RAL Design System plus — hue 180

In the built environment green is never a neutral choice. It always refers to something: to planting, to the tradition of painted exterior joinery, to the colour of railings and garden furniture that was taken for granted for generations. In the Netherlands that means above all the dark, muted green you find again in the darker shades of this hue.

At the same time, the same area holds the green of safety and signage. In that context green means: free passage, emergency exit, safe condition. That meaning is learned rather than natural — but learned so strongly that a saturated green in a public space is always read as a sign, even when it is meant decoratively. Bear that in mind when you use a saturated shade on a wall or façade in a public building.

On the warm–cool scale 180 sits on the cool side, but not at the extreme. Research into colour warmth shows that the maximum of warmth lies at a hue angle of around 50 degrees — orange — and the maximum of coolness at around 230 degrees, in the blues. With 180 you are between the two, clearly in the cool half but without the chill of blue.

All 61 colours in this group

RAL 180 20 05 — Pitch greenView RAL 180 20 05 →RAL 180 20 10 — Lacquer greenView RAL 180 20 10 →RAL 180 20 15 — Fence greenView RAL 180 20 15 →RAL 180 20 20 — Myrtle greenView RAL 180 20 20 →RAL 180 30 05 — Amazon greenView RAL 180 30 05 →RAL 180 30 10 — Rich grey turquoiseView RAL 180 30 10 →RAL 180 30 15 — Blackboard greenView RAL 180 30 15 →RAL 180 30 20 — Swedish greenView RAL 180 30 20 →RAL 180 30 25 — Fjord greenView RAL 180 30 25 →RAL 180 30 30 — Urban greenView RAL 180 30 30 →RAL 180 30 35 — Jungle greenView RAL 180 30 35 →RAL 180 40 05 — Earth greenView RAL 180 40 05 →RAL 180 40 10 — Pine greenView RAL 180 40 10 →RAL 180 40 15 — Forest greeneryView RAL 180 40 15 →RAL 180 40 20 — Sea greenView RAL 180 40 20 →RAL 180 40 25 — Eucalyptus greenView RAL 180 40 25 →RAL 180 40 30 — Fresh ivy greenView RAL 180 40 30 →RAL 180 40 35 — Chrysocolla medium greenView RAL 180 40 35 →RAL 180 40 40 — Poster greenView RAL 180 40 40 →RAL 180 40 45 — Teal dark greenView RAL 180 40 45 →RAL 180 50 05 — Dusk greenView RAL 180 50 05 →RAL 180 50 10 — Refreshing greenView RAL 180 50 10 →RAL 180 50 15 — Dull turquoiseView RAL 180 50 15 →RAL 180 50 20 — Azurite water greenView RAL 180 50 20 →RAL 180 50 25 — Copper mineral greenView RAL 180 50 25 →RAL 180 50 30 — Glass greenView RAL 180 50 30 →RAL 180 50 35 — Summer turquoiseView RAL 180 50 35 →RAL 180 50 40 — Christmas greenView RAL 180 50 40 →RAL 180 50 45 — Industrial turquoiseView RAL 180 50 45 →RAL 180 50 50 — Ocean greenView RAL 180 50 50 →RAL 180 60 05 — Marble green-greyView RAL 180 60 05 →RAL 180 60 10 — Tile greenView RAL 180 60 10 →RAL 180 60 15 — Copper roof greenView RAL 180 60 15 →RAL 180 60 20 — Sage greenView RAL 180 60 20 →RAL 180 60 25 — Petrol greenView RAL 180 60 25 →RAL 180 60 30 — Dioptase greenView RAL 180 60 30 →RAL 180 60 35 — Stamp pad greenView RAL 180 60 35 →RAL 180 60 40 — Light turquoiseView RAL 180 60 40 →RAL 180 60 45 — Caribbean greenView RAL 180 60 45 →RAL 180 60 50 — Brilliant turquoiseView RAL 180 60 50 →RAL 180 70 05 — Feldspar silverView RAL 180 70 05 →RAL 180 70 10 — Delicate greenView RAL 180 70 10 →RAL 180 70 15 — Silicate greenView RAL 180 70 15 →RAL 180 70 20 — Mint bonbon greenView RAL 180 70 20 →RAL 180 70 25 — Glacial greenView RAL 180 70 25 →RAL 180 70 30 — Bath turquoiseView RAL 180 70 30 →RAL 180 70 35 — Mountain lake azureView RAL 180 70 35 →RAL 180 70 40 — Pure cyanView RAL 180 70 40 →RAL 180 80 05 — Aragonite whiteView RAL 180 80 05 →RAL 180 80 10 — Light tealView RAL 180 80 10 →RAL 180 80 15 — Whirlpool greenView RAL 180 80 15 →RAL 180 80 20 — Opal turquoiseView RAL 180 80 20 →RAL 180 80 25 — Light Capri greenView RAL 180 80 25 →RAL 180 80 30 — Tender turquoiseView RAL 180 80 30 →RAL 180 85 05 — Sea haze greyView RAL 180 85 05 →RAL 180 85 10 — Tierra del Fuego sea greenView RAL 180 85 10 →RAL 180 85 15 — Pale mountain lake turquoiseView RAL 180 85 15 →RAL 180 85 20 — Coral greenView RAL 180 85 20 →RAL 180 90 05 — Transparent greenView RAL 180 90 05 →RAL 180 90 10 — Ice water greenView RAL 180 90 10 →RAL 180 93 05 — Arctic whiteView RAL 180 93 05 →

