Why Paint Colours Don’t Look Good On Computers

One of the questions that I get asked most often is; can you do a computer mock-up of the paint colours you’re suggesting.

The short answer. No.

Let’s just get things straight and say that of course it is possible to do computer mock-ups and all the paint manufacturers and even designers and probably even other colour consultants will all tell you this is a fantastic idea.

If that’s the case then why am I saying that I hate them?

The short answer. Because it’s not an accurate representation of the colour.

Here’s the explanation.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PAINT COLOURS AND COLOURS ON A COMPUTER.

The first thing to understand is that paint colours and computer screens speak two different colour languages. This is a complicated colour topic but I’m going to try to give you as simple an explanation as I can.

Pigments (the stuff that gives paint its colour) and dyes work on what is referred to as a “subtractive” colour system. This system subtracts wavelengths from white light. Let’s use a red stop sign as an example. The red pigment in a stop sign removes the blue and green rays and most of the yellow as well. In this way only red is reflected onto our eyes.

Computers, cameras, televisions and smart phones all work on an “additive” colour system. All of the above are emissive devices. Which means that they start with darkness and add red, green and blue light to create various colours. With additive colours if you combine pure red, green and blue you get white. The additive colour system adds wavelengths, where the subtractive system subtracts them.

Two different animals!

You can go much deeper down this colour rabbit hole, but that’s as far as I’m going to take you because it gives you the basics.

Let’s look at an excellent example that was sent to me by a client - with a bit of a back story. I consulted with these clients about a year ago on the exterior of their house, they were just getting around to have the painting done very recently. The client emailed me in a panic. The painter had told her the colour was brown not green.

COMPUTER PAINT COLOURS CAN BE DECEIVING.

My client had gone onto the computer and using the paint manufacturers “visualizer” she digitally painted her house. She emailed me saying the colours were nothing like what she thought they were going to be and that’s true - on a computer they’re going to look completely different!

Let’s look at two photos she sent to me and then break things down a bit further.

My client’s house as seen by a computer visualizer.
The colours we chose were Chatroom for the upper body and Roycroft Bronze Green for the lower body.

Can you see the green undertone!
Look at how different the colours look in this photo compared to the visualizer.

My response to her email was two-fold. Firstly, the painter doesn’t understand a very important thing called undertone. This is why he thought the colours were brown and not green.

He couldn’t see from the samples on his fan deck that both the colours that were chosen had a green undertone to them. No, they’re not distinctly green, the colour of the house is not meant to look like grass! However, when painted over a large surface area the green undertone will become more apparent.

Secondly, I told her the best thing was to have samples painted on the house and then get back to me with her thoughts and feelings.

The photos have not been manipulated in any way, other than to remove a person who was standing on the porch (he deserves his privacy) and I added red rectangles to highlight the chosen colours.
It’s easy to see the difference. You can also tell that the photos were taken at different times of the day as the second photo with the actual paint samples has a bluish cast to it.