RAL marks 100 years of colour standards — anniversary edition available

In 2025 the RAL colour standard turned exactly one hundred. The Reichs-Ausschuß für Lieferbedingungen was founded in 1925 and, two years later, set down the first forty colours with a RAL number as binding references.

What began as a practical agreement between suppliers and buyers grew into a worldwide language for colour. Today the standard holds over 2,500 defined colours, spread across RAL Classic (216 colours), RAL Design System plus (1,825 colours) and RAL Effect (490 colours).

To mark the anniversary, a special edition of the RAL K7 colour fan deck was published in a distinct design, looking back on a century of colour standardisation.

The strength of the system lies in its unambiguity: whoever specifies a RAL number knows that designer, supplier and installer are talking about the same colour. It is precisely that certainty that has made RAL the reference in architecture, industry and trade for a hundred years.