More about hue 180

That explains why this hue works so well in spaces that need calm without distance: a green from this area cools the atmosphere without becoming impersonal. One point matters here: the degree of warmth or coolness is determined more by saturation than by the hue itself. A weakly saturated green from this hue feels almost neutral; the same green at high saturation feels noticeably cool.

On the weight scale, by contrast, 180 is neutral. Visual weight is mainly determined by lightness — dark weighs more — with hue as a slight modulation, in which yellow-green feels heaviest and blue-violet lightest. Green at 180 lies exactly between the two. A practical consequence: within this hue you control the perceived weight of a surface through lightness, not through the choice of colour.

For the eye, green is the calmest colour in the spectrum: focusing on it takes the least effort. That explains why green is used so widely in workspaces, hospitals and schools, and why a green wall tires the eye less quickly than a red or yellow one of the same intensity.

But that holds only for the muted shades. Once you go above a saturation of about 40 the effect tips over: green then becomes restless, because the eye keeps correcting a saturated green across a large surface. The practical limit here is therefore lower than with warm colours — a saturated red on a small surface works, a saturated green on a large one rarely does.

Under artificial light, moreover, green shifts more than most colours. Warm artificial light takes out the blue component and pulls the colour towards yellow-green; under cool light the opposite happens. Always judge green under the lighting conditions of the finished situation, and preferably at a larger size than a sample.

Of the three colour attributes it is hue that best predicts whether people find a colour attractive — better than lightness, and far better than saturation. In that research blue consistently scores highest and yellow-green lowest. Green at 180 lies between the two: no outright popular favourite, but not the area that meets resistance either.

In practice this means that with a green from this hue the choice of shade decides acceptance more than the hue does. Rather shift within 180 in lightness and saturation than move to a neighbouring hue.

The darkest shades read as pine green and bottle green: colours for frames, doors, railings and exterior joinery. The middle range provides the workable greens for interiors and machine building. Towards the light side the green becomes ever softer, down to shades that are barely recognised as colour on a large surface but do make a room noticeably cooler.

In this hue saturation reaches up to C\* 50. That is less than in the yellow or orange range, where the system goes to C\* 90. This is no shortcoming: green that intense simply cannot be made opaque with the pigments available.

Precisely because the eye is so sensitive in the greens, the choice cannot be made reliably on a screen — the difference between two neighbouring shades is often smaller on a monitor than it is in reality. Use the A4 colour samples when the colour has to be approved, and a colour fan deck or colour book while you are still choosing.

Technical data

Hue: 180 · Shades: 61 · Lightness: L\* 20–93 · Saturation: C\* 05–50 · Lab values: per shade on the colour page · LRV: 6.2 to 83.6 · 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 170, RAL Design 190

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