Simple tips to help you improve your understanding of color performance in the paint — ultimately allowing you to deliver more accurate, consistent hues to your clients’ projects.

• When creating a specification, how can you ensure the color sample you’re using will ultimately match the final tinted paint?

• How can you be confident the color in the first gallon of paint applied on a job site matches the final gallon applied?

• How can you get custom color matches to be as true as possible to the swatch or sample you’re working from?

The answers to all of these questions come down to two things: color accuracy and color consistency. They’re two sides of the same coin, and knowing the right things to look for from your paint and coatings provider is the best way to ensure you can deliver color excellence to your clients.

“First of all, you want to be sure you’re working with paint products, colors and color formulas that are all designed to work as an integrated system,” says Sue Wadden, director of color marketing at Sherwin-Williams.

For example, color formulas should be programmed to flex subtly and precisely depending on the product and finish combination you specify, ensuring the most accurate color result in the final tinted paint.

Another tip: Avoid working with paint providers that use third-party manufacturing.

“The paint manufacturer should control its own manufacturing and quality,” says Steve Revnew, senior vice president of product innovation at Sherwin-Williams. “That includes the colorant it uses to tint its paint.”

When paint providers turn to third parties to manufacture base products or colorants, the color results in the final tinted paint can show wider variances.

Ultimately, color accuracy and consistency are a lot like cooking: Success depends on trained experts and repeatable systems. When you work with a paint and coatings provider that has the human and technical expertise to manage color accuracy and consistency at every stage — product design, quality manufacturing, color formula management, final tinting — you radically reduce the possibility of color issues on the job site.

“Ask a contractor,” Revnew says. “They’re the ones who have experience with gallon-to-gallon color consistency and reliable color touchups.”

ColorSnap Precision

When you specify Sherwin-Williams, your designs are powered by ColorSnap^® Precision, our exclusive system for ensuring exceptional color accuracy and consistency in the paint.

ColorSnap provides you with:

• Color samples engineered to match the final tinted paint

• Paints and colorants designed as an interlocked system

• Consistent gallon-to-gallon color delivery via our 4,000-plus locations

• State-of-the-art technology to precision match custom colors

• Real-time color formula updates

To learn more, contact your local Designer or Architectural Account Executive, or call our Information Line at 800-321-8194.

ColorSnap color selection tools are available both online and in-store. Visit swcolorsnap.com to learn more.