About this site

What this site is

Paint Pairs puts paint colors from five large US brands (Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, Behr, Valspar and PPG) side by side with their light reflectance value (LRV), hex value and Lab values, plus a color-difference score between each color and its nearest match in every other brand.

Paint Pairs writes and maintains it. Color data comes from manufacturer specifications, via PaintDB, and we check the most-viewed colors against each manufacturer's own color page.

Where the color data comes from

The LRV and hex values come from PaintDB, an open database of paint colors licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). PaintDB lists the values as published by each manufacturer. We use its downloadable data files and nothing else, and we add the color math on top.

Where we have checked a color's LRV and hex against the manufacturer's own technical data, the page says so and shows the date. Where we have not, the page says the values are as published by the manufacturer via PaintDB.

As of this data build, we have checked the LRV and hex of 80 colors directly against the manufacturer's own color page.

Behr does not publish a light reflectance value in this data: the figure in Behr's own file is the color's lightness (CIE L*), a different measure. For Behr colors only, the LRV shown here is estimated from the color's hex value, and the page says so. Where we have checked a Behr color against Behr's own published LRV, the checked value replaces the estimate.

The snapshot date of the data is shown in the footer of every page.

How closeness is measured

Closeness is the CIEDE2000 color difference, the standard formula for how different two colors look to a person. We convert each hex value to CIE Lab, then compare. A difference under 1.0 is indistinguishable, 1.0 to 2.3 is very close, 2.3 to 5 is noticeably different, and over 5 is clearly different.

Every sentence on a color or comparison page comes from the data through a fixed template. No page is written by an AI model, and no page is written by hand one at a time.

The room pictures at the top of each page are AI-made illustrations; Where AI is and is not used lists every place AI appears on this site.

Names, trademarks and accuracy

Color names and color codes are trademarks of their manufacturers. They are used here only to identify and compare the products. This site is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any paint manufacturer or by PaintDB.

Screens show colors differently from paint on a wall, and a printed or on-screen swatch is never a substitute for a physical sample. Test a sample in your own room before you buy.