RAL Design System plus — hue 270

Colours have a perceived weight, and that is determined mainly by lightness: dark weighs, light recedes. But the hue modulates it, and on that scale blue-violet stands at the extreme light end — yellow-green feels heaviest, blue-violet lightest. So this is the lightest hue the system has, reckoned in perceived weight and not in lightness.

That yields a property you get nowhere else: a dark shade that does not press down. RAL Design 270 20 25, with a light reflectance value of 6.0, is objectively as dark as black but in perception weighs less than an equally dark green or brown. For ceilings in a dark colour, for the undersides of canopies and for large dark wall surfaces in interiors, that is the most usable thing this part of the circle has to offer.

With 38 shades this is the narrowest of the six blue hues. The range runs from L\* 20 to L\* 90 and from C\* 05 to C\* 40, with a light reflectance value from 6.0 to 76.7 — and the highest saturation sits low here, at RAL Design 270 30 40 Prince blue. That is one position lower than with 250 and 260, where the maximum lies at L\* 40.

All 38 colours in this group

RAL 270 20 20 — Crow black blueView RAL 270 20 20 →RAL 270 20 25 — Indigo blackView RAL 270 20 25 →RAL 270 20 29 — Effervescent blueView RAL 270 20 29 →RAL 270 30 15 — Midnight blueView RAL 270 30 15 →RAL 270 30 20 — Dark blueView RAL 270 30 20 →RAL 270 30 25 — Grape blueView RAL 270 30 25 →RAL 270 30 30 — Medici blueView RAL 270 30 30 →RAL 270 30 35 — Colibri blueView RAL 270 30 35 →RAL 270 30 40 — Prince blueView RAL 270 30 40 →RAL 270 40 15 — Pewter greyView RAL 270 40 15 →RAL 270 40 20 — Parlour blueView RAL 270 40 20 →RAL 270 40 25 — Functional blueView RAL 270 40 25 →RAL 270 40 30 — Make-up blueView RAL 270 40 30 →RAL 270 40 35 — Lapis lazuli blueView RAL 270 40 35 →RAL 270 40 40 — Magic blueView RAL 270 40 40 →RAL 270 50 10 — Brocade blueView RAL 270 50 10 →RAL 270 50 15 — Noble blueView RAL 270 50 15 →RAL 270 50 20 — Delft blueView RAL 270 50 20 →RAL 270 50 25 — Cocktail blueView RAL 270 50 25 →RAL 270 50 30 — Sage blossom blueView RAL 270 50 30 →RAL 270 50 35 — Viennese blueView RAL 270 50 35 →RAL 270 50 40 — Cornflower blueView RAL 270 50 40 →RAL 270 60 10 — Fantasy greyView RAL 270 60 10 →RAL 270 60 15 — Lilac blueView RAL 270 60 15 →RAL 270 60 20 — Lavender blueView RAL 270 60 20 →RAL 270 60 25 — Delphinium blueView RAL 270 60 25 →RAL 270 60 30 — Eyeshadow blueView RAL 270 60 30 →RAL 270 60 35 — Butterfly blueView RAL 270 60 35 →RAL 270 70 10 — Feather soft blueView RAL 270 70 10 →RAL 270 70 15 — Satin soft blueView RAL 270 70 15 →RAL 270 70 20 — Angel blueView RAL 270 70 20 →RAL 270 70 25 — Boy blueView RAL 270 70 25 →RAL 270 80 10 — Light pearl soft blueView RAL 270 80 10 →RAL 270 80 15 — Retina soft blueView RAL 270 80 15 →RAL 270 85 05 — Angel hair silverView RAL 270 85 05 →RAL 270 85 10 — Mother-of-pearl silverView RAL 270 85 10 →RAL 270 85 15 — Murano soft blueView RAL 270 85 15 →RAL 270 90 05 — Bleached whiteView RAL 270 90 05 →

More about hue 270

That downward shift is characteristic of violet and has a reason in colour space itself. Blue-violet gets its strength at low lightness; as soon as you add white, the violet component disappears before the blue does and what remains is a blue-grey. In practice: a light blue-violet barely exists in this system, and what you find at L\* 85 — RAL Design 270 85 10 Mother-of-pearl silver — is more a broken grey with a hint than a violet.

Violet is the colour family that is virtually absent from façades, frames and building services, and that is not a matter of fashion. Violet and blue-violet pigments are expensive, lower in tinting strength than blue, and in the cheaper variants weaker in lightfastness: on south-facing façades they lose their red component first and tip towards blue. The result is that after some years a blue-violet surface is no longer blue-violet, whereas a blue from 240 does stay what it was.

In opaque powder coating and modern paint the pigments in this area are good by now, but the cost price remains higher and the sensitivity to batch variation greater. For exterior use over a large area that is a point to discuss with the applicator beforehand, not afterwards.

Indoors, and over limited areas, blue-violet is in fact one of the most useful areas. The colour is rare, and therefore striking without having to be saturated: a muted shade from 270 attracts more attention in a neutral interior than a much more strongly saturated blue. Retail, hospitality, exhibition spaces and everything where distinction is worth more than recognition will find here what does not exist in 240.

Do watch the neighbours in the colour scheme, though. Next to warm, yellow timber or brass, blue-violet turns fierce and the contrast starts to dominate, because the two lie almost opposite one another. Next to cool grey, lime and white the colour behaves calmly. That is the difference between a shade that supports the interior and one that takes it over.

Blue-violet is the colour family that is least reliable on a screen: monitors can only partly reproduce the area and push it towards blue or towards pink. So never choose here from an image. Work with a fan deck or colour book while you are choosing, and with the A4 colour samples as the colour standard as soon as something has to be approved.

Technical data

Hue: 270 · Shades: 38 · Lightness: L\* 20–90 · Saturation: C\* 05–40 · Lab values: per shade on the colour page · LRV: 6.0 to 76.7 · 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 260, RAL Design 280

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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