner of the hue usable in places where the yellow-green direction should precisely not attract attention: a wall that needs warmth without turning cream, a ceiling that must not look bluish. There the colour direction works as a correction to its surroundings, not as a colour choice.

Yellow-green shifts strongly under artificial light, because the colour sits on the border between two families and every change in the colour of the light takes that border with it. So assess it under the light of the final situation and at a larger size than a fan-deck sample; for approval, use the A4 colour samples as the colour standard.

Technical data

Hue: 100 · Shades: 49 · Lightness: L\* 20–93 · Saturation: C\* 05–80 · Lab values: per shade on the colour page · LRV: 6.7 to 84.2 · 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 095, RAL Design 110

Loose colour samples from this group

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

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