Varieties of the color

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation, intensity, or colorfulness), or

lightness Lightness is a visual perception of the luminance (L) of an object. It is often judged relative to a similarly lit object. In colorimetry and color appearance models, lightness is a prediction of how an illuminated color will appear to a stand ...

(or value, tone, or

brightness Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to be radiating/reflecting light. In other words, brightness is the perception dictated by the luminance of a visual target. The perception is not linear to luminance, and ...

), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called

tints and shades In color theory, a tint is a mixture of a color with white, which increases lightness, while a shade is a mixture with black, which increases darkness. A tone is produced either by mixing a color with gray, or by both tinting and shading. M ...

, a tint being a blue or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these colors is shown below.

Definitions of blue

Blue (RGB) (X11 blue)

The colour defined as blue in the

RGB color model The RGB color model is an additive color, additive color model in which the red, green, and blue primary colors of light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials ...

, X11 blue, is the most chromatic (colourful) blue that can be reproduced on a computer screen, and is the colour named blue in

X11 The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X originated as part of Project Athena at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984. The X protocol has been at ...

. It is one of the three

primary color Primary colors are colorants or colored lights that can be mixed in varying amounts to produce a gamut of colors. This is the essential method used to create the perception of a broad range of colors in, e.g., electronic displays, color prin ...

s used in the RGB colour space, along with

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

and

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

. The three additive primaries in the RGB colour system are the three colours of

light Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...

chosen such as to provide the maximum

gamut In color reproduction and colorimetry, a gamut, or color gamut , is a convex set containing the colors that can be accurately represented, i.e. reproduced by an output device (e.g. printer or display) or measured by an input device (e.g. cam ...

of colours that are capable of being represented on a

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

television set A television set or television receiver (more commonly called TV, TV set, television, telly, or tele) is an electronic device for viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or as a computer monitor. It combines a tuner, display, and loudspeake ...

. This colour is also called color wheel blue. It is at 240 degrees on the HSV/HSL colour wheel, also known as the RGB colour wheel. It is a spectral colour which lies at, or near, the short-wavelength end of the traditional "blue" and possibly was classified as "

indigo InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...

" by Newton. Its

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

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 t ...

Blue (CMYK) (pigment blue)

The color defined as ''blue'' in the

CMYK The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refers ...

color system used in

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

, also known as pigment blue, is the tone of blue that is achieved by mixing process (printer's)

cyan Cyan () is the color between blue and green on the visible spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength between 500 and 520 nm, between the wavelengths of green and blue. In the subtractive color system, or CMYK c ...

and process (printer's)

magenta Magenta () is a purple-red color. On color wheels of the RGB color model, RGB (additive) and subtractive color, CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located precisely midway between blue and red. It is one of the four colors of ink used in colo ...

in equal proportions. The purpose of the CMYK color system is to provide the maximum possible

of color reproducible in printing by the use of only three

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

. The color indicated is only approximate as the colors of printing inks may vary.

Blue (Pantone)

Blue (Pantone) is the color that is called ''blue'' in

Pantone Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is an American limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, and best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color order system used in a variety of industries, notably gr ...

. The source of this color is the "

Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color # Blue C, EC, HC, M, PC, U, or UP—Blue.

Blue (NCS) (psychological primary blue)

The color defined as ''blue'' in the NCS or

Natural Color System The Natural Colour System (NCS) is a proprietary perceptual color model. It is based on the color opponency hypothesis of color vision, first proposed by German physiologist Ewald Hering. The current version of the NCS was developed by the ...

is an azure-like color. The Natural Color System is a color system based on the four

unique hues Unique hue is a term used in perceptual psychology of color vision and generally applied to the purest hues of blue, green, yellow and red. The proponents of the opponent process theory believe that these hues cannot be described as a mixture of ...

or psychological primary colors red, yellow, green, and blue. The NCS is based on the

opponent process The opponent process is a color theory that states that the human visual system interprets information about color by processing signals from photoreceptor cells in an antagonistic manner. The opponent-process theory suggests that there are thre ...

theory of vision. The "Natural Color System" is widely used in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. ''NCS Blue'' can only be displayed approximately on a computer screen, as these

spectral color A spectral color is a color that is evoked by monochromatic light, i.e. either a spectral line with a single wavelength or frequency of light in the visible spectrum, or a relatively narrow spectral band (e.g. lasers). Every wave of visible ...

s have been adjusted to fit into the sRGB gamut. In the 21st century, this hue is classified as a variation of azure that is on the border of

Blue (Munsell)

The ''

Munsell color system The Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on three properties of color: hue (basic color), value (lightness), and colorfulness, chroma (color intensity). It was created by Albert Henry Munsell, Albert H. Munsell in the ...

