Amber (color)

Amber is an orange-yellow color that got its name from the material known as amber. Due to this, amber can refer not to one but to a series of shades of orange, since the natural material varies from nearly yellow when newer to orange or reddish-orange when older.

1 Amber
2 SAE/ECE amber
- 2.1 Formal definitions
3 Amber in culture
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Amber

Amber is a pure chroma color on the color wheel halfway between orange and yellow. It is a color that is 75% yellow and 25% red.

The first recorded use of amber as a color name in English was in 1500.^[1]

SAE/ECE amber

SAE/ECE Amber
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#`FF7E00`
RGB^B	(r, g, b)	(255, 126, 0)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(30°, 100%, 100%)
Source		CIECD
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Amber is one of several technically-defined colors used in automotive signal lamps. In North America, SAE International standard J578 governs the colorimetry of vehicle lights,^[2] while outside North America the internationalized European ECE regulations hold force.^[3] Both standards designate a range of orange and yellow hues in the CIE color space as "amber". In the past, the ECE amber definition was more restrictive than the SAE definition, but the current ECE definition is identical to the more permissive SAE standard. The SAE formally uses the term "yellow amber", though the color is most often referred to as "yellow". This is not the same as selective yellow, a color used in some fog lamps and headlamps.

Formal definitions

Previously, ECE amber was defined according to the 1968 Convention on Road Traffic,^[4] as follows:

Limit towards green	$y \le 0.429$
Limit towards red	$y \ge 0.398$
Limit towards white	$z \le 0.007$

Recent revisions to the ECE regulations have aligned ECE Amber with SAE Yellow, defined as follows:

Limit towards green	$y \le x - 0.120$
Limit towards red	$y \ge 0.390$
Limit towards white	$y \ge 0.790 - 0.670 x$

The entirety of these definitions lie outside the gamut of the sRGB color space — such a pure color cannot be represented using RGB primaries. The color box shown above is a desaturated approximation, created by taking the centroid of the standard definition and moving it towards the D65 white point, until it meets the sRGB gamut triangle.

Amber in culture

Computers

VT220 computer terminals were available with amber phosphors on their CRTs.

Criminal Behavior

An AMBER Alert is a child abduction alert bulletin in the United States and Canada, as well as other countries, issued upon the suspected abduction of a child.

Interior design

The original Amber Room in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg was a complete chamber decoration of amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors. Due to its singular beauty, it was sometimes dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Sports

Amber is a color worn by English Football Clubs Hull City AFC, Bradford City AFC, Barnet FC and Cambridge United FC. The color is also worn by the Scottish football club Motherwell FC, as well as many other sports clubs around the world.

Transportation planning

Amber is used in traffic lights and turn signals.

References

^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930--McGraw Hill Page 189; Color Sample of Amber: Page 43 Plate 10 Color Sample J3
^ SAE J578: Color Specification
^ ECE R6
^ ECE Convention on Road Traffic, 1968, p. 60

External links

Shades of orange
Amber	Apricot	Atomic tangerine	Bittersweet	Brown	Burnt orange	Carrot orange	Champagne	Coral	Dark salmon

Deep carrot orange	ECE/SAE Amber	Flame	Gamboge	Gold	Gold (metallic)	International orange	Lion	Mahogany	Old gold

Orange	Orange (web)	Orange-red	Orange peel	Papaya whip	Peach	Peach-orange	Peach-yellow	Persian orange

Portland Orange	Princeton orange	Pumpkin	Rust	Safety orange	Salmon	Satin sheen gold	Sunset	Tangelo

Tangerine	Tea rose	Tenné	Tomato	Vermilion

The samples shown above are only indicative.

Shades of yellow
Amber	Apricot	Beige	Buff	Cream	Dark goldenrod	Ecru	Gold	Gold (metallic)	Goldenrod

Green-yellow	Jasmine	Jonquil	Khaki	Lemon chiffon	Lime	Lion	Maize	Mikado yellow	Naples yellow

Navajo white	Olive	Papaya whip	Saffron	School bus yellow	Selective yellow	Stil de grain yellow	Sunglow	Vanilla	Yellow

The samples shown above are only indicative.