I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s a conspiracy to create paint brand loyalty, it&#x27;s just too hard to codify real life color except as mix ratios of the formulations for pigments and paint that differ from brand to brand.<p>You could define a standard measuring device and a standard light source and white and black balance but then you&#x27;ll have two paints that measure #F00 but aren&#x27;t guaranteed to at all look the same color to the human eye in varying natural light conditions. If you got really sophisticated and defined color as a graph of wavelength to albedo then you&#x27;d probably
just end up where we already are of &quot;Cherry (brand A)&quot; and &quot;Cherry (brand B)&quot; because it&#x27;s post-facto and not prescriptive (and still wouldn&#x27;t account for specular vs diffuse reflection).