A colour display system for aiding the selection and combination of colours in colour scheming is described, wherein the system comprises an array (10) of colour sample elements (12) each of a respective colour, the elements being grouped in discrete blocks (14) according to hue, chromaticity and lightness; the colour sample elements of each block all have colours which are within a hue range respective to that block and which have predetermined chromaticity and lightness properties associated with that block (14); the blocks are arranged in at least 3 parallel lines (16) according to their associated chromaticity and lightness properties such that all of the blocks in each line have similar or the same respective associated chromaticity and lightness properties; each line contains M blocks (where 6 = M = 12) which are arranged in a hue range sequence along the line; within each block the colour sample elements are arranged in a series of hue increments in the direction of the said lines and corresponding to the sequence of the hues of the elements in the visible spectrum, and in a series of lightness increments such that lightness increases in the orthogonal direction; and the angular range of hues in each block, as defined by the CIELAB colour space, vary in size between blocks such that the blocks containing the 90 degrees CIELAB hue have a hue angle range of one half or less than one half the size of the hue angle range of the blocks containing the 270 degrees CIELAB hue.