Fed Std 595 Color Codes
Overview of Federal Standard 595
Federal Standard 595 (aka, Fed Std 595) describes colors used by the United States government for procurement. Originally created during World War II to standardize colors for military products, the standard is widely used throughout the government and beyond. (As of January 16, 2008, the revised standard is now 595C, with some additional revisions in Change Notice 1 on July 31, 2008.)
There are 650 color codes in the standard. While the codes sometimes have written descriptions, the standard is the collection of physical color chips available in physical form.
Each code is 5 digits. The first digit is 1, 2, or 3, and describes the gloss level. The second digit is 0-8, describes the predominate color grouping (it's arbitrary). The last three digits represent the "approximate order of increasing reflectance," where no reflectance is black.
Some colors may be in the standard at more than one gloss level (e.g., 17038 gloss black, 27038 semigloss black, and 37038 flat black), but it's not consistent or required.
A note about colors on a computer screen
Colors shown on these pages and throughout this site are an approximation. Monitors vary tremendously. Please refer to government approved color chips to determine exact color appearance.