Beige

For the album by The Arrogant Worms, see Beige (album).

Beige may be described as an off tan color or an extremely pale brown color.

The term originates from beige cloth, a cotton fabric left undyed in its natural color. It has since come to be used for a range of light tints chosen for their neutral or pale warm appearance.

Beginning in the 1920s, the meaning of the term beige expanded to the point where it is now also used not only for pale yellow colors, but also for a wide range of pale brown shades, some of more notable of which are shown below.

It is notoriously difficult to produce in traditional offset CMYK printing due to the low levels of inks used on each plate; often it will print in purple or green and vary within a print run.

Contents

Beige

Beige

— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #F5F5DC
RGBB (r, g, b) (245, 245, 220)
HSV (h, s, v) (60°, 10%, 96%)
Source X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color beige is displayed at right.

The first recorded use of beige as a color name in English was in 1887.[1]

Cosmic latte

Main article: Cosmic latte
Cosmic latte

— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #FFF8E7
RGBB (r, g, b) (255, 248, 231)
HSV (h, s, v) (40°, 94%, 90%)
Source Internet
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Cosmic latte is a name assigned in 2002 to the average color of the universe (derived from a sampling of the electromagnetic radiation from 200,000 galaxies), given by a team of astronomers from Johns Hopkins University.


Beige and desert sand

Main article: Desert sand (color)
Desert sand

— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #EDC9AF
RGBB (r, g, b) (237, 201, 175)
HSV (h, s, v) (19°, 26%, 92[2]%)
Source Crayola
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color desert sand is displayed at right. It may be regarded as a deep shade of beige. It is a pale tint of a color called desert. The color name "desert" was first used in 1920.[3]

In the 1960s the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) marketed desert sand colored telephones for offices and homes. However, they described the color as "beige". It is therefore common for many people to refer to the color desert sand as "beige".


Beige and ecru

Main article: ecru (colour)
Ecru

— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #C2B280
RGBB (r, g, b) (194, 178, 128)
HSV (h, s, v) (45°, 34%, 76%)
Source ISCC-NBS
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color ecru is displayed at right.

Originally in the 19th century and up to at least 1930, the color ecru meant exactly the same color as beige (i.e. the pale cream color shown above as beige),[4] and the word is often used to refer to such fabrics as silk and linen in their unbleached state. Ecru comes from the French word écru, which means literally 'raw' or 'unbleached'.

Since at least the 1950s, however, the color ecru has been regarded as a different color from beige, presumably in order to allow interior designers a wider palette of colors to choose from.[5]

French beige

French beige

— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #A67B5B
RGBB (r, g, b) (166, 123, 91)
HSV (h, s, v) (26°, 45%, 65[6]%)
Source ISCC-NBS
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the color French beige. The first recorded use of French beige as a color name in English was in 1927.[7]

The source of this color is the following website: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of French beige (color sample #57)

Mode beige

Main article: Desert sand (color)
Mode Beige

— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #967117
RGBB (r, g, b) (150, 113, 23)
HSV (h, s, v) (43°, 85%, 59[8]%)
Source ISCC-NBS
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Mode beige is a very dark shade of beige.

Two other alternate names for this exact color are drab and sand dune,[9] in use, respectively, since 1686 [10] and 1925.[11]

The first recorded use of mode beige as a color name in English was in 1928.[12]

Colors in the beige range

Related names used for colors in the beige range include cream, buff, ecru, tan, and khaki. Pale beige tinted with grey or pink is commonly called oyster.

Beige in Sport

Notable sporting teams around the world have adopted beige as their club color. The Dan O'Connell Cricket Club (DOCCC) is the most notable example with the Beige Army gaining national recognition in Australia for support of the DOCCC.

The National Cricket Team of New Zealand has group of followers known as the Beige Brigade.

See also

References

  1. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 190; Color Sample of Beige: Page 45 Plate 11 Color Sample C2
  2. ^ web.forret.com Color Conversion Tool set to hex code of color #EDC9AF (Desert Sand):
  3. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 194; Color Sample of Desert: Page 47 Plate 12 Color Sample I7
  4. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 149--Discussion of the color Beige (shown in this book's color sample as being the same color that is displayed as "beige" in the Wikipedia color box shown above) notes that beige is exactly the same color as Ecru.
  5. ^ 1955 ISCC-NBS color chart (scanned onto the Internet) shows ecru as being a different color than beige):
  6. ^ web.forret.com Color Conversion Tool set to hex code of color #A67B5B (French Beige):
  7. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 195; Color Sample of French beige: Page 49 Plate 13 Color Sample A7
  8. ^ web.forret.com Color Conversion Tool set to hex code of color #967117 (Mode Beige):
  9. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 50
  10. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 194
  11. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 204
  12. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 199; Color Sample of Mode Beige: Page 47 Plate 14 Color Sample B5
Shades of white
Anti-flash white Antique white Beige Blond Cornsilk Cosmic latte Cream Eggshell Floral white Ghost white
                   
Honeydew Isabelline Ivory Lavender blush Lemon chiffon Linen Magnolia Mint cream Munsell Navajo white
                   
Old lace Papaya whip Pearl Seashell Snow Splashed white Vanilla White White smoke
                 
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.
Shades of brown
Auburn Beaver Beige Bistre Bole Bronze Brown Buff Burgundy Burnt sienna
                   
Burnt umber Camel Chamoisee Chestnut Chocolate Citrine Coffee Copper Cordovan Desert sand
                   
Earth yellow Ecru Fallow Fawn Field drab Fulvous Isabelline Khaki Lion Liver
                   
Mahogany Maroon Ochre Raw umber Redwood Rufous Russet Rust Sand Sandy brown
                   
Seal brown Sepia Sienna Sinopia Tan Taupe Tawny Umber Wenge Wheat
                   
The samples shown above are only indicative.