Wavelength 585–620 nm sRGB (r, g, b) (255, 127, 0) HSV (h, s, v) (30°, 100%, 100%) | Hex triplet #FF7F00 CMYK (c, m, y, k) (0, 50, 100, 0) Source HTML Color Chart @30 | |
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In optics, orange has a wavelength between approximately 585 and 620 nm and a hue of 30° in HSV color space. In the RGB color space it is a tertiary color numerically halfway between gamma-compressed red and yellow, as can be seen in the RGB color wheel. The complementary color of orange is azure. Orange pigments are largely in the ochre or cadmium families, and absorb mostly blue light.
Contents
- Orange color wheel
- Orange web color
- Dark orange web color
- Orange Pantone
- Orange Crayola
- Papaya whip
- Peach
- Light orange
- Apricot
- Melon
- Atomic tangerine
- Tea rose
- Carrot orange
- Orange peel
- Princeton orange
- UT orange
- Spanish orange
- Tangerine
- Giants orange
- Vermilion cinnabar
- Tomato
- Bittersweet
- Persimmon
- Alloy orange
- Burnt orange
- Bittersweet shimmer
- Brown
- Wrapping the spectrum into a color wheel
- References
Varieties of the color orange may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation, intensity, or colorfulness) or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being an orange or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors is shown below.
Orange (color wheel)
At right is the color orange, also known as color wheel orange. This is the tone of orange that is a pure chroma on the HSV color wheel, the expression of which is known as the RGB color wheel, exactly halfway between red and yellow. The complementary color of orange is azure.
Orange (web color)
At right is the web color called orange. It is defined in CSS as the hex triplet FFA500.
Dark orange (web color)
The web color called dark orange is at the right.
Orange (Pantone)
At right is displayed the color that is called orange in Pantone.
The source of this color is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #021 TPX—Orange.
Orange (Crayola)
At right is displayed the color that is called orange by Crayola.
Orange was one of the original colors formulated by Crayola in 1903.
Papaya whip
Displayed at right is the web color papaya whip, a pale tint of orange.
Papaya whip is a representation of the color that would result if mashed papayas were blended with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or yogurt.
Peach
At right is displayed the color peach.
The first recorded use of peach as a color name in English was in 1588.
Light orange
Displayed at right is the color light orange.
This color was formulated for Crayola colored pencils.
Apricot
At right is displayed the color apricot.
Apricot has been in use as a color name since 1851.
Melon
Displayed at right is the color melon.
This color is a representation of the color of the interior flesh of a cantaloupe, the most commonly consumed melon.
The first recorded use of melon as a color name in English was in 1892.
In 1958, melon was formulated as one of the Crayola colors.
Atomic tangerine
Displayed at right is the color atomic tangerine.
This color was formulated by Crayola in 1990.
Atomic tangerine is supposed to be a fluorescent color, but there is no mechanism for showing fluorescence on a flat computer screen.
Tea rose
At right is displayed the color tea rose.
This color is the color of a type of orange rose called a tea rose.
The first recorded use of tea rose as a color name in English was in 1884. The source of this color is the following website: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of Tea Rose (color sample #26)
Carrot orange
Carrot orange is a tint of orange that is a representation of the color of the raw carrot vegetable.
The first recorded use of carrot orange as a color name in English was in 1684.
Orange peel
Displayed at right is the color orange peel.
A discussion of the difference between the color orange (the color halfway between red and yellow, shown below as color wheel orange) and the color orange peel (the actual color of the outer skin of an orange), may be found in Maerz and Paul. Orange peel is the color halfway between orange (color wheel) and amber on the color wheel.
The first recorded use of orange peel as a color name in English was in 1839.
Princeton orange
The first recorded use of Princeton orange as a color name in English was in 1928.
The color symbolizes Princeton University and is defined as Pantone 158. The equivalent RGB values vary among sources. One such color, closely matching that used on the defining pages at Princeton, is shown at right.
UT orange
This shade of orange is unique to the University of Tennessee (UT), defined by the institution as Pantone 151, and is called UT orange. It is offered for sale by The Home Depot and licensed by the university. According to the university, this shade of orange is derived from the American daisy flower, which grew in profusion on the oldest part of the campus, The Hill.
