No, It's Not Pantone

The color system used for historic paint matching, dental restoration and beer!

Ever wondered how school buses are all the same yellow across America, how geologists color code soil samples, or how architectural preservationists match new paint colors to original historic paints?

Anyone who’s taken a road trip in America knows that the color of all highway signs is always the same hue of green. Highway signs aren’t painted with the same paint all across the country. Instead, sign painters and manufacturers use a set of specifications to get the closest paint match or mix colors to get the right shade of green paint so it meets the Federal Highway Administration’s standards. The specifications are based on the Munsell color notation system, which is widely used not only for highway signs but for a myriad of other applications where color consistency is needed. This includes yellow school buses, fruits and vegetables (to gauge quality and maturity), electrical wiring colors, textiles, and beer.