How color gets onto a uPVC window.

A colored uPVC window is not painted. The profile itself is white. Color is a thin, tough film — a foil — laminated onto the profile at the factory, before the frame is cut and welded. How long it lasts depends on that foil: what it is made of, how dark it is, how well it is bonded.

What the foil is.

A window foil is a layered plastic film. A pigmented base layer carries the color, and sometimes a printed pattern. A clear acrylic top layer screens ultraviolet light and takes the wear.

It is bonded with a primer and adhesive system, under heat and pressure, on a laminating line, and wrapped around the edges of the profile in long lengths, before fabrication. That is why the color runs cleanly into the corners of a finished frame. The film is not only decoration: it adds weather protection to the profile underneath.

Because each face is laminated separately, inside and outside can be different. A dark color outside with white inside is the most common choice on apartment buildings, and the most robust build. Open the sash and the rebate may show the profile's base color, not the foil.

White is the exception. It carries no foil at all: it is the color of the uPVC compound itself, which is why it is the base price, and why its resistance to yellowing comes from UV protection mixed into the material.

Foil and paint are not two ways of doing the same thing.

A foil goes onto straight lengths of profile, in a factory, before there is a window. Paint goes onto a finished surface. That difference decides the rest.

Paint sits on a plastic that gives it little to grip. It can be done, with the right coatings and careful preparation, but it leaves a thinner film than a foil, it can chip at an edge, and it turns a frame that needed no finishing into one that does. Painting our windows in the field also voids the finish warranty.

The two are judged by different industry standards — not two grades of the same product. That shows up in what we can stand behind: where a color has to be sprayed rather than laminated, the finish warranty is materially shorter. Our frames and sashes comply with AAMA 303 and ASTM D4216, a profile standard, not a film one.

In fairness, aluminum has the advantage here: powder coat can be mixed to nearly any RAL number. A foil comes from a set range, and some colors do not exist as a foil at all.

A foil color is close to its reference number, never exactly it.

RAL figures are the closest visual match, not a certified equivalent. Vistaza colors are laminated foils; RAL is a paint standard, so no foil is an exact RAL. A reference code — a RAL number on our chart, sometimes a DB number on factory paperwork — names the nearest color, not a match an instrument would confirm.

Three things move a foil away from its number.

• Texture and gloss. A number describes a color, not a surface. Sand structure, a brushed pattern or a metallic flake changes how a color reads at every angle, and the same pigment matt and satin are two colors to the eye. Two Vistaza colors share RAL 7016 and look nothing alike: one a sand-structure solid, the other a brushed metallic.
• Light. A metallic or a brushed finish shifts with the angle it is seen at, so no flat swatch and no screen can show it. We specify those colors against an approved sample, and the shop drawing names the sample, not the number.
• The lamination. Our own warranty concedes it: a slight color difference can appear between a window and a laminated grid, because the two were laminated separately.

So choose from a physical sample of the exact finish, look at it outdoors on the orientation the windows will take, and match the metalwork around them to that sample rather than to the code.

How a foil weathers.

Everything outdoors changes; what matters is how. A good foil changes slowly and evenly — shade drifts a little, gloss drops a little, across a whole elevation at once. What should not happen is cracking, peeling, chalking, blistering, flaking or delamination: those are faults, not age, and our warranty is written against them.

What speeds the change up:

• Ultraviolet light. UV breaks down pigments and the material around them. The clear acrylic layer absorbs it, which is why its thickness and quality matter more than anything else in the film.
• Heat. A dark surface in full sun gets far hotter than a white one, which speeds up aging and makes the profile move. Every film we use carries pigment that reflects part of the infrared in sunlight, lowering the surface temperature. On black — the color most of our buildings take — we use a premium three-layer film whose white layer under the color turns back the infrared the color layer lets through, instead of letting a dark profile soak it up. That build is not on every color, so ask which one yours takes.
• Orientation. South and west elevations age faster than north, so a frame replaced years later may not match its sun-faded neighbors. This is true of any colored material.
• Cleaning. Solvents, abrasive pads and strong cleaners damage the top layer. Mild soap and water is all a foil needs.
• Poor bonding. If the adhesive or the process was wrong, a foil can lift at edges and corners; a corner sample often shows it.

Paint ages differently. On a sprayed coating the surface is the color, so as it chalks and dulls the color goes with it. In a foil the color sits under a clear layer whose job is to take that wear.

What Vistaza offers.

Vistaza lists 15 colors in three tiers. White is the base. Every other color is a laminated finish, and either face can take a different one.

Tier	Colors	Worth knowing
Standard	White, Black, Charcoal Gray, Moon Gray, Quartz Gray, Basalt Gray	All standard colors price alike
Premium	Aluminum Silver, Sandstone, Antique Bronze, Chocolate Bronze	A higher upcharge and a longer lead time
Custom	Platinum, Golden, Brushed Aluminum, Brushed Anthracite, Cream	Made to order. An upcharge and a longer lead time

Nine of the fifteen are not flat: four sand structure, a fine even grain; four brushed metallics, with a direction to them; one metallic. A hex value or a photograph flattens all nine, which is the whole reason for the sample. See every color.

What to ask for.

1. A physical sample of the exact finish, on the actual profile — not a printed chart.
2. Which faces are foiled, and what color shows in the rebate when the sash is open.
3. The foil's weathering data: test method, exposure, and the measured change in color and gloss.
4. How the finish is warranted, in writing, for your project's location.
5. For dark colors, whether that color takes the three-layer heat-reflecting film, and how the detail allows for heat and movement.
6. What the welded corners look like in that color. A groove shows more on a dark or metallic foil. See welds and seals.
7. The colors of the parts around the foil: gaskets, weep covers, handles, and any exterior trims.
8. How a scratch is repaired, and with what.
9. On a phased project, how color is kept consistent between deliveries.

Choose the color from a sample in daylight, and choose it once.

When you send your plans, tell us the colors and we will send samples.