Hi Kevin,
Some good questions, I'm not sure if I can answer them all but I will try.
The RAL palette should be ordered by number. The RAL system is explained here: The RAL Classic colours have a 4-digit number in combination with the letters 'RAL' (e.g. RAL 1028). The first digit is a system code number (1: yellow, 2: orange, 3: red, 4: violet, 5: blue, 6: green, 7: grey, 8: brown and 9: white and black shades). The remaining 3 digits are chosen sequentially. I did a quick search to see if groupings for colour swatches was available in Affinity but I didn't find anything.
Yes I believe so, I may have missed one or two, apologies if I did.
RAL is an European colour matching system (adopted worldwide) which defines colours for paint, coatings and plastics. RAL Classic is the most famous and widely used system. It's largest applications are in the automotive, product and interior design industries. Pantone is a larger colour matching system that has predominantly been used in the print media industry.
I copied all the colours into word, then created a pdf that I imported into Affinity. From there I selected each colour individually with the colour picker and saved it as a colour with the appropriate number. I checked a large number to ensure that the RAL represented in HSL transposed accurately, so yes, it was done manually.
Tip: You can edit the colour names in Affinity and save your edits. So you could append the correct name to the number with group identifier like YL,OR,RD,VI,BL,GN,GY,BR,BK this would be nice to have so if you do that please export your palette and post it here. You may also be able to change the slider designation between RGB,HSL & CMYK but I don't know for sure. Others have also suggested they should be spot colours but again I would suggest some research if that is what you need, it depends on your application.
Lastly, you can buy RAL colour charts on eBay/Amazon for pennies that might help you find colours quicker.
Best of Luck
Dom
