Federal Standard 595, known as SAE AMS-STD-595 – Colors Used in Government Procurement, formerly FED-STD-595, is a

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Federal Standard for colors, issued by the

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History

FED-STD-595, 595A, and 595B

Federal Standard 595 is the color description and communication system developed in 1956 by the United States government. Its origins reach back to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

when a problem of providing exact color specifications to military equipment subcontractors in different parts of the world became a matter of urgency. Similarly to other color standards of the pre-digital era, such as

RAL colour standard RAL is a colour management system used in Europe that is created and administrated by the German (RAL non-profit LLC), which is a subsidiary of the German . In colloquial speech RAL refers to the RAL Classic system, mainly used for varnish a ...

or British Standard 4800, Federal Standard 595 is a color collection rather than a

color space A color space is a specific organization of colors. In combination with color profiling supported by various physical devices, it supports reproducible representations of colorwhether such representation entails an analog or a digital represen ...

. The standard is built upon a set of color shades where a unique reference number is assigned to each color. This collection is then printed on sample color chips and provided to interested parties. In contrast, modern color systems such as the

Natural Color System The Natural Color System (NCS) is a proprietary perceptual color model. It is based on the color opponency hypothesis of color vision, first proposed by German physiologist Ewald Hering. The current version of the NCS was developed by the ...

(NCS) are built upon a

paradigm, providing for much more flexibility and wider range of applications. Each color in the Federal Standard 595 range is identified by a five-digit code. The colors in the standard have no official names, just numbers. The initial standard FED-STD-595 issued in March 1956 contained 358 colors. Revision A issued in January 1968 counted 437 colors. Revision B Change 1 from January 1994 counted 611 colors.

FED-STD-595C

Federal Standard 595C was published January 16, 2008. No previous colors were removed. Thirty-nine new colors were added for a total of 650 colors. On July 31, 2008 595C Change Order 1 was published, changing the numbers of eight of the colors added in revision C. The revision C master reference list of colors provides all available reference information for these colors, including tristimulus values, pigments and 60° gloss level and color name as applicable. As before, all color matching must still be done via color reference chips. 595C Change Order 1 made a fundamental mistake by changing the designation number of existing, published colors. This can lead to considerable confusion when a color is called out by contract. Previous revisions had only added colors, so a color chosen out of 595A would still be accurate if the producer used a 595B fan deck in any of its revisions. Many prime contractors, such as L3, require the Federal Standard 595 paint chips used for inspection purposes be replaced every two years.

AMS-STD-595

As of February 14, 2017, FED-STD-595 was cancelled and replaced by

SAE International SAE International, formerly named the Society of Automotive Engineers, is a United States-based, globally active professional association and standards developing organization for engineering professionals in various industries. SAE Internatio ...

's AMS-STD-595. Color chips as well as fan decks are available, including a box set containing 692

color chips Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associa ...

References

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External links

Federal Standard 595C Color chart

Federal Standard 595C
2008. PDF files available from the website of the US military.
Federal Standard 595B Rev Dec 1989
the previous version, FED-STD-595B, from 1989, revised in 1994
Federal Standard 595 Color Server
a third-party search engine providing graphical samples for each color and able to display combinations of colors *

*

Federal Standard 595C Color chart
a third party color chart

a third party color chart Color space Standards of the United States