'' is a

color space A color space is a specific organization of colors. In combination with color profiling supported by various physical devices, it supports reproducible representations of colorwhether such representation entails an analog or a digital represe ...

that specifies

color Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co ...

s based on three color dimensions: hue, value (

), and chroma (colorfulness), spaced uniformly (in terms of

human perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...

) in three dimensions in the Munsell

color solid A color solid is the Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional representation of a color space or Color model, model and can be thought as an analog of, for example, the One-dimensional space, one-dimensional color wheel, which depicts the v ...

. In order for all the colors to be spaced uniformly, it was found necessary to use a color wheel with five, non-arbitrary, equally spaced primary colors: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The color of the sample is the most chromatic (colorful) blue in the sRGB gamut that falls in the hue of 5B (primary blue) in the Munsell color space. In the 21st century, this blue is classified as an intermediate between azure and

Tints, shades, and variations of blue

The term tint and shade is used in its technical sense as used in

color theory Color theory, or more specifically traditional color theory, is a historical body of knowledge describing the behavior of colors, namely in color mixing, color contrast effects, color harmony, color schemes and color symbolism. Modern color th ...

. In this section, the term 'tint' usually refers to a

ish color mixed with

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

or light

gray Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...

. The term

shade Shade, Shades or Shading may refer to: * Shade (color), a mixture of a color with black (often generalized as any variety of a color) * Shade (shadow), the blocking of sunlight * Shades or sunglasses * Shading, a process used in art and graphic ...

is used in its technical sense as used in color theory, meaning a blueish color mixed with

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

or dark

. The colors arranged in order of their value (brightness) (V in the HSV code), the brighter colors toward the top and the darker colors toward the bottom.

Periwinkle

Periwinkle (also periwinkle blue or lavender blue) is a mixture of white, blue, and red. It is named after the Periwinkle flower and is also commonly referred to as a tone of light blue.

Neon blue

Neon blue is a vivid purplish blue.

Bluebonnet

Bluebonnet is a bright shade of blue with a slight violet tinge. It represents the color of bluebonnet flowers, which are part of the

lupin ''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet, is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centres of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centres occur in No ...

family. The bluebonnet is the state flower of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Twin blue

Twin Blue is so named since its HEX color code spells out "BED" twice. The color is also recognized for bearing close semblance to the light

pastel A pastel () is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder (material), binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The pigments used in pastels are ...

shade of

common on bed sheets.

Smalt

Smalt has also been known under other names such as ''azurblau'', Bohemian Blue, Dutch Ultramarine, enamel blue, Isenburg Blue. It was also known by many as Saxon Blue since the primary sources of cobalt ore used to make it were located in Saxony. Smalt predates Thénard's Blue by several to many hundreds of years, which turned up as a result of the French government's famed search for a synthetic version of Lapis Lazuli. The Napoleonic administration appointed Louis-Jacques Thénard to find a substitute for Lapis Lazuli, and instead he found

Cobalt Blue Cobalt blue is a blue pigment made by sintering cobalt(II) oxide with aluminium(III) oxide (alumina) at 1200 °C. Chemically, cobalt blue pigment is cobalt(II) oxide-aluminium oxide, or cobalt(II) aluminate, CoAl2O4. Cobalt blue is lighte ...

Savoy blue

Savoy blue, or savoy azure, is a shade of saturation

between peacock blue and periwinkle, lighter than peacock blue. It owes its name to its being the color of the

House of Savoy The House of Savoy (, ) is a royal house (formally a dynasty) of Franco-Italian origin that was established in 1003 in the historical region of Savoy, which was originally part of the Kingdom of Burgundy and now lies mostly within southeastern F ...

