Orange (colour)

Orange

— Spectral coordinates —
Wavelength		585–620 nm
— Commonly represents —
desire, flamboyance, fire, warning
— Colour coordinates —
Hex triplet		#FF7F00
RGB^B	(r, g, b)	(255, 127, 0)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(30°, 100%, 100%)
Source		HTML Color Chart @30
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The colour orange occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum at a wavelength of about 585 – 620 nm, and has a hue of 30° in HSV colour space. The complementary colour of orange is azure, a slightly greenish blue. Orange pigments are largely in the ochre or cadmium families, and absorb mostly blue light.

Orange (color wheel)

At above right is the color wheel color orange. This is the color orange as defined in HSV color space; that is, it is the hue midway between red and yellow. It is numerically halfway between red and yellow in a gamma-compressed RGB color space, and is diametrically opposite azure, on the HSV color wheel.

Etymology of orange

Oranges

Main article: Orange (word)

The colour is named after the orange fruit, introduced to Europe via the Sanskrit word nāranja. Before this was introduced to the English-speaking world, the colour was referred to (in Old English) as geoluhread, which translates into Modern English as yellow-red.

The first recorded use of orange as a colour name in English was in 1512,^[1] in the court of King Henry VIII.

Orange web colours

Orange (web colour)
— Colour coordinates —
Hex triplet		#FFA500
sRGB^B	(r, g, b)	(255, 165, 0)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(39°, 100%, 100%)
Source		CSS/X11/SVG^[2]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Orange (web colour)

Web colour orange, defined as FFA500, is the only named colour defined in CSS that is not also defined in HTML 4.01

Dark orange (web colour)
— Colour coordinates —
Hex triplet		#FF8C00
sRGB^B	(r, g, b)	(255, 140, 0)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(34°, 100%, 100%)
Source		X11/SVG^[2]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Dark orange (web colour)

The web colour called dark Orange is displayed at right.

Orange peel
— Colour coordinates —
Hex triplet		#FFA000
RGB^B	(r, g, b)	(255, 160, 0)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(38°, 100%, 100%)
Source		^[Unsourced]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Additional variations on the colour orange

Main article: Variations of orange

Orange peel

Displayed at right is the actual colour of the outer skin of a typical orange. This colour is called orange peel. It is the same colour as the fruit for which it was named. In contrast to blue or red, this colour is well determined.

A discussion of the difference between the colours orange and orange peel is given in Maerz and Paul.^[3]

The first recorded use of orange peel as a colour name in English was in 1839. ^[4]

Tangerine
— Colour coordinates —
Hex triplet		#F28500
RGB^B	(r, g, b)	(243, 133, 0)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(33°, 100%, 95%)
Source		^[Unsourced]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Tangerine

Main article: Tangerine (color)

At right is the colour tangerine, a shade of orange that is the colour of the tangerine fruit.

The first recorded use of tangerine as a colour name in English was in 1899. ^[5]

Carrot orange
— Colour coordinates —
Hex triplet		#ED9121
RGB^B	(r, g, b)	(237, 145, 33)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(33°, 86%, 93%)
Source		^[Unsourced]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Carrot orange

Carrot orange is a tint of orange that is the colour of the raw carrot vegetable.

The first recorded use of carrot orange as a colour name in English was in 1684. ^[6]

Burnt orange
— Colour coordinates —
Hex triplet		#CC5500
RGB^B	(r, g, b)	(204, 85, 0)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(25°, 100%, 80%)
Source		^[Unsourced]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Burnt orange

Burnt orange has been in use as a colour name for this deep shade of orange since 1915. ^[7]

This colour is one variation that is used as a school colour of the University of Texas at Austin, Clemson University, Virginia Tech, and Auburn University.

This variation of orange is one of the primary colours for the American Football team, the Cleveland Browns

Burnt Orange was popular in interior design in the 1970s.

So-called redheads actually have hair that averages a burnt orange colour.

Brown
— Colour coordinates —
Hex triplet		#964B00
RGB^B	(r, g, b)	(150, 75, 0)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(30°, 100%, 59%)
Source		^[Unsourced]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Brown

Main article: Brown

Brown is actually derived from the orange part (orange + grey) of the colour spectrum. It can be described as dark orange.

The first recorded use of brown as a colour name in English was in 1000. ^[8]

Orange in human culture (symbology of orange)

Academia

In the United States and Canada, orange regalia is associated with the field of engineering.

Arch in Arches National Park, Utah.

Commercially

TNT post sign in the Netherlands

Orange is the primary colour in the logo for the United States company Home Depot.

