PY175

A cheery lemon version of benzimidazolone yellow that has the potential for quite a bit of transparency. There may be a slight fade in tints (7/8 on the Blue Wool Scale for Lightfastness), this color has somewhere between good and excellent lightfastness depending on the brand. Golden chose PY175 to replace a particular popular hansa yellow, as described in this article on lightfastness. This is a citrus-yellow benzimidazolone, which is one of several benzimidazolone yellows out there. In watercolor, PY175 performed at an "excellent" level in the brands tested by Bruce MacEvoy (he mentions Winsor and Newton and MaimeriBlu). However we noticed in the Schmincke line they only gave it three out of five stars for lightfastness for their version, called Chrome Yellow Lemon Hue, meaning lightfast but not the highest lightfastness. Among the commonly offered benzimidazolone yellows, PY175 is one of the most green-leaning yellows in color. A good point of reference is Hansa Yellow Light PY3-- PY175 is a bit less intensely chromatic than Hansa Yellow Light, and is a bit less intense overall. We were interested to see that Bruce MacEvoy found PY175 to be more lightfast than PY3, as did Golden. Overall it comes highly recommended as a pigment. Benzimidazolone Yellow H6G is quite popular in watercolor and also offered in oils and acrylics. PY175 may be found as a single-pigment color as well as in convenience greens.