The Two Kinds of Phthalo Green

The two phthalo green pigments have slightly different characteristics.

Phthalo Green Blue Shade (pigment code PG7) and Phthalo Green Yellow Shade (PG36) have different leanings on the color wheel. Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7) will made some of the most excellent teals in mixes, and we like the Phthalo Green Yellow Shade (PG36) when mixing the highest chroma lime greens.

Among paints made with a given pigment there are some variations. Here's a recent comparison of PG7s we made over in the articles section.

The Phthalos in particular tend to be known by different names. Instead of Phthalo Green Yellow Shade, Gamblin named theirs Phthalo Emerald. The same pigment may also be called Cupric Green Light, Helio Green Light or even Winsor Green (Yellow Shade).

Each of these two pigments flies by a myriad of names, but the pigment code on the back can help to sort out these two powerful colors.

Part of the reason we made Paint List was to make it easy to discover paints by pigment code. Paint names are not standardized, but pigment codes are consistent. So, a person can search for a pigment code and discover the paints across brands which are made with that pigment. If you search PG7 that will bring up the various PG7 paints across brands.

Search for PG7, or search for PG36 to see the variety of paints made with each of these two pigments.