The "RAL Deutsches Institut für Gütesicherung und Kennzeichnung e.V." has been creating and managing colour shades since 1925 - there are now 2,540 colour shades and more are still being added.
Communication takes place via colour fans or colour catalogues, in which the colour shades are sorted and illustrated numerically.
In practice, it is therefore not necessary to provide a colour sample; however, in exceptional cases it may make sense to work with so-called "limit samples".
