Benjamin Moore Affinity Color Notations

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6 thoughts on “Benjamin Moore Affinity Color Notations”

  1. I’m wondering how these color notations on the Affinity table relate to the Glidden Master Palette color notations. The first two digits on TMP are two digits, relating to overtone if I understand correctly, but on the Affinity table above, the hue angle digits are different. Am I missing something? Do the hue angle numbers somehow correlate to overtone?

    Thanks, Michelle

    1. Hi Michelle,

      What a great question. The answer is the hue/value/chroma (HVC) notation does not directly relate to Glidden’s color notation format. Glidden’s The Master Palette (TMP) uses a customized-for-them color system based on another color system called Acoat Color Codification System (ACC). The custom Glidden TMP system has 8 hue families and the typical HVC color system, like Munsell, will have 10 hue families.

      The Master Palettes numbers – 00, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 99 – indicates graduations of color shifts in 10 steps through each hue family section, from one hue family to the next – and, yes, those numbers do indeed give us information so we can anticipate overtones from an adjacent hue family. So, TMP’s numbers indicate graduations of color shifts in steps of ten using a scale 00 to 99.

      HVC color system’s also use numbers within each hue family section to indicate a gradual change of color from one hue family to the next. However, it uses the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

      Both color systems work in very similar ways with regard to the numbers providing information about what overtones, if any, you should expect and how strong or weak the overtone influence will be.

      With Glidden if the numbers 00, 10, 20, 30, 40 are in the notation, you know to look for influences of overtones from the hue family located counterclockwise – and the closer you get to 50, you know the chance of overtones from either hue family lessens. Let’s go to the other side of 50 now. 60, 70, 80, 90, 99 you know to look for influences from the hue family located clockwise – and the farther from 60 that you get you know the influence from the hue family located clockwise gets stronger.

      With the HVC system’s 1 thru 10 number system, it works the same way. 5 is in the middle of the scale so overtones from neighboring hue families are unlikely, but as the numbers dip down to 1, 2, 3, 4 you know to look for overtones from the hue family located counterclockwise. Numbers 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 and overtones from the hue family located clockwise are likely.

      Hope that helps. Once you get used to reading color notations, it really does become as easy and second nature as reading a clock or thermometer.

  2. Thank you so much! So if I were to plot an affinity color on the color wheel, as you describe, with a hue angle of 3.34 in the BB color family, a similar Glidden color would start with 33BB.

    I have a big house to choose colors for that’s been completely rehabbed, and we want to sell it fast so I know that color is so important to how people perceive the house when they walk in. The information here is so helpful. Thanks a lot for answering so quickly! I’m looking forward to more posts.

    Michelle

  3. No, not really. The hue/value/chroma (HVC) notation does not directly relate to Glidden’s TMP color notation format. Remember Glidden TMP has only 8 hue families and a hue/value/chroma notation is based on 10 hue families.

    A mathematical interpolation of some kind probably exists to CONVERT a hue/value/chroma notation to a Glidden color notation but I’ve never seen it.

    With that said, if a color is categorized in the blue hue family in one color system, odds are good that will hold true and it will be categorized in the blue hue family in another color system as well.

  4. Hello Lori,

    I find all this information so interesting. I am very glad to now know about the notations and to have them for the Off-Whites and Affinity BM Colors.

    How could I find the notations for the rest of the BM collections (Historical colors, Classic colors, etc.)? I have never seen that information on BM website!

    Thank you very much for you website and for you time in answering my question,
    Marie-France

    1. How could I find the notations for the rest of the BM collections (Historical colors, Classic colors, etc.)? I have never seen that information on BM website!

      Hi Marie-France. The short answer is you will not find color notation info provided by Benjamin Moore.

      We work up the color notations here at The Land of Color. When it comes to the math, the conversion to a hue/value/chroma color notation, consistency is crucial. So, even if Benjamin Moore did provide notations for their colors, you could only use the notations for comparison to other Benjamin Moore colors, not other brands.

      Since we do all the conversions, notations here for multiple brands, you can use our notations to compare and assess colors regardless of the brand.

      I am working on how to provide our notations to our readers beyond the few that I’ve already shared.

      Also, in the Camp Chroma module about Color Systems and Notations, I teach you how to get a color notation for any paint color out there.

      All that’s coming the first quarter of 2016, so keep checking back here at The LoC.

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