Abstract: A formula retrieval and management system (200) for retrieving paint formulas, creating paint formulas, updating paint inventory, and providing miscellaneous reports. The system presents a ruled scale representation of actual sizes on a display, including a bar portion extendable along the ruled scale representation. User movement of the bar portion selects the desired paint size. Furthermore, multiple variants of a formula can be stored and selected from a special menu. When the system program is used for the first time in a given day, various types of reports of the previous day's paint usage are made available.