[HN Gopher] Show HN: Find matching acrylic paints for any HEX color
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: Find matching acrylic paints for any HEX color
Author : dotspencer
Score : 49 points
Date : 2025-11-03 15:20 UTC (5 days ago)
(HTM) web link (acrylicmatch.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (acrylicmatch.com)
| Dwedit wrote:
| Paint is subject to the effects of radiance. How paint looks
| changes depending on the surrounding lighting in the room,
| including the colors of other walls and objects which the light
| bounces off. So even if you could pick out a color from a
| perfectly calibrated display, then look at it under ideal white
| light and see that it matches, it won't look the same when
| painted on actual walls.
| esafak wrote:
| Don't downrate, (s)he's right. If you are going to paint
| something, paint a sample foamboard or something and view it in
| the right context. It is remarkable how the color of paint can
| be affected by its surroundings as it refracts and reflects. It
| will look rather unlike the pictures in the catalog if your
| lighting conditions are different.
| snibsnib wrote:
| I used to work in a paint lab. Things things that also affect
| perceived color include:
|
| - Undercoat color
|
| - Number of coats
|
| - Gloss Level
|
| - Size of colored area
|
| - Surrounding Colour
|
| - Combination of tinters used by each brand. (Different tinters
| can make colours metameric)
|
| - Light Source (Incandescent, D65, LED, Fluorescent)
|
| - Monitor Color Space (sRGB, DCI-P3)
|
| - Color Space / Model used for conversion (Lab, Luv, Lch)
|
| - Colour Difference dE Model Used (CIE76, CMC, CIE00)
|
| - Precision and spectral range of the spectrophotometer used.
|
| Etc
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| Yup. It's called "metamerism."
|
| With most paints, the medium used can affect color, as well as
| aging. I used to use Ph Martin watercolor dyes, and they were
| notorious for fading after a relatively short time. The
| illustrations that I colored with them, are now monochrome. I'm
| sure they're better, now. Pigment science has come a long way.
| Acrylic was always a lot longer-lasting.
|
| Also, context matters. Our perception changes, based on
| surrounding colors. There's a bunch of optical illusions that
| leverage this.
|
| But I think this is kind of a cool project.
| Isamu wrote:
| So this is nice, you seem to be covering the acrylic brands you
| see in a craft store. I've had to pick nearest colors in the
| past, and end up buying several each time. This should help,
| thanks! Are there artists brands in there too?
| cluckindan wrote:
| For those who don't know, the main difference between craft
| store paints and artist grade paints are:
|
| - ratio of pigment to binder (craft store paints have less
| pigment)
|
| - pigment quality (craft store paints are usually larger grain
| and may sometimes use unsafe pigments)
|
| - color purity and consistency (craft store paints may contain
| traces of unintended pigments and may vary between batches)
|
| - color variety (craft store paint manufacturers are NOT going
| to be paying extra for rare pigments)
|
| - lightfastness (craft store paints may fade quicker due to
| lack of UV protectant additives)
|
| - binder quality (craft store paints may use cheaper, more
| toxic binders)
|
| Otherwise they are the same stuff, it's kinda hard to screw up
| mixing acrylic binder with a pigment.
|
| Check that your paint has the ACMI Approved Product seal.
|
| https://www.acmiart.org/acmi-seals
| nick238 wrote:
| Matching additive colors (RGB) to subtractive (CMYK, though even
| in mixed paints there are dozens of tints) feels fraught with
| peril.
| o11c wrote:
| More like "fundamentally impossible". Even ignoring the limited
| colorspaces due to choices of primary (i.e. the fact that no
| laser's color can be emitted by a screen), and assuming you
| calibrate your "white" (most screens are overbright these
| days), it turns out the pigments are really bad at "reflect
| exactly this pure-ish wavelength and absorb everything else",
| which is very frequently done by emitters.
| brookst wrote:
| Perhaps OP is offering a first approximation and not
| attempting an impossible platonic ideal?
| specproc wrote:
| You know what would make this more awesome? Getting Citadel and
| Vallejo on there.
| wwilim wrote:
| I am absolutely sure putting a ```<div class="wash"
| style="background-color: nulnoil"></div>``` over your entire
| page can make any website look good
|
| Also, try IONIC paints, they are awesome
| specproc wrote:
| So much love for this comment
| schobi wrote:
| It would be interesting to learn how this was created.
|
| Did you buy all these colors and paint and scan them? Did you
| analyze the shopping images of the bottles and classify them into
| hex colors? Or maybe just group by the color names given in the
| storefront listing?
|
| Vastly different efforts, different "accuracy", but still, each
| methods has its use. But knowing what to expect would be nice.
| bstsb wrote:
| i would definitely try to get yourself on affiliate programs,
| this looks like a useful tool and just adding your code to the
| end of Amazon redirects could earn you a (admittedly small) cut
| Kostchei wrote:
| damn, i was looking for army painter and citadel ranges :p
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-11-08 23:02 UTC)