Analysis: what the cross-brand data shows

The comparison tool answers one question at a time. Putting every finish side by side answers questions no single manufacturer sheet can: how often a sheen name means the same thing at two brands, where it stops meaning anything, and how much of the aisle cannot be compared at all. These pages are GlossAtlas's own analysis of 33 finishes from 4 brands, each figure transcribed from a manufacturer data sheet and each result computed from it.

• 69%of readings: the same name is among the closest range
• 29%of Satin readings: same name is among the closest
• 29%of cross-brand finish pairs share no angle
• 22.5gloss units: widest midpoint spread for one name (Satin, 85°)

Analysis

• Is the same sheen name the closest match?

  The same name is among the closest ranges in 69% of 99 readings, but only 29% for Satin.

• Which sheen names differ most between brands?

  Satin at 85° spreads 22.5 gloss units between brands; for Flat, Matte and Eggshell every cross-brand pair shares a span.

• How much of the paint aisle can actually be compared?

  29% of cross-brand finish pairs share no measurement angle and cannot be compared.

• Same brand, different line: does a finish name stay put?

  Two lines of one brand publish an identical range in 4 of 15 same-angle comparisons; the largest midpoint shift is 2.5 units.

• How far apart are a line’s neighbouring finishes?

  5 of 25 neighbouring-finish steps cannot be measured because the two finishes were published at different angles.

• What published gloss ranges can and cannot tell you

  60% of readings are ties between several finishes, and 33 of 33 sheets do not state the tint base.

• How current are the data sheets behind the comparisons?

  9 of 33 sheets were revised over three years before the check; 3 of 10 documented revisions changed a figure.

Worked examples

Three real brand switches, each from a starting finish to a target brand, showing the data, the same-angle restriction, the calculation and the limits. One has a clean answer, one has none, and one has two readings that disagree.

• Moving from Sherwin-Williams Emerald Satin to Benjamin Moore

  You painted a room in Emerald Satin and now need Benjamin Moore. Which finish, in which line, is the closest published match?

• Moving from Behr Marquee Satin to Sherwin-Williams

  A case where the dataset cannot give a clean answer — and what an honest result looks like when it cannot.

• Moving from Valspar Signature Satin to Behr

  A finish published at two angles: do the 60° and 85° readings agree when you cross to Behr?

How to read these pages

• Manufacturer data. Every range comes from a manufacturer data sheet, linked in the source register.
• GlossAtlas interpretation. Every count, rate, gap and ranking is GlossAtlas's own arithmetic on those ranges, with the formulas published on the methodology page. The prose says what the numbers show and where they stop.
• No measurement. GlossAtlas has not tested any paint, and no angle is ever converted into another. Figures are as of the last check, 2026-10-10.
• Corrections. If something here disagrees with a manufacturer's current sheet, tell us; fixes are logged in the change log.

Compare two finishes · Methodology · Same name, different range