OEM Paint Lab
OEM Paint Lab is a tool for exploring and comparing automotive colors for digital use. Browse paint records, inspect their sources, and save colors for later.
- Role
- Product strategy, design & engineering
- Stack
- React · TypeScript · Vite
- Data
- 303 paint records
- Year
- 2026
A credibility problem, not a conversion problem
Digital automotive paint references are scattered across manufacturer pages, specialist databases, games, screenshots, and enthusiast archives. Values are often copied without their source or presented with more certainty than the evidence supports. The larger product problem was making each record inspectable: where it came from, how it was interpreted, and what remained unknown.
OEM Paint Lab treats every HEX value as an sRGB screen reference, not a physical paint specification or claim of official OEM accuracy.
From converter to reference product
OEM Paint Lab began as a 173-color utility built around HEX conversion, normalized HSB values, and a simple finish calculator. It was useful, but every workflow still revolved around the converter. As the dataset grew, the product shifted to a Library-first system: searchable records became the foundation, Paint Detail made their context inspectable, and conversion became one tool inside a connected reference product.
The Library became the product spine
The Library anchors the product: search and taxonomy support discovery, Paint Detail makes each record inspectable, Lab analyzes entered colors and finish relationships, My Colors keeps saved archive records and custom colors available locally, and Compare brings selected records together. Because every view works from the same structured data, a color can move from discovery to analysis, saving, and comparison without losing its source context.
A deterministic system for imperfect data
Behind the interface, OEM Paint Lab turns a versioned workbook into validated application data and keeps provenance, finish properties, and record identity explicit rather than inferred. That deterministic foundation gives every product view the same source of truth while saved records and custom colors remain local to the browser.
- XLSX workbook
- Normalize
- Validate
- Typed JSON
- Product views
- Data
- 303 records · Stable IDs · Reference / Estimated
- Color
- sRGB → CIELAB → CIEDE2000
- Persistence
- My Colors stored in localStorage
A reference system designed for repeated use
The finished product connects discovery, provenance, analysis, saving, and comparison in one reusable workflow. Paint supplies the chromatic content while the surrounding interface stays deliberately neutral, keeping source context and analytical relationships clear. Compare makes that outcome tangible by placing selected records side by side and measuring their separation with CIEDE2000 rather than relying on visual judgment alone.
