Color selection and identification guides for architectural surface coatings

An improved color selection display for use in connection with the sale of custom-tinted architectural coatings, said tinted coatings being prepared by mixing one or more colorants with bases selected from the group comprising pastel base, tint base, deep base and accent base, said color selection display comprising a plurality of paper substrates in the form of elongated strips, each strip containing a plurality of different color fields, each of said color fields corresponding to the color of a custom-mixed coating, the improvement characterized by

• a) a first plurality of elongated paper strips, each strip containing a plurality of adjacent color fields in the form of stripes of a different hue, each of said stripes varying in hue by an increase in the wavelength of light along the longitudinal axis of the elongated strip, where each of said plurality of color stripes corresponds to a different color prepared from pastel base;
• b) a second plurality of elongated paper strips, each strip containing a plurality of adjacent color fields in the form of stripes of a different hue, each of said stripes varying in hue by an increase in the wavelength of light along the longitudinal axis of the elongated strip, where each of said plurality of color stripes corresponds to a different color prepared from tint base;
• c) a third plurality of elongated paper strips, each strip containing a plurality of adjacent color fields in the form of stripes of a different hue, each of said stripes varying in hue by an increase in the wavelength of light along the longitudinal axis of the elongated strip, where each of said plurality of color stripes corresponds to a different color prepared from a deep base;
• and, optionally,
• d) a fourth plurality of elongated paper strips, each strip containing a plurality of adjacent color fields in the form of stripes of a different hue, each of said stripes varying in hue by an increase in the wavelength of light along the longitudinal axis of the elongated strip, where each of said plurality of color stripes corresponds to a different color prepared from accent base;
• e) said first plurality of strips aligned in at least one row, the longitudinal axis of the strips being horizontally aligned with the hues corresponding to the natural color spectrum;
• f) said second plurality of strips aligned in at least one row, said at least one row being proximate the at least one row of the first plurality of strips, and said color stripes being aligned in columns of decreasing lightness values;
• g) said third plurality of strips aligned in at least one row, said at one row being proximate the at least one row of the second plurality of strips, and said color stripes being aligned in columns of decreasing lightness values;
• and, optionally,
• h) said fourth plurality of strips aligned in at least one row, said at least one row being proximate the at least one row of the third plurality of strips or the at least one row of the first plurality of strips, and said color stripes being aligned in columns of decreasing lightness values, whereby each stripe in the display is flanked horizontally by a closely-related color corresponding to a color of a custom-mixed coating prepared from the same base.