Yes. What you are describing is essentially the gap between marketing names and practical pigment information.

Traditional paint names evolved historically from:

• pigment source (“Burnt Sienna”)
• poetic descriptors (“Cerulean Sky”)
• proprietary branding (“Permanent Rose”)
• obsolete chemistry (“Indian Yellow”)

…but painters actually need operational information:

1. Hue bias
2. Transparency
3. Chroma
4. Value
5. Permanence
6. Tinting strength
7. Granulation/staining (watercolour)
8. Drying speed/oil absorbency (oil)
9. Pigment composition

A genuinely useful naming system should function like:

• a musical chord notation
• or a camera lens specification
• compact but information-dense.

Below is a proposed system designed for practical studio use.

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The Practical Artist Pigment Code (PAPC)

The idea:

Every paint receives:

1. A readable common name
2. A compact technical code
3. A standardized data order

Example:

Cadmium Red Medium
R-O15 C8 V4 T1 P9

This instantly tells the painter:

• hue location
• hue bias
• chroma
• value
• transparency
• permanence

without needing swatches.

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1. HUE SYSTEM

Instead of vague names like “Warm Red” or “Sky Blue,” every colour sits on a hue wheel.

Primary Hue Letter

Letter	Hue
R	Red
O	Orange
Y	Yellow
G	Green
C	Cyan
B	Blue
V	Violet
M	Magenta
N	Neutral

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Hue Shift Number

A 0–99 number indicates position toward adjacent hues.

Examples:

• R00 = neutral red
• R15 = orange-shifted red
• R85 = magenta-shifted red

Thus:

• “Scarlet” might become R18
• “Alizarin Crimson” might become R82
• “Sap Green” might become G28

This solves the biggest painter problem:

“Which way does this colour lean?”

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2. CHROMA SCALE

Measures saturation/intensity.

Code	Meaning
C0	Neutral grey
C1–3	Muted/Earthy
C4–6	Moderate
C7–8	Strong
C9	Near spectral

Examples:

• Yellow Ochre = C3
• Ultramarine = C6
• Phthalo Blue = C9

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3. VALUE SCALE

Lightness/darkness.

Code	Meaning
V0	Black
V9	White

Examples:

• Payne’s Grey = V2
• Raw Umber = V3
• Lemon Yellow = V8

This helps painters predict mixtures.

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4. TRANSPARENCY

Code	Meaning
T0	Fully opaque
T1	Semi-opaque
T2	Semi-transparent
T3	Transparent

Examples:

• Cadmium Red = T0
• Quinacridone Magenta = T3

This is critical for glazing.

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5. PERMANENCE / LIGHTFASTNESS

Standardized 0–9.

Code	Meaning
P9	Extremely permanent
P7	Professional archival
P5	Moderate
P3	Fugitive
P0	Extremely unstable

This avoids confusing ASTM/I/II/etc.

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6. OPTIONAL SPECIAL PROPERTIES

These could be appended depending on medium.

Watercolour

Code	Meaning
G	Granulating
S	Staining
L	Lifting

Example:

Ultramarine Blue
B78 C6 V3 T2 P9 G

---

Oil Paint

Code	Meaning
D1–5	Drying speed
O1–5	Oil absorbency

---

Acrylic

Could include:

• gloss level
• flexibility
• UV resistance

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FULL EXAMPLE CONVERSIONS

“Sap Green”

Traditional name tells almost nothing.

Proposed:

Sap Green
G25 C4 V4 T2 P6

Interpretation:

• green leaning yellow
• medium chroma
• mid-dark
• semi-transparent
• moderately permanent

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“Payne’s Grey”

Payne’s Grey
B65 C1 V2 T1 P8

Interpretation:

• blue-violet neutral
• low chroma
• dark value
• semi-opaque

---

“Cadmium Yellow Light”

Cadmium Yellow Light
Y08 C8 V8 T0 P9

Meaning:

• slightly orange yellow
• intense
• light value
• opaque
• permanent

---

“Quinacridone Magenta”

Quinacridone Magenta
M10 C9 V4 T3 P9

Meaning:

• slightly violet magenta
• ultra high chroma
• transparent
• archival

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WHY THIS WOULD WORK

Advantages Over Traditional Names

1. Predictive Mixing

Artists can estimate mixtures before touching paint.

2. Cross-Brand Consistency

A “Scarlet” from one brand differs wildly from another.

But:

R18 C8 V4 T1 P9

is universal.

3. Teaches Colour Theory Automatically

Beginners learn hue bias immediately.

4. Works Across Media

Oil, acrylic, gouache, watercolour.

5. Compact

Small enough for tube labels.

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IDEAL LABEL FORMAT

Example tube:

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Quinacridone Rose
M22 C8 V5 T3 P9 S
Pigment: PR122

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A painter instantly knows:

• cool magenta-red
• high chroma
• transparent
• permanent
• staining

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FURTHER IMPROVEMENT: SPECTRAL POSITION

For scientific precision, you could optionally encode actual:

• dominant wavelength
• Lab coordinates
• Munsell notation

Example:

R18 C8 V4 T1 P9
Lab(52, 68, 34)

But most painters probably do not need this.

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THE BIGGEST INSIGHT

Painters do not actually paint with “names.”

They paint with:

• hue relationships
• transparency
• value structure
• chroma hierarchy

Traditional naming obscures this information.

Your instinct is essentially pointing toward a:

“Periodic table for pigments.”

And honestly, painting has needed one for a long time.

You may also find it interesting to compare this idea to:

• Munsell color system
• CIELAB color space
• Natural Color System

—all of which solved parts of the problem, but not specifically for painters in studio practice.

This is one of the more Intelligent Uses for ChatGPT I've come up with.