Making latex sheets in a specific color

It seems so easy ... just make a latex sheet in a certain color. But it is actually very difficult. We will try to explain this as best we can. It has become a long story, but if you want to have latex made by color with us, we recommend that you grab a cup of coffee or tea and read this quietly.

Tip! Also watch the video on YouTube - click here.

Sometimes we receive requests such as these:

"I would like to have a dark blue latex sheet made."

Well ... what is 'dark blue' latex?

There are thousands of colors and shades of dark blue. And then the customer sends an image, a sketch, a video or a photo with that special color 'dark blue' for clarification. But what the customer sees in a paper folder, or on a screen, or if they take a photo of something themselves and send it to us ... we see a different color. Because no screen is the same.

Colors always deviate on different screens (PC, tablet, telephone, TV, etc.). But colors also differ in print, depending on the type of material on which a color is printed ... is it on paper, plastic, wallpaper, car paint, textile or wood, etc. And of course the ink also has an influence, it is watercolor , it is professional printing ink, it is home printer ink, it is car paint, and so on.

So there are many factors that influence color!

And then we also have to deal with the influence of ... the latex itself ...

Latex has a different color in liquid wet form than in dry form. The base color of latex is creamy white when it is liquid, when it has dried it is transparent light yellow / beige. So that final color (when the latex is dry) also affects the overall final color if other pigments are added.

When making (transparent) latex sheets, the latex itself also influences the final color.

If someone wants a highly transparent light gray sheet then that is actually impossible. Because if you want a light gray sheet then of course gray pigment must be mixed in. But not too much, otherwise the sheet will no longer be transparent. And gray + light yellow = light beige / brown. The more gray pigment we add, the more gray the sheet will become, of course, but also the less transparent. Do you understand how difficult this is?
And everything is liquid, so very little gray pigment in creamy white latex ... when mixing we see no difference, only when the latex is dry.

The same applies to requests for 'extra white latex'.

That is impossible. You cannot bleach latex, you can put a lot of pigment in it, but the more pigment the weaker a sheet will become. There is no 'extra white latex', so what some manufacturers claim is really not possible. It seems a bit whiter, but if you keep a real color fan or just an A4 paper from the printer, the influence of the natural latex will always remain.

Synthetic rubber can be white, just like silicone rubber, but they are completely different materials. Latex sheets as we make them and as they are produced by machines for the fashion industry are made from natural latex from the rubber tree.

And what makes everything even more difficult is that we start with liquid latex.

And liquid latex has a different color from dry latex. So we mix wet in wet. And creamy white + light gray in a wet form does not change the color.

Sometimes we are asked to 'just' do some tests so that the right color is created.

Unfortunately, that is not possible 'just for a moment', it takes us a whole full working day! Customers are sometimes surprised that they have to pay for testing, unfortunately working all day is not free. The latex must first be mixed with pigment. Then it has to dry. Then we have to judge the color and start over again, with less pigment or more pigment, or other colors have to be added. That has to dry again ... etc. and repeat and repeat until the correct end result / recipe is reached ... and then the sheet still has to be made.

And then as the last tricky part ... colors on / over / under other colors.

Everyone understands that if you apply transparent natural latex on black latex, you will not see any difference. But it becomes more difficult for customers to understand that if you apply yellow on black, that the black background affects the yellow, so the yellow will be darker than if you apply the same color yellow on white. Colors therefore also influence each other.

Are you still there?

Conclusion .... 'just' making a certain color latex is very complicated.

That is why update with the international RAL code color system.

If you give us the color number, we can approach it properly. The percentage again depends on the relevant color and transparancy of the sheet. The darker the color code, the better we can approach it (because the influence of the own color of latex will then be less or no influence).

Of course you must have a RAL color fan in your hand, so do not view the colors on a screen such as a PC, tablet and telephone. And therefore not via an 'app' on a telephone. Why not? That is described at the beginning of this explanation ... :-)

Below you can see the phases of the color of the latex during the drying process from wet to dry latex.

Photo 1 is wet / liquid latex, the last photo is dry latex. The colors used are: black - blue - green - red - pink - transparent natural