RAL Design System plus — hue 290

Violet is the colour family where pigment has a price. Where red, yellow and green can be made with cheap inorganic pigments, violet leans on ultramarine violet, manganese violet and organic dioxazines — pigments that cover less well, cost more and carry through strongly in small quantities. With a saturated shade from this hue the chance of differences in price and delivery time between suppliers is therefore greater than with a comparable blue or green.

That also explains why the system stops at C\* 45 here. A more saturated violet is conceivable as a colour, but cannot be made opaque with what exists in industrial quantities. The RAL Design System *plus* shows what is reproducible; that is exactly the property which keeps a specification feasible.

Of all colour families, violet is the most vulnerable to light. Organic violet pigments fade faster than inorganic ones, and the difference only becomes visible after years — and then unevenly, because a south-facing façade is loaded differently from a north-facing one. For exterior use in this hue the lightfastness class of the system is therefore not a side issue but the first thing you check.

All 44 colours in this group

RAL 290 20 10 — Spinel stone blackView RAL 290 20 10 →RAL 290 20 15 — Black violetView RAL 290 20 15 →RAL 290 20 20 — Tropical night blueView RAL 290 20 20 →RAL 290 20 25 — Indigo violetView RAL 290 20 25 →RAL 290 20 30 — Ultramarine violetView RAL 290 20 30 →RAL 290 20 35 — Schiava blueView RAL 290 20 35 →RAL 290 30 10 — Flintstone blueView RAL 290 30 10 →RAL 290 30 15 — Spinel blackView RAL 290 30 15 →RAL 290 30 20 — Church blueView RAL 290 30 20 →RAL 290 30 25 — Gloomy blueView RAL 290 30 25 →RAL 290 30 30 — Lviv blueView RAL 290 30 30 →RAL 290 30 35 — British mauveView RAL 290 30 35 →RAL 290 30 40 — Official violetView RAL 290 30 40 →RAL 290 40 10 — Shearwater blackView RAL 290 40 10 →RAL 290 40 15 — Agate violetView RAL 290 40 15 →RAL 290 40 20 — Deep lavenderView RAL 290 40 20 →RAL 290 40 25 — Dusk mauveView RAL 290 40 25 →RAL 290 40 30 — Rich violetView RAL 290 40 30 →RAL 290 40 35 — Onion skin blueView RAL 290 40 35 →RAL 290 40 40 — Iris blueView RAL 290 40 40 →RAL 290 40 45 — Violet blueView RAL 290 40 45 →RAL 290 50 10 — Ash mauveView RAL 290 50 10 →RAL 290 50 15 — Stormy mauveView RAL 290 50 15 →RAL 290 50 20 — Silk crepe mauveView RAL 290 50 20 →RAL 290 50 25 — Hyacinth mauveView RAL 290 50 25 →RAL 290 50 30 — Mountain flower mauveView RAL 290 50 30 →RAL 290 50 35 — Chalcedony violetView RAL 290 50 35 →RAL 290 50 40 — Gladiola blueView RAL 290 50 40 →RAL 290 60 10 — Lavender blossom greyView RAL 290 60 10 →RAL 290 60 15 — Delicate violetView RAL 290 60 15 →RAL 290 60 20 — Opera mauveView RAL 290 60 20 →RAL 290 60 25 — Soft blue lavenderView RAL 290 60 25 →RAL 290 60 30 — Pleated mauveView RAL 290 60 30 →RAL 290 60 35 — True lavenderView RAL 290 60 35 →RAL 290 70 10 — Cream violetView RAL 290 70 10 →RAL 290 70 15 — Wisteria light soft blueView RAL 290 70 15 →RAL 290 70 20 — Blossom mauveView RAL 290 70 20 →RAL 290 70 25 — Sorbet ice mauveView RAL 290 70 25 →RAL 290 80 10 — Tulip soft blueView RAL 290 80 10 →RAL 290 80 15 — Pale lilacView RAL 290 80 15 →RAL 290 85 05 — Limestone mauveView RAL 290 85 05 →RAL 290 85 10 — Orchid whiteView RAL 290 85 10 →RAL 290 90 05 — Violet whiteView RAL 290 90 05 →RAL 290 93 05 — Lilac whiteView RAL 290 93 05 →

More about hue 290

Indoors that risk is limited, and that explains where this hue ends up in practice: interiors, furniture, textile matching, presentation. Outdoors, violet is mainly applied in the dark, low-saturation shades, where there is less violet pigment in the formulation and fading is therefore less noticeable.

44 shades, from L\* 20 to L\* 93, with saturation from C\* 05 to C\* 45. What is striking is that the saturation continues into the dark part here: RAL Design 290 20 30 with a light reflectance value of 6.1 and RAL Design 290 30 40, Official violet, are dark and outspoken in colour at once. In many other hues the saturation disappears precisely in the dark area.

Towards the top the picture is different. RAL Design 290 50 25 Hyacinth mauve, 290 60 20 Opera mauve and 290 70 20 Blossom mauve show how the range falls back step by step in saturation as the lightness rises. At L\* 90 and 93 the weakly saturated end is what remains: Violet white and Lilac white, with light reflectance values of 70.9 and 81.6.

Violet shifts more under changing light than almost any other colour, because the energy in the short part of the spectrum differs strongly from one light source to another. Two shades that are clearly distinguishable in daylight can coincide under warm LED light; conversely, a violet that is calm on the sample can suddenly look outspoken under cool light. That is metamerism, and in this hue it genuinely matters.

The consequence for approval is direct: lay the A4 colour samples as the colour standard under the light source that will hang in the final situation, not under daylight alone, and never assess two candidates from this hue side by side in a lighting situation other than the one they will end up in.

Technical data

Hue: 290 · Shades: 44 · Lightness: L\* 20–93 · Saturation: C\* 05–45 · Lab values: per shade on the colour page · LRV: 6.1 to 81.6 · 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 280, RAL Design 300

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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