Pantone FAQ'S

To convert RAL to Pantone and Pantone to RAL is difficult. These are separate colour systems and we recommend buying a book of each to check.

Each company owns the IP of their respective colours and there has been no collaboration to produce a chart for translation from one system to another.

Other companies (particularly paint companies) have attempted to cross reference RAL and Pantone colours but they cannot always be trusted. If you search the web you may find paint suppliers offering translations for RAL Classic colours but these can be quite far apart in colour space. RAL Classic colours were developed for external paint colours whereas Pantone was developed for printing inks and later for textile dyes.

To convert RAL to Pantone we recommend that you purchase the relevant RAL Guide and Pantone Guide and check yourself under controlled lighting conditions in a light booth.

If you wish to translate a colour from one system to another, you can use the NCS colour translation service. They translate to and from most colour systems/ charts including:

NCS, Pantone Coated/Uncoated/Textile/Colour bridge etc. RAL and CMYK coated/uncoated

You can find more information about this service here.

Architects and Designers will find it useful to own physical guides from RAL, Pantone and NCS if they are regularly using colours from the different colour systems. This will enable a cross check to be done on site or with the client.

The NCS Colourpin devices can also be used to measure a colour target and find the closest NCS colour.

Please note that if you need to translate your colour from NCS to CMYK, RGB or Lab notation, you can also use the NCS+ Web or use the NCS Colourpin device.