, a ruling dynasty in Italy from 1861 to 1946. Italia82

Having become a national color with the

unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century Political movement, political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, annexation of List of historic states of ...

(1861), its use continued even after the birth of the Italian Republic (1946) with the name "Italian blue". An Italian-blue border was inserted on the edge of the Presidential Standard of Italy and the use of the blue scarf for the

Italian Armed Forces The Italian Armed Forces (, ) encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy and the Italian Air Force. A fourth Military branch, branch of the armed forces, known as the Carabinieri, take on the role as the nation's Gendarmerie, military police an ...

' officers, for the presidents of the

Italian provinces The provinces of Italy ( ; sing. ) are the second-level administrative divisions of the Italian Republic, on an intermediate level between a municipality () and a region (). Since 2015, provinces have been classified as "institutional bo ...

during the official ceremonies and of the blue jersey for Italian national sports teams it was also maintained in the Republican era.

Medium blue

The web color medium blue is a shade of the standard (h = 240°) blue.

Process blue

''Process blue'' is a Pantone-defined shade used by the football team the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The t ...

and is sometimes consequently called "Carolina blue" or "Panther blue".

Liberty

Liberty is a strong blue color. The first recorded use of ''liberty'' as a color name in English was in 1918.

Egyptian blue

Egyptian blue is a

pigment A pigment is a powder used to add or alter color or change visual appearance. Pigments are completely or nearly solubility, insoluble and reactivity (chemistry), chemically unreactive in water or another medium; in contrast, dyes are colored sub ...

that was used in

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

International Klein Blue

International Klein Blue (IKB) is a deep

hue first mixed by the French

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein wa ...

. IKB's visual impact comes from its heavy reliance on

ultramarine Ultramarine is a deep blue pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder. Its lengthy grinding and washing process makes the natural pigment quite valuable—roughly ten times more expensive than the stone it comes fr ...

, as well as Klein's often thick and textured application of

paint Paint is a material or mixture that, when applied to a solid material and allowed to dry, adds a film-like layer. As art, this is used to create an image or images known as a painting. Paint can be made in many colors and types. Most paints are ...

canvas Canvas is an extremely durable Plain weave, plain-woven Cloth, fabric used for making sails, tents, Tent#Marquees and larger tents, marquees, backpacks, Shelter (building), shelters, as a Support (art), support for oil painting and for other ite ...

. Klein never patented the color, only submitting a Soleau envelope without progressing to the patent stage.

Ultramarine

Ultramarine is a blue

in use since

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

times. It was originally derived from

lapis lazuli Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. Originating from the Persian word for the gem, ''lāžward'', lapis lazuli is ...

, a bright blue mineral.

Dark blue

Dark blue is a shade of the standard (h = 240°) blue.

Picotee blue

Picotee blue represents the color of the

picotee Picotee describes flowers whose edge is a different colour from the flower's base colour. The word originates from the French ''picoté'', meaning 'marked with points'.The Oxford Dictionary of English, page 1331. Oxford University Press, 2005. ...

flower. It is a deep shade of

, almost resembling St. Patrick's blue.

Navy blue

Navy blue is a shade of the standard (h = 240°) blue. ''Navy blue'' got its name from the dark blue (contrasted with white) worn by sailors in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

since 1748 (originally called ''marine blue'' before 1840) and subsequently adopted by other

navies A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operation ...

around the

world The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

. The first recorded use of ''navy blue'' as a color name in English was in 1840.

Midnight blue

Midnight blue is an ''X11

web color Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by D ...

''. This color was originally called ''midnight''. The first recorded use of ''midnight'' as a color name in English was in 1915.

Independence

Independence is a dark blue color. The first recorded use of ''independence'' as a color name in English was in 1927.

Cool black

''Cool black'' is a dark shade of

. It is one of the

colors.

Robin Egg Blue

''Robin Egg Blue'' is a pale shade of

blue-green Blue-green is the color between blue and green. It belongs to the shades of cyan, cyan family. Variations Cyan Cyan is the blue-green color that is between blue and green on a modern RGB color model, RGB color wheel. The modern RGB co ...

