Safety orange (also known as blaze orange, vivid orange,

OSHA OSHA or Osha may refer to: Work * Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a federal agency of the United States that regulates workplace safety and health * Occupational Safety and Health Act (United States) of 1970, a federal law in the Un ...

orange, hunter orange, or

Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...

orange) is a

hue In color theory, hue is one of the main properties (called Color appearance model#Color appearance parameters, color appearance parameters) of a color, defined technically in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a Stimulus (physiology ...

. Safety orange is used to set objects apart from their surroundings, particularly in

complementary A complement is something that completes something else. Complement may refer specifically to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class ...

contrast to the azure color of the

sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

. (Azure is the

complementary color Complementary colors are pairs of colors which, when combined or mixed, cancel each other out (lose hue) by producing a grayscale color like white or black. When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast for those two co ...

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, and thus there is a stark contrast between the two colors.) The high-visibility color is commonly used for hunting during the rifle season, and is also used for upland-bird hunting. Places such as construction sites use this orange to help ensure the

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

of others.

ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...

standard Z535.1–1998 states how safety orange is defined in the following notation systems: * Munsell notation: : 5.0YR (hue) 6.0/15 (value/chroma) * Approximate PMS (

Pantone Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphic ...

) Color (mixing directions): : 13 parts

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...

, 3 parts warm red, part

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

* Pantone number : 152 * CIE Data: : ''x'' = 0.5510 ''y'' = 0.4214 Y% = 30.05 Note that this CIE color point is outside the gamut of common color spaces like

sRGB sRGB is a standard RGB (red, green, blue) color space that HP and Microsoft created cooperatively in 1996 to use on monitors, printers, and the World Wide Web. It was subsequently standardized by the International Electrotechnical Commission ( ...

Adobe RGB The Adobe RGB (1998) color space or opRGB is a color space developed by Adobe Systems, Inc. in 1998. It was designed to encompass most of the colors achievable on CMYK color printers, but by using RGB primary colors on a device such as a compu ...

The closest CIE color point that is still in the sRGB gamut is ''x'' = 0.54091, ''y'' = 0.40869, Y% = 30.05, corresponding to the sRGB-255 coordinates (232, 118, 0). The Adobe RGB color space is larger than the sRGB color space; the closest "safety orange" CIE color point that is still in the Adobe RGB gamut is ''x'' = 0.54467, ''y'' = 0.41424, ''Y''% = 30.05%, corresponding to the AdobeRGB-255 coordinates (206, 118, 0). Safety orange is the color usually used in the United States for

traffic cone Traffic cones, also called pylons, witches' hats, road cones, highway cones, safety cones, channelizing devices, construction cones, or just cones, are usually cone-shaped markers that are placed on roads or footpaths to temporarily redirect traf ...

s (starting in 1961),

stanchion A stanchion () is a sturdy upright fixture that provides support for some other object. It can be a permanent fixture. Types In architecture stanchions are the upright iron bars in windows that pass through the eyes of the saddle bars or horizo ...

barrels A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, u ...

, and other construction zone marking devices.

requires that certain construction equipment must be painted safety orange. Two large trucking companies,

Allied Van Lines Allied Van Lines is an American moving company founded in 1928 as a cooperative non-profit organization owned by its member agents on the east coast of the United States, to help with organizing return loads and minimizing dead-heading (i.e. op ...

and

Schneider National Schneider National, Inc. is a provider of truckload, intermodal and logistics services. Schneider's services include regional, long-haul, expedited, dedicated, bulk, intermodal, brokerage, cross-dock logistics, pool point distribution, supply ...

, paint their trucks and trailers safety orange. In Europe, Dayglo orange (or "luminous orange";

RAL 2005 The following is a list of RAL Classic colours from the RAL colour standard. The visual samples are approximate and informative only. RAL Classic Yellow and beige Orange Red Violet Blue Green Grey Brown White and b ...

) serves the same purpose. Safety orange is the same color as blaze orange, the shade of orange (Color No. 12199) required by

United States law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as v ...

(U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade, Section 1150.3) to be on the tips of barrels of replica guns such as

airsoft Airsoft is a team game in which participants eliminate opposing players by tag (game), tagging them out of play with airsoft pellets, spherical plastic projectiles shot with mock air gun, air weapons(usually powered by an electronic motor) call ...

guns, and cap or toy guns. Hunter orange is also the color of hats, caps, and other safety wear required to be worn while

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

in most US states.

Elsewhere

Orange vests using colors such as ''safety orange'' as

high visibility clothing High-visibility clothing, sometimes shortened to hi vis or hi viz, is any clothing worn that is highly luminescent in its natural matt property or a color that is easily discernible from any background. It is most commonly worn on the torso and ...

may be commonly worn by workers in the US, but this is not merely a legal standard but can be influenced by culture. Since such colored patterned gear is easily produced, it can be assigned any kind of meaning. In Indonesia, it is commonly worn by parking attendants. Similarly in Thailand, it is used by motorcycle taxi workers. In

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, some

Government Flying Service The Government Flying Service (GFS) is a disciplined unit and paramilitary flying organisation of the Government of Hong Kong. The service has its head office in, and operates from, the southwestern end of Hong Kong International Airport at ...

's aircraft and helicopters are painted in safety orange.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Safety Orange Hunting Safety Shades of orange

Elsewhere

See also

Notes