RAL colour standard

Approved RAL products are provided with a hologram to make unauthorised versions difficult to produce.

In 1927, the German group Reichs-Ausschuß für Lieferbedingungen (Imperial Committee for Delivery and Quality Assurance) invented a collection of forty colours under the name of "RAL 840".

[2] Prior to that date, manufacturers and customers had to exchange samples to describe a tint, whereas from then on they would rely on numbers.

With tints constantly added to the collection, it was revised again in 1961 and changed to "RAL 840-HR", which consists of 210 colours and is in use to this day.

Contrary to the preceding systems, RAL Design features no names and its numbering follows a scheme based on the CIELAB colour space, specifically cylindrical CIEHLC.