, whose name comes from the color of the eggs of the American robin, a bird native to North America whose egg pigment, called biliverdin, is responsible for this color.

Space cadet

Space cadet is one of the colors on the Resene Color List, a color list popular in Australia and New Zealand. The color "space cadet" was formulated in 2007.

Baby blue

Baby blue is known as one of the

colors. The first recorded use of ''baby blue'' as a color name in English was in 1892.

Light blue

The

light blue is part of the X11 color system, with a hue code of 194. Variations of this color are known as

sky blue Sky blue refers to a collection of shades comparable to that of a clear daytime sky. Typically it is a shade of cyan or light teal, though some iterations are closer to light Azure (color), azure or light blue. The term (as "sky blew") is atte ...

, baby blue, or angel blue. The first recorded use of "light blue" as a color term in English is in 1915.Maerz and Paul ''A Dictionary of Color'' New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 190

Powder blue

Powder blue is a light bluish green. The first recorded use of ''powder blue'' as a color name in English was in 1774. It is a

Uranian blue

Uranian blue is a light greenish blue, the color of

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile ( ...

, which was named after

, the primordial god of the

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

and the

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

s in

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

Argentinian blue

The web color Argentinian blue is a light azure color seen on the national flag of Argentina.

Ruddy blue

Ruddy blue represents the coloring of the beak of the ruddy duck.

Celtic blue

Celtic blue is a shade of blue, also known as in Welsh, or ''gorm ceilteach'' in both the

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

and in

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

. Julius Caesar reported (in

Commentarii de Bello Gallico ''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' (; ), also ''Bellum Gallicum'' (), is Julius Caesar's first-hand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. In it, Caesar describes the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine yea ...

) that the Britanni used to colour their bodies blue with vitrum, a word that means primarily "glass", but also the domestic name for the "

woad ''Isatis tinctoria'', also called woad (), dyer's woad, dyer's-weed, or glastum, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae (the mustard family) with a documented history of use as a blue dye and medicinal plant. Its genus name, ''Isati ...

" (''Isatis tinctoria''), besides the

Gaulish Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...

loanword ''glastum'' (from

Proto-Celtic Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the hypothetical ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly Linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed throu ...

*glastos "green"). The connection seems to be that both glass and the woad are "water-like" (lat. vitrum is from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

*wed-ro- "water-like").

Spanish blue

Spanish blue is the color that is called ''Azul'' (the Spanish word for "blue") in the (''Guide to colorations'') by Rosa Gallego and Juan Carlos Sanz, a color dictionary published in 2005 that is widely popular in the

Hispanophone Hispanophone refers to anything related to the Spanish language. In a cultural, rather than merely linguistic sense, the notion of "Hispanophone" goes further than the above definition. The Hispanic culture is the legacy of the vast and prolonge ...

realm.

Bleu de France

''Bleu de France'' is a vivid blue color that has been associated in

heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, Imperial, royal and noble ranks, rank and genealo ...

with the

Kings of France France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I, king of the Fra ...

since the 12th century.

Delft blue

Delft blue is a dark blue color. The name is derived from the Dutch pottery

Delftware Delftware or Delft pottery, also known as Delft Blue () or as delf, is a general term now used for Dutch tin-glazed earthenware, a form of faience. Most of it is blue and white pottery, and the city of Delft in the Netherlands was the major cen ...

, also known simply as "Delft Blue".

Duck blue

Duck blue is a moderate greenish blue.

Resolution blue

Resolution blue is a vivid blue color. This color name first came into use in 2001 when it was formulated as one of the colors on th
Xona.com Color List

Polynesian blue

Polynesian blue is a dark blue color, almost navy.

Moroccan Blue

Moroccan blue (also Chefchaouen blue) is a vivid blue color.

Sapphire

Sapphire is a deep shade of navy blue, based on the color of an average

sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon. The name ''sapphire ...

gemstone. However, sapphire gems can also be pink, yellow, or orange.

Fluorescent blue

Fluorescent blue is a shade of blue that is radiant based on

fluorescence Fluorescence is one of two kinds of photoluminescence, the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation, many substances will glow (fluoresce) with colore ...