Spanish orange
Spanish orange is the color that is called naranja (the Spanish word for "orange") in the Guía de coloraciones (Guide to colorations) by Rosa Gallego and Juan Carlos Sanz, a color dictionary published in 2005 that is widely popular in the Hispanophone realm.
Tangerine
The first recorded use of tangerine as a color name in English was in 1899.
Pumpkin is a color that resembles pumpkins.
The first recorded use of pumpkin as a color name in English was in 1922.
Pumpkin or orange is used with black for Halloween decorations.
Giants orange
The color Giants orange is displayed at right.
This is the color that symbolizes, along with black and cream, the San Francisco Giants baseball team.
Vermilion (cinnabar)
Vermilion is a color that originates from the pigment found in the mineral cinnabar. Vermilion may also be sometimes be spelled in error as vermillion. Also known as cinnabar and in its deeper form known as China red, vermilion is reddish orange, much like scarlet, only more orange than scarlet. It can be produced naturally (from the mineral cinnabar) and artificially. Cinnabar is a deep red-orange mineral, mercuric sulfide, HgS; the principal ore of mercury; the pigment vermilion is extracted from this ore.
Tomato
The web color tomato is a medium reddish-orange color that is the color of actual supermarket tomatoes. Many vine-ripened tomatoes are a bit redder. The color of tomato soup is slightly less saturated. The color tomato is displayed at right.
The first recorded use of tomato as a color name in English was in 1891.
When the X11 color names were invented in 1987, the color tomato was formulated as one of them. In the early 1990s, the X11 colors became known as the X11 web colors.
Bittersweet
The color bittersweet is displayed at right.
The first recorded use of bittersweet as a color name in English was in 1892.
In 1958, bittersweet was made into a Crayola color. RoseArt calls this color sweet bitter instead of bittersweet.
Persimmon
Persimmon is a color that resembles persimmons.
The first recorded use of persimmon as a color name in English was in 1922.
Persian orange is a color used in pottery and Persian carpets in Iran.
The first recorded use of Persian orange as a color name in English was in 1892.
Orange pudding (milk added to pureed oranges that is mixed in a blender with flour and slowly boiled on a stovetop) is colored Persian orange, assuming no food coloring is added. Allis-Chalmers tractors have been colored Persian orange since 1928 so that, even when caked with dirt, they could still be distinguished from landscape features.
Alloy orange
Displayed at right is the color alloy orange.
Alloy orange is one of the colors in the special set of metallic Crayola crayons called Metallic FX, the colors of which were formulated by Crayola in 2001.
Although this is supposed to be a metallic color, there is no mechanism for displaying metallic colors on a computer.
Burnt orange
Burnt orange has been used as a color name for this medium dark shade of orange since 1915.
This color is one variation that is used as a school color of The University of Texas at Austin, Auburn University, and Virginia Tech, as well as various high schools around the US.
Burnt orange is not a standard color; for example, it is defined differently by Auburn University and the University of Texas at Austin. The National Hockey League's San Jose Sharks use burnt orange as a secondary color, and it is one of three colors of the National Football League's Cleveland Browns. The Chicago Bears also use it as an alternate color.
Burnt orange was used by the University of Montana prior to 1996 and Oklahoma State University for its football uniforms from 1973 through 1983.
Burnt orange was popular in interior design in the 1970s.
Bittersweet shimmer
Displayed at right is the color bittersweet shimmer.
Bittersweet shimmer is one of the colors in the special set of metallic Crayola crayons called Metallic FX, the colors of which were formulated by Crayola in 2001.
Although this is supposed to be a metallic color, there is no mechanism for displaying metallic colors on a computer.
Brown
Brown, although an independent color term, actually combines the orange hue (or close to orange) with low brightness. It can be described as an especially dark orange or, in painters' terminology, a deep shade of orange.
The first recorded use of brown as a color name in English was in about 1000 AD in the Metres of Boethius.
Wrapping the spectrum into a color wheel
If the visible spectrum is wrapped to form a color wheel, orange appears midway between red and yellow: