Cyan

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This article is about the color. For other senses of this word see cyan (disambiguation).

Cyan (from Greek κυανός, meaning "blue") may be used as the name of any of a number of a range of colors in the blue/green part of the spectrum. In reference to the visible spectrum cyan is used to refer to the color obtained by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light or the removal of red from white light. As such, cyan is the complement of red: cyan pigments absorb red light.

Cyan is also called aqua and blue-green. The name "cyan" for printer's cyan has been in use since 1889. [1]

Some shades of color close to cyan in the cyan color range are baby blue, turquoise, and light blue.

Contents

[edit] Variations of cyan

[edit] Electric cyan (web color aqua) (electrical blue)

Cyan (additive secondary)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #00FFFF
RGBa (r, g, b) (0, 255, 255)
HSV (h, s, v) (180°, 100%, 100%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The vivid cyan that is seen on an electronic display device (shown at right) is also referred to as electric cyan to distinguish it from the less vivid turquoise-like process cyan used in color printing (shown below). (Note: while the color is defined by definite RGB values, the display of the color will vary depending on the absolute color space used and the nature of the physical display device, e.g. computer monitor, and if this page is printed it is likely that the color shown will be far from representative.)

The web color aqua is an alias for electronic cyan, i.e., it is exactly the same color.

To reproduce electric cyan in inks, it is necessary to add some white ink to the printer's cyan below, so when it is reproduced in printing, it is not a primary subtractive color. It is called aqua because it is the color of water (a name in use since 1598). [2] This color used to sometimes be also be called electric blue (a name which had been in use since 1884) because this color is the color of a lightning flash or an electric spark; this color term in reference to cyan has now been changed to electrical blue to avoid confusion with the color now called electric blue, the blue that registers on a computer screen as opposed to pigment blue. [3].


[edit] Process cyan (pigment cyan)(printer's cyan)

Cyan (subtractive primary)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #00B7EB
RGBa (r, g, b) (0, 180, 247)
HSV (h, s, v) (180°, 100%, 100%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Cyan is also one of the common inks used in four-color printing, along with magenta, yellow, and black; this set of colors is referred to as CMYK.

Note that while both of these colors are called cyan they are actually substantially different from one another. Cyan printing ink is much less vivid--indeed, CMYK printing technology cannot accurately reproduce pure cyan as described above (100% blue + 100% green) on paper.

The CMYK printing process was invented in the 1890s, when newspapers began to publish color comic strips.

Process cyan is not an RGB color, and there is no fixed conversion from CMYK primaries to RGB. Different formulations are used for printer's ink, so there can be variations in the printed color that is pure cyan ink. A typical formulation of process cyan is shown in the color box at right. The source of the color shown at right is the color cyan that is shown in the diagram located at the bottom of the following website offering tintbooks for CMYK printing: [1].

[edit] Spectral reflectance curve of cyan

spectral reflectance curve
spectral reflectance curve


[edit] Shades of cyan color comparison chart

  • Alice Blue (web color) (Hex: #F0F8FF) (RGB: 240, 248, 255)
  • Baby Blue (web color Light Cyan) (Hex: #E0FFFF) (RGB: 224, 255, 255)
  • Pale Turquoise (web color) (Hex: #AFEEEE) (RGB: 175, 238, 238)
  • Pale Robin Egg Blue (Hex: #96DED1) (RGB: 150, 222, 205)
  • Aquamarine (web color) (Hex: #7FFFD4) (RGB: 127, 255, 212)
  • Aquamarine Blue (Crayola Aquamarine) (Hex: #71D9E2) (RGB: 113, 217, 226)
  • CYAN (web color Aqua) (Electric Cyan) (Electrical Blue) (Hex: #00FFFF) (RGB: 0, 255, 255)
  • Bright Turquoise (Hex: #08E8DE) (RGB: 8, 232, 222)
  • Turquoise (web color) (Hex: #30D5C8) (RGB: 48, 213, 200)
  • Turquoise Blue (web color Deep Sky Blue) (Hex: #00BFFF) (RGB: 0, 191, 255)
  • Process Cyan (Pigment Cyan) (Printer's Cyan) (Hex: #00B7EB) (RGB: 0, 180, 247)
  • Bright Cerulean (Crayola Cerulean) (Hex: #02A4D3) (RGB: 2, 164, 211)
  • Deep Turquoise (web color "Dark Turquoise") (Hex: #00CED1) (RGB: 0, 206, 209)
  • Robin Egg Blue (Hex: #00CCCC) (RGB: 0, 204, 204)
  • Medium Turquoise (web color) (Hex: #48D1CC) (RGB: 72, 209, 204)
  • Medium Aquamarine (web color) (Hex: #66CDAA) (RGB: 102, 205, 170)
  • Light Sea Green (web color) (Hex: #20B2AA) (RGB: 32, 178, 170)
  • Viridian (Hex: #40826D) (RGB: 64, 130, 109)
  • Pine Green (Hex: #01796F) (RGB: 1, 121, 111)
  • Dark Cyan (web color) (Hex: #008B8B) (RGB: 0, 139, 139)
  • Teal (Hex: #008080) (RGB: 0, 128, 128)
  • Bondi Blue (Crayola Blue-Green) (Hex: #0095B6) (RGB: 0, 149, 182)
  • Cerulean (Hex: #007BA7) (RGB: 0, 123, 167)

[edit] Cyan in human culture

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[edit] Architecture

  • Cyan colored tiles are often used to pave swimming pools to make the water within them seem more inviting to swim in by making the color of the water seem more intense.

[edit] Art

  • By the early 1960s, many had become aware that magenta, yellow, and cyan and not red, blue, and yellow were the primary pigments, so vivid colors in the cyan range became available in art supply stores for the first time.

[edit] Interior Design and Industrial Design

[edit] Religion

[edit] References

  1. ^ Merriam Webster's College Dictionary, 10th Edition, 1994, see under entry "cyan".
  2. ^ Maerz and Paul The Dictionary of Color 1930 (see under Aqua in Index, Page 189)
  3. ^ Maerz and Paul The Dictionary of Color 1930 (see under Electric Blue in Index, Page 194)

[edit] See also

v • d • e
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
(Sorted by wavelength, short to long)
Gamma ray • X-ray • Ultraviolet • Visible spectrum • Infrared • Terahertz radiation • Microwave • Radio waves
Visible (optical) spectrum Violet • Blue • Green • Yellow • Orange • Red
Microwave spectrum W band • V band • K band: Ka band, Ku band • X band • C band • S band • L band
Radio spectrum EHF • SHF • UHF • VHF • HF • MF • LF • VLF • ULF • SLF • ELF
Wavelength designations Microwave • Shortwave • Mediumwave • Longwave
  Shades of cyan  
Alice blue Aqua Aquamarine Baby blue Bondi blue Cerulean Cyan Pine green Robin egg blue Teal Turquoise Viridian
                       
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