Two tubes of ultramarine blue can sit side by side at very different prices, and the reason is printed on both. Most people never read it.
The codes and symbols on an acrylic tube describe pigment content, permanence, and consistency. Learning to read four of them will save you more money than any sale will.
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Body Is the First Decision
Before colour, before brand, work out what consistency you need. Acrylics are sold across a viscosity range, and the wrong choice makes everything harder.
Heavy body is thick and buttery, holding brush and knife marks the way oil paint does. It suits impasto, texture, and anything where you want the mark to stand off the surface.
Soft body, sometimes labelled medium body, has a creamy consistency that still holds shape but flows more readily. It is the general-purpose choice and covers most canvas work.
Fluid and high-flow acrylics run progressively thinner, down to an ink-like consistency. These suit pouring, staining, airbrushing, and fine detail, and ready-to-pour products are simply fluid acrylics pre-mixed to the right consistency for fluid art.
The Pigment Code Is the Real Product Name
Somewhere in the small print, you will find a code like PB29 or PR108. The letter P stands for pigment, the second letter gives the colour family, and the number identifies the specific pigment.
That code is standardised, so PB29 is ultramarine blue, whatever the brand or the marketing name on the front. PW6 is titanium white, PR108 is cadmium red, and PB15 is phthalo blue.
This matters because colour names are not standardised at all. Two brands can sell very different paints under the same romantic name, and the code is the only reliable way to know what you are buying.
Single Pigment Versus Hue
Count the codes. A tube listing one code contains one pure pigment, which mixes cleanly and predictably.
A tube listing two or three codes is a blend. Blends mix less predictably and tend toward muddier results, particularly once you combine them with other blends.
The word "hue" is the tell. A cadmium red hue is not cadmium red; it is a cheaper approximation built from other pigments, and it will behave differently in mixes even where it looks similar in the tube.
Lightfastness Decides Whether the Work Survives
This is the rating most beginners skip and most regret skipping. Lightfastness measures resistance to fading under light exposure and is usually shown as an ASTM rating in Roman numerals.
The scale runs from I to V. ASTM I is excellent, and ASTM II is very good, with both considered permanent for artists' use, while ASTM III is rated fair at roughly 15 to 50 years and IV and V are progressively fugitive.
Some European brands use the Blue Wool Scale instead, where 8 is completely lightfast and lower numbers fade faster.
Many manufacturers also apply their own star systems, which usually translate the underlying rating but are not equivalent between brands.
One popular colour is worth knowing about. Alizarin crimson, pigment code PR83, is commonly rated ASTM III or IV, which is why many artists substitute a quinacridone alternative for work intended to last.
Series Numbers Are About Cost, Not Quality
Series numbers confuse people because higher looks better. They simply reflect what the pigment costs to source.
Series 1 typically covers inexpensive pigments like titanium white and ultramarine. Series 3 and 4 hold cadmiums and cobalts, which are genuinely more expensive raw materials.
Some ranges skip series entirely and price every colour the same, which is common in student and mid-range lines. That is a pricing decision rather than a quality signal.
What a Set Gives You That Tubes Do Not
Buying individually is efficient once you know your palette. Before that, an acrylic paint set removes the hardest part of starting, which is guessing which twelve colours will actually work together.
A well-built beginner set gives you primaries, neutrals and a few accents chosen to mix well as a group. Larger sets add metallics, speciality finishes and bigger tube sizes for people painting regularly.
Range matters here. CraftOnline lists over 1,300 products in its acrylic range, spanning standard tubes, ready-to-pour fluids, metallics, pastels and neons, which makes it straightforward to start with a set and top up individual shades later.
What the Label Will Not Tell You
Two things you learn by painting rather than reading. Acrylics dry darker than they appear wet, so a mix matched to a reference while wet will be slightly off once dry.
Open time is the other. Fast drying is the medium's great strength and its main frustration, because blending on the surface has to happen quickly unless you add a retarder or use an open-formula range.
FAQ’S
It is the Colour Index code for ultramarine blue. P means pigment, B means blue, and 29 identifies the specific pigment, so the code means the same thing across every brand.
For learning, practice, and large-scale work, yes. Student ranges carry less pigment and more filler, use more hues in place of genuine pigments, and generally offer weaker lightfastness, which matters for work you intend to sell or keep.
Consistency only. Heavy body holds brush and knife marks for texture, while soft body flows more smoothly and suits general painting and blending.
ASTM I or II for anything you want to last, or Blue Wool 7 to 8 on European brands. A brand that publishes no lightfastness information at all is telling you something.
Usually the pigment. Cobalt and cadmium pigments cost far more to produce than ultramarine or phthalo, which is what series numbering reflects.
Yes. Acrylics from different manufacturers are generally compatible, though binder formulations vary slightly, so finish and drying time can differ across a mixed palette.
Conclusion
The label answers most of the questions people ask in shops. The body tells you how it handles, the pigment code tells you what is actually inside, lightfastness tells you whether it lasts, and the series number explains the price.
None of that means you need artist grade for everything. Practice work, colour studies and children's projects are exactly what affordable ranges exist for.
Save the higher spend for the colours that carry a finished piece. Read the code, check the rating, then buy accordingly.
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