It's not just you. I don't even bother with BM's visualizer. SW's is quite good, however.

Sherwin Williams' STIR magazine had a good refresher on this situation this month. As the old saying goes, monitors are like snowflakes, no two are the same.

I have three monitors and have a favorite that's getting old. Snowflakes eventually melt and age wears hard on monitors causing a fading away of sorts.

Monitors shine colored light into your eyes and in real life color is a reflection. Color on your monitor is additive. Paint colors are subtractive. The two *kinds* of color will never sync up.

Calibrating and adjusting color settings on the monitor, and fiddling with the ambiant light in the background, and the color directly behind framing your monitor as you work can help improve the relationship of beamed light to reflected light, but you'll never see color on your monitor match the color chips you can hold in your hand.

I'm dreading going shopping for a new monitor.

The quality at which the color is *constructed* and presented from those color related websites matters as to how well color can relay on various monitors. Have to assume they do all they can to control what can be controlled on their end. It's the other end that is next to impossible to anticipate and control -- 'cuz monitors are like snowflakes. :~D

I think it's more than just a monitor issue. The same thing happens when you look at a magazine or a photo of a paint color. It's never the same as it is in real life in your own setting, with your own lighting.

I think the paint programs are helpful in getting you to the right section of colors. A specific color however is much more difficult.

Video cards (which are in the guts of your PC's tower) also play a role in how images are displayed. So it's twofold, monitor and video/graphics card.

But to answer your question; no, colors aren't accurate.
Used to do oodles of 'virtuals' here, no time anymore with mom here mending. But I have, about 5 or so different manufacturers programs. None are spot on accurate cuz I have the fan decks too. (Yeah, my name's moonshadow and I'm a paint addict.) The way I always suggested using them when I did virtuals for someone was a) ignore color names b) rule out colors that don't work. When you've zeroed in on colors that do seem to work, then narrow your choices if you like, then go get some real color swatches that appear closest to what worked in the virtual photos. Done in reverse like that, using it to rule out and narrow down, the software programs are an awesome tool!

I used to use the BM COlor Viewer and I agree with moonshadow that it is only good for ruling out colors that will not work.

I have played around with my Display panel (I have a Mac) and have calibrated it so the colors are warmer and match the SW Visualizer fairly well - not perfect.

In general, default monitor displays are too cool. What you want is a native white point that tends toward ivory.

I saved this adjustment as my "Paint Matching" profile and use it when I'm working with the Visualizer.

If I use the default display setting recommended by the computer, the colors aren't even close.