Well, I'm assuming it's a serious question...;-)

99.5% of them can...I do it everyday!

It also depends on a stores' tinting equipment.
An old "manual" style tinter can't do very small quantities.
Check with your store. You may have to get a gallon in some colors.

We've got 2 fancy COROB's that can shoot really minute "shots" reliably. Not cheap tho'....~ $30K for the both a few years ago.

Faron

Not that $$ serious!! Store has a manual tinter. Don't think I'll find anything like that around here. But thanks for the info.

Our store still has a manual tinter for the Ace paint. We have a fancy computer tinter for the BM, though. There are pros and cons to each, but you just ran into one of the biggest cons of the manual tinter.

Usually the colors we find that can't go into quart formulas are the pale, pale off-whites (ie: Casual White and Continental Cream). However, many or most pale colors will go into quarts - it just depends on the numbers in the formula and how they can be divided. Sometimes there's a slightly darker color with an odd formula that won't do it, too (like Hint of Gold, which I unfortunately wanted to do in a sample quart).

Are you needing the exact color, like to sample the paint before doing a whole room? Or is this for a smaller project where just a quart would do? We've used our color matching computer to create quart formulas for some of the off-whites (great for small projects, but not an accurate method for sampling colors unless you stick with the new formula rather than the official one...does that make sense?). Also, some formulas are *nearly* divisible by 4, but not quite, in which case manually dividing them may be more accurate than using the computer's color-match eye (if it calls for different colorants, for instance).

If you have a list of the colors you have in mind, there's a slight chance I may recognize whether it will go into a quart or have time to look it up...but the best way to know for sure is to ask your local Ace paint folks, who should be happy to help!

Since I have the luxury of the big tinters, I scan all matches I do into a gallon on purpose. When doing a light color, choosing "Gallon" permits the computer more leeway in devising a match.

THEN... I use a calculator to divide the formula into 1/4s.
I also usually back off on Black & Red-Oxide if present. I'm usually right too! It's MUCH easier to tweak a color by adding some colorants back in. It's a PITA fighting too much Black, etc.

Now I enter the divided-down formula into the tinter & shoot it. Sometimes it's numbers like B= .325, F=2.85, etc.

Faron

Always wondered how they measure out 1/4 of a "drop"
Casey

This is for a small project. I found another use for the same paint so I went ahead and got a gallon. Thanks for the advice .. I have a some projects coming up in the future!

Just thought of this....

Have your store save your paint info. on their computer if they can. Most tinting programs have this capability. A phone # is a good additional "identifier" since last-names sometimes get misspelled/too common, etc.!

Faron