Ask the Expert Question-and-Answer Archive

by Ron Joseph

October, 2005

Federal Standard Color Palette

Q. Dear Sir. I'm writing from Pisa Italy. I've read your answer about colour matching between FS 595 an RAL colours. I need to buy a colour palette of FS595 to match the colour with my spectrofotometer or other fleet or industrial matching palette. Can you help me, if you know, were is possible to buy on the net this FS 595 colour palette (possibly sprayed paints not foto or inkjet/laserjet)?

A. Your message was referred to me by Mr. Ron Joseph.

I have three answers:

1- Individual 3x5 inches cards and complete sets of
patches of various sizes can be purchased directly from
the General Services Administration (GSA) (no e-mail):

General Services Administration
Federal Supply Service Bureau
Specification Section
Suite 8100
470 East L'Enfant Plaza, SW
Washington, DC 20407

Tel. : (202) 619-8925
Fax : (202) 619-8985

2- You can also find some of these on the IHS web site:
http://global.ihs.com/
Make a search for "color deck" to see their list of
available 595b standards.

3- BabelColor: A software that can find the closest
FED-STD match (or Munsell) to any input color (L*a*b*, 2
deg. Observer input); the software accepts Eye-One spectro
input. Available on the web; 65 $US. Note: this is my
company.

Regards,

Danny Pascale