. This is the main color on the

Indian 50-rupee note The Indian 50-rupee banknote (50) is a denomination of the Indian rupee. The present 50 banknote in circulation is a part of the Mahatma Gandhi New Series of banknotes. However, 50 banknotes of the previous series ( Mahatma Gandhi Series) wil ...

Teal blue

Teal blue is a medium tone of teal with more blue. The first recorded use of ''teal blue'' as a color name in English was in 1927.

Shades of azure

Azure ( , ) is a variation of blue that is often described as the color of the

on a clear day. On the

RGB color wheel The RGB color model is an additive color model in which the red, green, and blue primary colors of light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three ad ...

, "azure" (

hexadecimal Hexadecimal (also known as base-16 or simply hex) is a Numeral system#Positional systems in detail, positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of sixteen. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using ten symbo ...

#0080FF) is defined as the color at 210 degrees, i.e., the hue halfway between

and

. In the

, used to create all the colors on a television or computer screen, azure is created by adding a little green light to blue light. The

complementary color Complementary colors are pairs of colors which, when combined or color mixing, mixed, cancel each other out (lose Colorfulness, chroma) by producing a grayscale color like white or black. When placed next to each other, they create the stronge ...

of azure is orange.

Azure (web color)

In the X11 color system which became a standard for early

web colors Web colors are colors used in Web design, displaying web pages on the World Wide Web; they can be described by way of three methods: a color may be specified as an RGB color model, RGB triplet, in hexadecimal format (a ''hex triplet'') or acc ...

, azure is depicted as a pale cyan or whitish cyan rather than a shade of azure. In an artistic context, this color could also be called azure mist or cyan mist.

Variations of azure

In this section, the term

is used in its technical sense as used in

, meaning a

ish color mixed with

or dark

. The colors arranged in order of their value (brightness) (V in the HSV code), the brighter colors toward the top and the darker colors toward the bottom.

Alice blue

The web color Alice blue is a pale tint of azure.

Uranian blue

Uranian blue is a light greenish blue, the color of

Light blue

The

light blue is part of the X11 color system, with a hue code of 194. This color is closer to

than to blue. Variations of this color are known as

, baby blue, or angel blue. The first recorded use of "light blue" as a color term in English is in the year 1915.

Columbia blue

Columbia blue is a medium light tone of azure named after

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. The typical Columbia blue is defined by

Columbia Blue (PANTONE 290).

Cloudy blue

Cloudy blue is a light, opaque tone of azure.

Baby blue

Baby blue is known as one of the

colors. With a hue code of 199, this color is a tone of azure. This color is associated with baby boys in

Western culture Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...

. The first recorded use of ''baby blue'' as a color name in English was in 1892.Maerz and Paul ''A Dictionary of Color'' New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 190; Color Sample of Baby Blue: Page 93 Plate 35 Color Sample E2

Havana blue

Havana blue is a very light tone of azure.

Light sky blue

There is a web color of light sky blue.

Sky blue

The first recorded use of sky blue as a color name in English was in 1728 in the ''Cyclopædia'' of Ephraim Chambers. Prior to the Chambers reference, the color had first been used in 1585 in a book by

Nicolas de Nicolay Nicolas de Nicolay, Sieur d'Arfeville & de Belair, (1517–1583) of the Nicolay (family) was a French geographer. Biography Born at la Grave in Oisans, in the Dauphiné, he left France in 1542 to participate in the Siege of Perpignan (1542), si ...

where he stated "the tulbant of the merchant must be ''skie coloured''".

Deep sky blue

Deep sky blue is an azure-

color associated with deep

. ''Deep sky blue'' (

Capri Capri ( , ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. A popular resort destination since the time of the Roman Republic, its natural beauty ...

) is a

. This color is on the

color wheel A color wheel or color circle is an abstract illustrative organization of color hues around a circle, which shows the relationships between primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors etc. Some sources use the terms ''color wheel'' an ...

( RGB/HSV color wheel) halfway between azure and cyan. The traditional name for this color is Capri. The first use of ''Capri'' as a color name in English was in 1920. The color ''Capri'' in general is named for the azure-cyan color of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

around the island of

off

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, the site of several villas belonging to the Roman Emperor

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...

