DIN System

The Deutsche Institut für Normung (German Standards Institute), abbreviated to DIN, recognised the need for a more practical colour-system than the Ostwald system, which had been in use since the First World War. The objective was to create a colour-system operating with the explicit variables of colour-hue, saturation and brightness and as perceptively equidistant as possible. Careful psychological experiments resulted in an order which, in addition to a circle of 24 colour-hues and a saturation scale, introduced a darkness scale as a special parameter for establishing the relative brightness of non-self-illuminating colours. (Detailed text)



Date: The colour-system started development in 1941 on the initiative of the Deutschen Normenausschusses. Initial results have been available since 1953.

Country of origin: Germany

Basic colours: Yellow, red, blue and green

Form: Cone

Application: Principle order for a precise colour atlas

Related systems MunsellOstwaldCIEJohanssonOSAACC

Bibliography: M. Richter, «Untersuchungen zur Aufstellung eines empfindungsgemäß gleichabständigen Farbsystems», Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Photographie 45, pp. 139-162 (1950); M. Richter, «Der Farbkörper des DIN-Farbsystems», Die Farbe 2, p. 137 (1953); M. Richter, «Einführung in die Farbmetrik», Berlin 1976.