Learn About NCS - Universal Colour Communication

Various challenges can be encountered by designers and architects when identifying, visualising, and sharing colours with clients and collaborators. Colour perception varies for each individual, making it difficult to accurately describe or communicate colour. Matching the client's vision can be time-consuming if there is no standard for identifying colour in your creative workflow. Collaborating remotely and translating chosen colours from design software to the final product may also lead to discrepancies.

A universal colour communication standard or colour system is an invaluable tool for designers as it enables the accurate and effective communication of colour choices, eliminating ambiguity for yourself and your clients. Relying on generic colour names or descriptions alone may leave room for interpretation. By using a standardised colour number, intended colours can be shared without being misunderstood. Color Confidence offers a range of colour management products to help designers to identify, communicate, share and use colour across a wide variety of design applications.

The NCS System is the only colour system on the market solely based on the human visual perception of colour and offers designers a scientifically based global standard system for accurate cross-industry communication of colour between designers, manufacturers, retailers and clients. The NCS System allows you to accurately describe, identify and share perceived colours with a standard NCS Notation. NCS offers a variety of design tools for the entire design process.

The NCS Colourpin II and Colourpin PRO allow you to capture a visual colour from a surface, identify its colour notation and translate this to L*a*b*, RGB and CMYK values for use in digital design. The devices pair with the free NCS+ app via Bluetooth. Simply place the NCS device on the surface you want to match and the accurate NCS colour reference appears wirelessly on your mobile phone.