, including his imperial residence in his later years, the '' Villa Jovis''. Specifically, the color Capri is named after the color of the Blue Grotto on the island of Capri as it appears on a bright sunny day. Today the island of Capri is a

resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that aims to provide most of a vacationer's needs. This includes food, drink, swimming, accommodation, sports, entertainment and shopping, on the premises. A hotel ...

island popular with tourists. The name ''deep sky blue'' for this color did not come into use until the promulgation of the X11 color list in 1987. The name ''Capri'' is still used for this color as well as the name ''deep sky blue''. this color is used on the Website

Bluesky Bluesky is a microblogging social media social networking service, service. Users can share short posts containing text, images, and videos. It is owned by Bluesky Social PBC, a benefit corporation based in the United States. Bluesky was dev ...

Cerulean

The first recorded use of ''cerulean'' as a color name in English was in 1590. The word is probably derived from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word , "dark blue, blue, or blue-green", which in turn probably derives from ', diminutive of ', "heaven, sky".

Pale azure

Maya blue

Maya blue was a pigment widely used by the

Mayan civilization The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from Ancient history, antiquity to the early modern period. It is known by Maya architecture#Pyramids and temples, its ancient temples and glyphs (script). The Maya script ...

Jordy blue

The color name jordy blue dates back to at least 2001, and came into wider use when the Resene Paints colors were used as one of the sources for the Xona Games Color List.

Picton blue

The color name Picton blue dates back to at least 2001, and came into wider use when the Resene Paints colors were used as one of the sources for the Xona Games Color List. Many of Resene's shades of blue and cyan are named after places in New Zealand's

Marlborough Sounds The Marlborough Sounds (Māori language, te reo Māori: ''Te Tauihu-o-te-Waka'') are an extensive network of ria, sea-drowned valleys at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. The Marlborough Sounds were created by a combination ...

, where the town of Picton is located.

United Nations blue

The color United Nations blue resembles the shade of blue seen on the flag of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

. Current branding guidelines (since 2020) use Pantone 2925. Previously, the flag used Pantone 279.

UNESCO blue

Cornflower blue

Cornflower blue is a shade of medium-to-light blue containing relatively little green. Its name is a reference to the flower ''Centaurea cyanus''.

Bleu de France

''Bleu de France'' is a color that has been associated in

with the

since the 12th century.

Manganese blue

Manganese blue is a clear greenish azure blue colour.

Dodger blue

Dodger blue is a rich bright tone of azure named for its use in the uniform of the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

Brandeis blue

Brandeis blue is the tone of azure used in association with

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

. The university administration defines Brandeis blue as corresponding to the

color of 294 or the process color of 100c 86m 14y w24k.

True blue

The color true blue is a deep tone of azure that is the color of the uniforms of the sports teams of

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

. It is also one of the shades of blue used by the

Los Angeles Chargers The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC W ...

though they use the name powder blue.

Tang blue

The color tang blue is a deep tone of azure that is the color of royal blue tang fish.

Puerto Rican blue

Puerto Rican blue is a bright, cool, saturated shade of blue matching the shade of color of the triangle on Puerto Rico's current national flag.

Royal blue (web color)

The web color royal blue is a rich tone of azure.

Celestial blue

The first recorded use of celestial blue as a color name in English was in 1535. The source of this color is the ''Plochere Color System'', a color system formulated in 1948 that is widely used by interior designers.

Vista blue

The source of vista blue is the "

Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #15-3930 TPX—Vista Blue.

Silver Lake blue

The source of Silver Lake blue is the "

Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #17-4030 TPX—Silver Lake Blue.

Tufts blue

Tufts blue is the tone of azure used in association with

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

Honolulu blue

Honolulu blue is the tone of azure used in association with the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

football team.

Air Force blue

Air force blue, also known as RAF blue, is used by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, the first air force to choose an "air force blue" color by which to identify itself, in 1920. The color "air force blue" is a medium tone of azure since it has a hue code of 204 which is a hue code between 195 and 225, signifying a tone of azure.

Steel blue

Steel blue is a grayish tone of azure that resembles the color blue steel, i.e., steel which has been subjected to bluing in order to protect it from

rust Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH) ...

