Grey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article is about the colour; for other uses of "grey", see Grey (disambiguation).
"Gray" redirects here; for other uses of "gray", see Gray (disambiguation).
Grey
— Colour coordinates —
Hex triplet #808080
RGBa (r, g, b) (128, 128, 128)
HSV (h, s, v) (-°, 0%, 50%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Grey or gray (see spelling differences) is a colour between white and black. It is a colour seen commonly in nature and fashion. In pigment, or subtractive color (CMYK), it is created by adding black. In light, or additive colour (RGB), it is created by adding equal amounts of R, G, and B, with R,G,B greater than 0% and less than 100% (greater than 0 and less than 255, in the 8-bit notation commonly used in computing). Depending on the colour temperature of the light (measured in kelvins of a black body radiator), the human eye can interpret the same object as either grey or some other colour, with colder light adding a yellow-orange hue and warmer light adding a blue hue.

Two colours are called complementary colours if grey is produced when two colors are combined. Grey is its own complement. Consequently, grey remains grey when its colour spectrum is inverted, and therefore has no opposite, or alternately is its own opposite. On a more abstract level, it could be argued that colours which produce grey when mixed, such as black and white, are the opposite of grey while separated. However, this could not be considered the literal opposite of grey.

Contents

[edit] Usage, symbolism and colloquial expressions

  • Grey symbolises mediocrity, the background noise.
    • A "grey person" is someone who goes unnoticed, a wallflower.
  • In a moral sense grey is either used
    • pejoratively to describe situations that have no clear moral value, or
    • positively to balance an all-black or all-white view (for example, shades of grey = magnitudes of good/bad)
  • Grey is a beast and is about 6 feet tall.
  • Grey has been used to describe the greatest ever as if he was god of granite, concrete and other city materials, as opposed to green to describe environmentalism, chlorophyll and plants.
  • Urban camouflage is composed of patches of shades of grey, while woodland camouflage uses ranges of brown and green.
  • Whilst the hair actually becomes white as one ages, it is often misinterpreted as grey (white next to others colours looking comparatively darker), and hence grey is associated with the elderly, and has inspired the name of the Gray Panthers and expressions such as Grey pound.
  • The substance that composes the brain is referred to as "grey matter", and for that reason the colour is associated with things intellectual.
  • In religion, grey is the colour of ashes, and therefore a biblical symbol of mourning and repentance. It can be used during Lent or on special days of fasting and prayer.
  • Grey was the colour of the Confederate Army uniforms in the American Civil War.
  • The "Grey Lady" is the nickname of the New York Times
  • Feldgrau (field grey) was a common colour of Wehrmacht uniforms.
  • Tiny grey aliens, with large, tear-shaped black eyes are referred to as "little greys" in popular UFO conspiracy theories and in science-fiction.
  • The colour grey represents pessimism whereas its opposite, optimism, is represented by the colour rose.
  • in folklore, grey is often associated with goblin folk of several kinds. Scandinavian folklore often depicts their gnomes and nisser in grey clothing. This is partly because of their association with dusk, partly because these races, including elves (see below), often are outside moral standards (black or white).
  • Corporately Grey Advertising is a marketing communications company with headquarters in New York. It's communications partners include Grey Worldwide, G2, Grey Healthcare, GCI, Mediacom Worldwide, Alliance, G Whiz, and Winglatino. For more information see www.grey.com

[edit] In fiction

  • In Tolkien's works:
    • Gandalf is called the Grey Pilgrim.
    • The Grey Havens
    • The Grey Elves
    • The Grey Hills. Tolkien chose the colour grey from folklore tradition mentioned above.
  • In Michael Ende's Momo, the men in grey are malicious spirits who prey on people's time and trick them into "saving" it.
  • In Don DeLillo's 1985 novel White Noise, the inventor of Dylar is at first only referred to as Mr. Gray.
  • In The T*Witches series, those of magical power are described as having grey eyes.
  • Grey is the colour of Dr. Evil, in opposition to Austin Powers' bright colours.
  • The Grey Council consists of the nine leaders of the Minbari in the Babylon 5 universe.
  • The Brenin Llwyd, the eponymous antagonist of The Grey King, by Susan Cooper.
  • Draco Malfoy (in the Harry Potter books) has grey eyes.
  • Dr. Eggman*'s color is usually grey, while *Sonic the Hedgehog*'s is blue, *Knuckles the Echidna*'s is red, and *Miles "Tails" Prower* is yellow in the games where he is playable, such as *Sonic Adventure 2 Battle*.

[edit] Colour coordinates

RGB 
All the grey values in greyscale are solutions of the inequality:
0 \le ( R = G = B ) \le 255
CMYK 
All the grey values in greyscale are solutions of the inequality:
0 \le K \le 255 when C = M = Y = 0 \,.
In theory it is also possible to achieve a greyscale with perfect inks when:
C = M = Y \, and K = 0 \,
HSL 
All the grey values in greyscale fit one of the following three equalities:
S = 0 or L = 0 (black) or L = 1 (white).
HSV 
All the grey values in greyscale are solutions of the inequality:
0 \le V \le 1 when H = S = 0 \, .

[edit] Web colours

There are several shades of grey available for use with HTML and CSS. Oddly, all are spelled with an a except lightgrey: this can cause unexpected errors (this discrepancy is inherited from the X11 colour list). Note that the three "slategray" colours are not themselves on the greyscale, but are slightly saturated towards cyan (green + blue).

HTML Colour Name Sample Hex triplet
(rendered by name) (rendered by hex triplet)
lightgrey #D3D3D3
gray #808080
darkgray #A9A9A9
dimgray #696969
lightslategray #778899
slategray #708090
darkslategray #2F4F4F

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Info icon This article or section is missing citations and/or footnotes.

This article or section may use words or ideas of other works in its text without citing sources. Using citations to support claims outside the realm of elementary knowledge helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. Please improve the article or discuss this issue on the talk page. Help on using footnotes is available. This article has been tagged since February 2007.


    Web colours black silver gray white red maroon purple fuchsia green lime olive yellow orange blue navy teal aqua
                                     
      Shades of grey  
    Grey Arsenic Bistre Black Charcoal Davy's grey Eigengrau Feldgrau Liver Payne's grey Sable Seal brown Silver
                             
    Slate grey Super black Taupe Purple Taupe Medium Taupe Taupe grey Pale Taupe
                 
    Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../g/r/e/Grey.html"