Geography and history

Orange is the national colour of The Netherlands, because its royal family of Orange-Nassau used to own the principality of Orange (the title is still used for the Dutch heir apparent). There is no etymological connection between orange (the fruit and colour) and Orange (the name of the principality), and the similarity is fortuitous. (See the page on Orange (word) for more information.) In modern Dutch society however, the Dutch word oranje, 'orange' is often associated with the reigning royal house of the Netherlands. Oranjezonnetje ('Orange Sun') designates good weather on the Queen's birthday, April 30. Orange is the colour of choice for many of the national sports teams and their supporters. The nickname of the Dutch national football team is Oranje, the Dutch word for orange. Oranjegekte ('Orange Craze') signifies the inclination of many Dutchmen to dress up in orange colours during soccer matches. In the modern flag of the Netherlands, red substitutes the original orange, but on royal birthdays, the flag has an additional orange banner. Most geographical usages of the word orange can be traced back to Dutch maritime power in the 17th century.
In Ireland the use of orange dates from the reign of William of Orange, the Protestant English king (1689-1702), a Dutch stadholder and the great-grandson of William the Silent.

Linguistically

People whose natural hair colour is metaphorically described in English as being red, i.e. redheads, actually have hair that averages a burnt orange colour.
Orange is often quoted (along with Purple and Silver) as a word that doesn't rhyme with any other word in the English language. This is debatable - see Orange (word)#Rhyme. However, the Oxford Rhyming Dictionary does show both these words as having half-rhymes (such as lozenge with orange and salver with silver).
In a children's book of verse, in a poem titled "Color," there are these lines:

What is red? a poppy's red, in its barley bed.

What is orange? Why, an orange--just an orange!

Medically

A woman named Susan Hogan was born with an extra set of cones that are sensitive in the orange range, as well having the red, green, and blue cones that humans with normal colour vision (i.e. trichromats) possess. She is therefore classified as a tetrachromat, but her extra type of cone is an orange cone instead of the ultraviolet cone possessed by animals such as birds who are tetrachromats in nature. It is estimated that while normal humans can see about 1,000,000 different colours, tetrachromats such as Ms. Hogan can see 100,000,000 different colours. This is because each additional type of cones interacts with the other types of cones in such a way that an addition of a new type of cone means an organism can see 100 times as many colours. (This means that a pentachromat would be able to see 10,000,000,000 (ten billion) different colours.) ^[9]

Politically

Orange is the national colour of the Netherlands, referring to the royal family, the House of Orange-Nassau. Orange was seen on its original flag (until the middle of the 17th century) and nowadays a pennant may be attached to the red, white and blue national flag. (See below at: Geography and history)
Orange is the contrasting colour of blue and is highly visible against a clear sky. Therefore, shades of orange such as safety orange are often used in high visibility clothing and other safety equipment and objects.
Orange, white, and green are the national colours of the Republic of Ireland, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire, and India.
In the United States Army, orange is the colour of the United States Army Signal Corps.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's code orange on its terror threat scale represents a high risk, second highest to severe.
Prisoners incarcerated in many American jails and prisons are made to wear orange jumpsuits so they will be easy to see if they try to escape.
Deluxe International orange is the colour of the paint on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge
The U.S. Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices specifies orange for use in temporary and construction signage.
Orange was the rallying colour of the 2004 – 2005 Orange Revolution in Ukraine and has thus become a colour symbolising opposition to tyranny around the world.
Orange is sometimes associated with various Christian democratic and populist parties.
Orange was used as a rallying colour by Israelis (such as Jewish settlers) who opposed Israel's unilateral disengagement plan in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 2005
Orange is the party colour of:

- Orange Democratic Movement, Kenya
- Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union (Fidesz-MPSZ) in Hungary
- Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V), Flanders, Belgium
- People's National Party, Jamaica
- Justice and Truth Alliance, Romania
- People First Party, Republic of China (Taiwan)
- New Democratic Party, Canada
- June List, Sweden
- Free Patriotic Movement, Lebanon
- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India
- PORA, Ukraine - see Orange Revolution
- Independent Party, Minnesota

- Social Democratic Party, Portugal
- People's Party (Spain) since 2005
- Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ)
- National Union (Israel)
- Reformed Political Party, Netherlands
- Christian Democratic Union, Germany
- Union for French Democracy and Democratic Movement, France
- Democratic Party, Italy
- European Democratic Party
- United National Congress Alliance, Trinidad and Tobago

- Is the second official colour of the National Action Party (PAN), Mexico
The colour orange is used in a campaign to highlight the violations of the human rights in China on the occasion of the 2008 Summer Olympics. [1]

Religious and metaphysical

Orange in general represents Hinduism in the flag of Sri Lanka. Hindu swamis traditionally wear orange robes. The significance of orange as the colour for Hindu swamis is commonly thought to be connected to the idea that orange symbolizes fire. Renunciates' fiery ocher robes display outwardly the inner transformation that is happening - the burning of ego, their former selves, and their personal wants. Also, the saffron stripe in the Indian flag signifies courage, sacrifice and the spirit of renunciation.
Orange is used to symbolically represent the second (Swadhisthana) chakra. ^[10]
Psychics who claim to be able to observe the aura with their third eye report that an orange aura is associated with intellectual ambition or stubbornness.^[11]
In the metaphysics of the New Age Prophetess, Alice A. Bailey, in her system called the Seven Rays which classifies humans into seven different metaphysical psychological types, the fifth ray of concrete science is represented by the colour orange. People who have this metaphysical psychological type are said to be on the Orange Ray. ^[12]

Social

Orange heraldic tincture, in colour and monochrome representations

In English heraldry, orange is considered synonymous with the tincture tenne. However, its use as a heraldic tincture is relatively rare, as it is considered a "stain" (a deprecated tincture) by some. In continental heraldry, tenne is more often deemed to denote a burnt orange colour.
The colours orange and black represent the holiday Halloween (31 October) because orange is the colour of pumpkins and black is the colour of night and is associated with doom, despair and darkness.
The colours orange and brown represent the United States holiday Thanksgiving.
Orange is the favourite colour for people to wear to rave dances.
Due to its brightness, orange is used in the construction industry on road signs and safety jackets to warn passers-by of the pending dangers ahead.

