Yellow

Yellow
 — Spectral coordinates —
Wavelength 570–590 nm
Frequency 525–505 THz
 — Common connotations —
sunshine, warmth, fun, happiness, warning, friendship, caution, slow, intelligence, cowardice, love, animal crossing, Mardi Gras, summer, lemons, Easter, autumn, electricity, liberalism/libertarianism, hope, optimism, imagination, curiosity

— Color coordinates —

Hex triplet #FFFF00
sRGBB (r, g, b) (255, 255, 0)
Source HTML/CSS[1]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Yellow (/ˈjɛl/) is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M (long and medium wavelength) cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S (short-wavelength) cone cells.[2] Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green. Yellow's traditional RYB complementary color is purple, violet, or indigo, while its colorimetrically defined complementary color in both RGB and CMYK color spaces is blue.

Contents

Etymology and definitions

The word "yellow" comes from the Old English geolu, or geolwe which derived from the Proto-Germanic word gelwaz.[3] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the oldest known use of this word in English is from The Epinal Glossary in the year 700.[4]

In the English language, yellow has traditionally been associated with jaundice and cowardice.[5] Yellow is associated with the word "caution" and is the second light on stop lights. The color is associated with aging as well, for both people and objects (e.g. "yellowed" paper). Ethnographically, the term "yellow" has been used as a slang term for both Asians ("yellow peril") and, in the early 20th century, light-skinned African-Americans (High yellow).

"Yellow" ("giallo"), in Italy, refers to crime stories, both fictional and real. This association began in about 1930, when the first series of crime novels published in Italy had yellow covers. The term "yellow movie" (黃色電影) can refer to films of pornographic nature in Chinese culture, and is analogous to the English "blue movie".[6] Lastly, it is associated with sensational journalistic practices, or yellow journalism, and resistance to militant trade unions.[7]

In science

Colorimetry

Hunt defines that "two colors are complementary when it is possible to reproduce the tristimulus values of a specified achromatic stimulus by an additive mixture of these two stimuli."[8] That is, when two colored lights can be mixed to match a specified white (achromatic, non-colored) light, the colors of those two lights are complementary. This definition, however, does not constrain what version of white will be specified. In the nineteenth century, the scientists Grassmann and Helmholtz did experiments in which they concluded that finding a good complement for spectral yellow was difficult, but that the result was indigo, that is, a wavelength that today's color scientists would call violet. Helmholtz says "Yellow and indigo blue" are complements.[9] Grassman reconstructs Newton's category boundaries in terms of wavelengths and says "This indigo therefore falls within the limits of color between which, according to Helmholtz, the complementary colors of yellow lie."[10] Newton's own color circle has yellow directly opposite the boundary between indigo and violet. These results, that the complement of yellow is a wavelength shorter than 450 nm, are derivable from the modern CIE 1931 system of colorimetry if it is assumed that the yellow is about 580 nm or shorter wavelength, and the specified white is the color of a blackbody radiator of temperature 2800 K or lower (that is, the white of an ordinary incandescent light bulb). More typically, with a daylight-colored or around 5000 to 6000 K white, the complement of yellow will be in the blue wavelength range, which is the standard modern answer for the complement of yellow.

Astronomy

Stars of spectral classes F and G, such as our sun Sol, have color temperatures that make them look "yellowish".[11] The first astronomer to classify stars according to their color was F. G. W. Struve in 1827. One of his classifications was flavae, or yellow, and this roughly corresponded to stars in the modern spectral range F5 to K0.[12] The Strömgren photometric system for stellar classification includes a 'y' or yellow filter that is centered at a wavelength of 550 nm and has a bandwidth of 20–30 nm.[13][14]

Biology

Pigments

Birds

Fish

Insects

Trees

Other plants

Electric yellow vs. process yellow

Yellow

— Color coordinates —

Hex triplet #FFFF00
sRGBB (r, g, b) (255, 255, 0)
HSV (h, s, v) (60°, 100%, 100%)
Source HTML/CSS[1]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color box at right shows the most intense yellow representable in 8-bit RGB color model; yellow is a secondary color in an additive RGB space.

The measured light spectrum from yellow pixels on a typical computer display is complex, and very unlike the reflectance spectrum of a yellow object such as a banana.[18]

Process yellow (subtractive primary, sRGB approximation)

— Color coordinates —

Hex triplet #FFEF00
RGBB (r, g, b) (255, 239, 0)
HSV (h, s, v) (56°, 100%, 100%)
Source [1] CMYK
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Process yellow (also known as pigment yellow, printer's yellow or canary yellow) is one of the three colors typically used as subtractive primary colors, along with magenta and cyan. The CMYK system for color printing is based on using four inks, one of which is a yellow color. This is in itself a standard color, and a fairly narrow range of yellow inks or pigments are used. Process yellow is based on a colorant that reflects the preponderance of red and green light, and absorbs most blue light, as in the reflectance spectra shown in the figure on the lower right.

Because of the characteristics of paint pigments and use of different color wheels, painters traditionally regard the complement of yellow as the color indigo or blue-violet.

Process yellow 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 yellow ink.

The first recorded use of canary yellow as a color name in English was in 1789.[19]

Lasers

Lasers emitting in the yellow part of the spectrum are much less common than most other colors.[20] They are also much more expensive than comparable lasers because the difference in energy levels between the metastable and the ground state required for laser action is difficult to create for yellow photons. In commercial products diode pumped solid state (DPSS) technology is employed to create the yellow light. An infrared laser diode at 808 nm is used to pump a crystal of neodymium-doped yttrium vanadium oxide (Nd:YVO4) or neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Nd:YAG) and induces it to emit at two frequencies (281.76 THz & 223.39 THz: 1064 nm and 1342 nm wavelengths) simultaneously. This deeper infrared light is then passed through another crystal containing potassium, titanium and phosphorus (KTP), whose non-linear properties generate light at a frequency that is the sum of the two incident beams (505.15 THz); in this case corresponding to the wavelength of 593.5 nm ("yellow").[21] This wavelength is also available, though even more rarely, from a Helium-neon laser. However, this not a true yellow, as it exceeds 590 nm. A variant of this same DPSS technology using slightly different starting frequencies was made available in 2010, producing a wavelength of 589 nm, which is considered a true yellow color.[22] The use of yellow lasers at 589nm and 594nm have recently become more widespread thanks to the field of Optogenetics.[23]

Minerals and chemistry

Pigments

In culture

Cultural associations

History

Journalism

Music

Politics

Religion and metaphysics

Sports

Transportation

Vexillology

See also

References

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