Hex triplet #964B00 CMYK (c, m, y, k) (0, 50, 100, 41) | sRGB (r, g, b) (150, 75, 0) HSV (h, s, v) (30°, 100%, 59%) | |
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Brown is a composite color which can be produced by combining red, yellow, and black, or by a combination of orange and black—as can be seen in the color box at right. The color brown shown at right has a hue code of 30, signifying that is a shade of orange. In the RGB color model used to create all the colors on computer and television screens, brown is made by combining red and green light at different intensities. Brown color names are often not very precise, and some shades, such as beige, can refer to a wide variety of colors, including shades of yellow or red. Browns are usually described as light or dark, reddish, yellowish, or gray-brown. There are no standardized names for shades of brown; the same shade may have different names on different color lists, and sometimes the one name (such as beige or puce) can refer to several very different colors. The X11 color list of web colors lists seventeen different shades of brown, but the complete list of browns is much longer.
Contents
- Red brown web color brown
- Beaver
- Beige
- Buff
- Burnt umber
- Chestnut
- Chocolate
- Cocoa brown
- Desert sand
- Khaki
- Kobicha Brown nose
- Peru
- Raw umber
- Rosy brown
- Russet
- Sandy brown
- Smokey topaz
- Tan
- Taupe
- Wood brown
- References
Brown colors are dark or muted shades of reds, oranges, and yellows which are created on computer and television screens using the RGB color model and in printing with the CMYK color model. Browns can also be created by mixing two complementary colors from the RYB color model (combining all three primary colors). In theory, such combinations should produce black, but produce brown because most commercially available blue pigments tend to be comparatively weaker; the stronger red and yellow colors prevail, thus creating the following tones. Below is a list of some of the common brown colors.
Red-brown (web color "brown")
The web color called "brown" is displayed at right.
The historical and traditional name for this color is red-brown.
The color shown above at the top right at the head of this article (color #964B00) is the color normally and traditionally regarded as brown—a medium dark orange. Its h (hue) code is 30, which signifies a shade of orange. The color to the immediate right (color #A52A2A) that was chosen as the web color "brown"—a medium dark red—is the color traditionally called red-brown. That this color is a shade of red and not orange can be easily ascertained by inspecting its h (hue) code, which is 0, signifying a shade of red.
The first recorded use of red-brown as a color name in English was in 1682.
Beaver
Beaver is a color that is a representation of the average color of the fur of a beaver.
The first recorded use of beaver as a color name in English was in 1705.
The color "beaver" was formulated as one of the Crayola colors in 1998.
Etymologically, it's believed that the words "brown" and "beaver" ultimately stem from the same root word.
Beige
Beige is a color that is a representation of the color of unbleached wool.
Buff
Buff is a pale yellow-brown color that got its name from the colour of buffed leather.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, buff as a descriptor of a colour was first used in the London Gazette of 1686, describing a uniform to be "A Red Coat with a Buff-colour'd lining".
Burnt umber
Burnt umber is made by heating raw umber, which dehydrates the iron oxides and changes them partially to the more reddish hematite. It is used for both oil and water color paint.
The first recorded use of burnt umber as a color name in English was in 1650.
Chestnut
Displayed at right is the color chestnut.
Chocolate
Displayed at right is the color chocolate.
Cocoa brown
Displayed at right is the color cocoa bean.
Desert sand
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.
Khaki
Displayed at right is the color khaki.
This is the web color called khaki in HTML/CSS.
The color shown at right matches the color designated as khaki in the 1930 book A Dictionary of Color, the standard for color nomenclature before the introduction of computers.
The first recorded use of khaki as a color name in English was in 1848.
Kobicha (Brown-nose)
The color kobicha (brown-nose) is displayed at right. It is one of the Japanese traditional colors that has been in use since 660 AD in the form of various dyes used in designing kimonos.
The name kobicha comes from the Japanese for the colour of a type of kelp tea, but the word was often used as a synonym for a form of flattery in a curious parallel with the English usage brown nosing.
Peru
Displayed at right is the web color Peru.
This color was originally called Peruvian brown.
The first recorded use of Peruvian brown as a color name in English was in 1924.
The color name was changed to peru in 1987, when this color was formulated as one of the X11 colors, which in the early 1990s became known as the X11 web colors.
Raw umber
Displayed at the right is one version of the color raw umber.
The source of this color is: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of Raw Umber (color sample #77).
Rosy brown
Displayed at right is the web color rosy brown.
The color name rosy brown first came into use in 1987, when this color was formulated as one of the X11 colors, which in the early 1990s became known as the X11 web colors.
Russet
Russet is a dark brown color with a reddish-orange tinge.
The first recorded use of russet as a color name in English was in 1562.
The source of this color is the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color dictionary used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps.
The name of the color derives from russet, a coarse cloth made of wool and dyed with woad and madder to give it a subdued gray or reddish-brown shade. By the statute of 1363, poor English people were required to wear russet.
Russet, a color of fall, is often associated with sorrow or grave seriousness. Anticipating a lifetime of regret, Shakespeare's character Biron says: "Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd / In russet yeas and honest kersey noes." (Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, Scene 1)
Sandy brown
Sandy brown is a pale shade of brown. Sandy brown is one of the web colors. As its name suggests, it is a shade of brown which is similar to the color of some sands.
The color name sandy brown first came into use in 1987, when this color was formulated as one of the X11 colors, which in the early 1990s became known as the X11 web colors.
Smokey topaz
Displayed at right is the color smokey topaz. This color was formulated by Crayola in 1994 as one of the colors in the Gem Tones set.
Tan
Tan is a pale tone of brown. The name is derived from tannum (oak bark) used in the tanning of leather.
The first recorded use of tan as a color name in English was in the year 1590.
Taupe
The color taupe is a representation of the average color of the fur of the French mole.
The color displayed at right matches the color sample called taupe referenced below in the 1930 book A Dictionary of Color.
The first use of "taupe" as a color name in English was in the early 19th century (exact year is not known).
Wood brown
Wood brown is a color that resembles wood.
The source of this color is the 1912 book Color Standards and Color Nomenclature by Robert Ridgway. This color list was intended for biology and botany and is now on the Internet: Ridgway, Color Standards and Color Nomenclature:
Thus, this color name has been in use since 1912.