. The first recorded use of ''steel blue'' as a color name in English was in 1817.

French blue

French blue is a deep azure color commonly used in quality men's

dress shirt A dress shirt, button shirt, button-front, button-front shirt, or button-up shirt is a garment with a Collar (clothing), collar and a full-length opening at the front, which is fastened using buttons or shirt studs. A button-down or button-down ...

s. According to the

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

, the first use of ''French Blue'' in English was in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' of 1802.

Lapis lazuli

The color lapis lazuli is displayed at left. ''Lapis Lazuli'' is a color that is a representation of the most common color of

Royal blue (traditional)

The traditional color called royal blue is a dark shade of azure.

Blue (NCS) (psychological primary blue)

The color defined as ''blue'' in the NCS or

is an azure-like color. The Natural Color System is a color system based on the four

or psychological primary colors red, yellow, green, and blue. The NCS is based on the

theory of vision. The "Natural Color System" is widely used in

Spanish blue

Spanish blue is the color that is called ''Azul'' (the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

word for "blue") in the (''Guide to colorations'') by Rosa Gallego and Juan Carlos Sanz, a color dictionary published in 2005 that is widely popular in the

realm. It is a shade of azure.

Argentinian blue

The web color Argentinian blue is a light azure color seen on the national flag of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Berkeley blue

Berkeley Blue is one of the official colors of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, along with California Gold. Until 2007, the university had used Yale Blue in its place, given Berkeley's historical ties to

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, particularly in its founding. Berkeley's

school colors School colors, also known as university colors or college colors, are the colors chosen by a school, academy, college, university or institute as part of its brand identity, used on building signage, web pages, branded apparel, and the uniforms ...

are the originators for those of all the campuses in the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

system, of which Berkeley is the oldest as its

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

Ruddy blue

Ruddy blue represents the coloring of the beak of the ruddy duck. It is a light shade of azure.

Celtic blue

Celtic blue is a shade of blue, also known as ''glas celtig'' in Welsh, or ''gorm ceilteach'' in both the

and in

. Julius Caesar reported (in

) that the Britanni used to colour their bodies blue with vitrum, a word that means primarily "glass", but also the domestic name for the "

" (''Isatis tinctoria''), besides the

loanword ''glastum'' (from

*glastos "green"). The connection seems to be that both glass and the woad are "water-like" (lat. vitrum is from

*wed-ro- "water-like").

Polynesian blue

Polynesian blue is a dark blue color, almost navy.

Moroccan Blue

Moroccan blue (also Chefchaouen blue) is a vivid blue color.

Yale Blue

Yale Blue is the dark azure color used in association with

. The hue of Yale Blue is one of the two official colors of

Indiana State University Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana, United States. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified ...

, the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...

, and

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

. The official color "DCU Blue" of

Dublin City University Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) () is a Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland, university based on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Created as the ''National Institute for Highe ...

is very close to Yale Blue. Yale Blue was also an official color of

and

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

Penn blue

Penn Blue is one of the official colors of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, along with Penn Red. While the school colors were defined by 1910, university history points to earlier times when the colors may have been chosen, including a possible visit by

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

to the university, where students used the color of his tunic to determine school colors or a track meet where Penn athletes declared that they would wear the colors "of the teams we beat," which would be those of both

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and

. Originally defined as the colors used on the

American flag The national flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag or the U.S. flag, consists of thirteen horizontal Bar (heraldry), stripes, Variation of the field, alternating red and white, with a blue rectangle in the Canton ( ...

, the colors have since deviated.

Sapphire

Sapphire is a deep shade of navy blue, based on the color of an average

gemstone. However, sapphires can also be pink, yellow, or orange.

Delft blue

Delft blue is a dark blue color. The name is derived from the Dutch pottery

, also known simply as "Delft Blue".

Resolution blue

Resolution blue is a vivid blue color. The color name dates back to at least 2001, and came into wider use when the Resene Paints colors were used as one of the sources for the Xona Games Color List. Many of Resene's shades of blue and cyan are named after places in New Zealand's

, where Resolution Bay is located.

References

Notes

{{Color shades