Sport

Supporters of the Netherlands national football team dressed in orange

Orange is (usually) the colour of the Netherlands national football team and all other Dutch national teams and athletes.
Orange is also the colour of the Ivory Coast national football team.
In American collegiate athletics, orange is combined with other colours to form the colours for:

- Auburn University
- Boise State University
- Bowling Green State University
- Campbell University
- Clemson University
- Mercer University
- Oklahoma State University
- Oregon State University
- Princeton University
- The Rochester Institute of Technology

- Sam Houston State University
- The University of Illinois
- The University of Florida
- The University of Miami
- The University of the Pacific
- The University of Virginia
- The University of Tennessee
- The University of Texas
- The University of Texas at El Paso
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

The Orange is the name of several sports teams at Syracuse University, in addition to being the university's colour.
American professional teams that use orange as a primary colour include the Baltimore Orioles, San Francisco Giants and New York Mets of Major League Baseball, the Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, and Miami Dolphins of the National Football League, the New York Knicks, the Phoenix Suns and the Charlotte Bobcats of the National Basketball Association, the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders of the National Hockey League, and the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer
Orange is the colour of the second equipation of Valencia CF (Spain). The Valencian Community has oranges as a traditional produce.
Orange is the colour of Blackpool FC in England
Orange is also the colour of J-league football team, Omiya Ardija and baseball team Yomiuri Giants.
Finnish SM-Liiga ice-hockey team Tappara is famous for unusual orange hockey pants.
Orange is the traditional and most common colour of a Basketball.
Orange is the colour of the 5-ball and 13-ball in Billiards. (The 13-ball is white with an orange stripe.)
Orange is the colour of the ball in Snooker Plus with an 8-point value.
Orange is the colour of Chelsea Goalkeeper Petr Cechs new Jersey. He chose he colour because it makes the wearer appear larger, therefore causing distraction in opposing strikers.
Orange is the dominant colour of KTM motorcycle manufacturer along with Black and Silver.

References

↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 200
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 W3C TR CSS3 Color Module, HTML4 color keywords
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930--McGraw-Hill--Discussion of color Orange, Page 170
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 200; Color Sample: Orange Peel Page 43 Plate 10 Color Sample L10.
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 205; Color Sample: Tangerine Page 27 Plate 2 Color Sample H11
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 192; Color Sample: Carrot Orange Page 43 Plate 10 Color Sample C11; see discussion of color "carrot orange" on page 152.
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930--McGraw-Hill Page 191 ; Color sample of Burnt Orange: Page 29 Plate 3 Color Sample E12
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 191
↑ Some women may see 100,000,000 colors, thanks to their genes (Article by Mark Roth in the Philadelphia Post-Gazette Wednesday, September 13, 2006):
↑ Stevens, Samantha. The Seven Rays: a Universal Guide to the Archangels. City: Insomniac Press, 2004. ISBN 1894663497 pg. 24
↑ Swami Panchadasi The Human Aura: Astral Colors and Thought Forms Des Plaines, Illinois, USA:1912--Yogi Publications Society Page 33
↑ Bailey, Alice A. (1995). The Seven Rays of Life. New York: Lucis Publishing Company. ISBN 0853301425.

External links

Orange Spectrum Color Chart Listing

Electromagnetic spectrum

← shorter wavelengths longer wavelengths → Gamma rays · X-rays · Ultraviolet · Visible · Infrared · Terahertz radiation · Microwave · Radio

Visible (optical)	Violet · Blue · Green · Yellow · Orange · Red

Microwaves	W band · V band · Q band · K_a band · K band · K_u band · X band · S band · C band · L band

Radio	EHF · SHF · UHF · VHF · HF · MF · LF · VLF · ULF · SLF · ELF

Wavelength types	Microwave · Shortwave · Medium wave · Longwave

Shades of orange
Amber	Apricot	Carrot orange	Champagne	Coral	Brown	Burnt orange	Portland Orange	Dark salmon	ECE/SAE Amber

Gamboge	International orange	Mahogany	Orange	Orange (web)	Orange-red	Orange peel	Peach	Peach-orange	Peach-yellow

Persimmon	Pink-orange	Pumpkin	Rust	Safety orange	Salmon	Tangerine	Tenné (Tawny)	Tomato	Vermilion

Web colours
black	gray	silver	white	red	maroon	purple	fuchsia	green	lime	olive	yellow	blue	navy	teal	aqua