Every colour, measured
The answer
For a green wall, look at prints that share some of its green, or at warm ones in rust and clay, which sit opposite green on the colour wheel. Every print below is listed with the colour sampled from its own file and grouped into a family, so you can hold a paint card up to the screen and compare.
How does a print shop decide what colour to call a print?
Here, the dominant colour is read out of the finished file and sorted into a family. Nothing is typed by hand. A typed colour goes out of date the first time a file is exported again, and then the print is filed under a colour it no longer has.
So a print can be named for one colour and filed under another. The name follows what the eye goes to first. The value is what covers most of the sheet.
Blue prints
Cooler, and further off. Pale violet where the colour thins, settling towards slate where it gathers.
| Sampled colour | |
|---|---|
| Ceramics II — Streak | #A1A1D3 |
| Ceramics V — Sediment | #476383 |
| Ceramics XVII — Pewter | #A0B3CC |
| Glacier I — Swell | #1D3B70 |
| Glacier II — Cobalt | #113C75 |
| Impressions IX — Thread | #676E9B |
| Impressions VI — Drift | #7A7DD1 |
| Impressions VII — Rise | #634F8F |
| Patina VIII — Bruise | #574877 |
| Patina X — Husk | #3D5380 |
| Patina XI — Overlap | #4B5C72 |
| Patina XIII — Cinder | #3D597D |
Green prints
Olive and sage, with grey held in them. Leaf colours from the shaded side of a plant, and quiet at that.
| Sampled colour | |
|---|---|
| Botanics VI — Scrub | #98A47E |
| Botanics VII — Patch | #426550 |
| Ceramics XII — Blur | #7C8967 |
| Ceramics XIV — Pool | #91A47F |
| Forestry I — Thicket | #2D4635 |
| Forestry IV — Lichen | #ABC18F |
| Patina IX — Strata | #182014 |
| Patina XII — Silt | #404332 |
Neutral prints
Almost no colour at all. A pale ground with the faintest tint held in it, closer to paper than to ink, and no edge anywhere for the eye to catch.
| Sampled colour | |
|---|---|
| Botanics IV — Dust | #A0A69B |
| Botanics V — Frond | #F1ECD7 |
| Ceramics III — Field | #E6D8CC |
| Ceramics X — Fade | #DBE1D4 |
| Forestry III — Column | #C7C6C8 |
| Forestry IX — Mound | #D2D5D8 |
| Forestry VIII — Pebble | #B6BAC4 |
| Glacier IV — Glint | #B7C2CF |
| Glacier V — Veil | #C7D4D8 |
Purple prints
Lilac with grey through it, well short of a full violet. Pale where it thins, and never bright enough to pull the eye on its own.
| Sampled colour | |
|---|---|
| Ceramics XI — Fleck | #9F86B1 |
| Forestry VI — Bramble | #5C4862 |
| Patina III — Ridge | #8E75AE |
Teal prints
Green with blue in it, or blue with green in it. Dark enough to read as near-black where the colour gathers, and thinned almost to paper where it lifts.
| Sampled colour | |
|---|---|
| Botanics III — Speckle | #85B19D |
| Ceramics I — Clearing | #0D2E23 |
| Ceramics IV — Verge | #185E51 |
| Ceramics VI — Band | #104E5A |
| Ceramics VIII — Ebb | #013E51 |
| Forestry VII — Hollow | #2C4750 |
| Glacier III — Relief | #34879F |
| Impressions I — Scatter | #487C76 |
| Impressions II — Shoal | #649893 |
| Impressions III — Undergrowth | #314E4A |
| Impressions IV — Rust | #3B8178 |
| Impressions V — Tangle | #2E5E58 |
Warm prints
Rust and clay, and the browner side of red. Earth colours, low in chroma, that sit against a pale wall without pulling the room towards them.
| Sampled colour | |
|---|---|
| Botanics II — Mottle | #B19F82 |
| Botanics X — Coral | #DCC0A1 |
| Ceramics IX — Crust | #5E150A |
| Ceramics VII — Seam | #7F431D |
| Ceramics XV — Ochre | #E99459 |
| Forestry II — Haze | #E3C5B2 |
| Impressions VIII — Ember | #876E5C |
| Impressions XI — Gravel | #90715B |
| Impressions XIII — Spark | #DA971E |
| Patina I — Blush | #AB7D68 |
| Patina II — Vein | #BE9B77 |
| Patina IV — Furrow | #58472E |
| Patina V — Fissure | #584831 |
| Patina VI — Copper | #7E674D |
| Patina VII — Olive | #786546 |
| Patina XIV — Gilt | #6F4718 |
Yellow prints
Amber and ochre, with earth in them. Warm enough to lift a pale wall without taking the room over.
| Sampled colour | |
|---|---|
| Botanics I — Blossom | #DEDAAC |
| Botanics IX — Grain | #B4B997 |
| Botanics VIII — Arch | #E4D193 |
| Ceramics XIII — Amber | #DDB45B |
| Ceramics XVI — Cream | #DBCDB0 |
| Ceramics XVIII — Divide | #99A157 |
| Forestry V — Bracken | #92916C |
| Impressions X — Weave | #9C9072 |
| Impressions XII — Run | #7E8A3D |
Will it look like this on the wall?
Close, but a shade softer. The values above come from the file, and the print is on uncoated matte paper. Paper reflects light and a screen gives it off, so in a room every colour looks slightly quieter than it does here.