- Cyan
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This article is about the color. For other uses, see Cyan (disambiguation).
Cyan — Spectral coordinates — Wavelength 490–520 nm Frequency 610–575 THz — Common connotations — water[1][2][3] 
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #00FFFF sRGBB (r, g, b) (0, 255, 255) Source CSS Color Module Level 3 B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) Cyan (
/ˈsaɪ.ən/[4] or /ˈsaɪ.æn/;[5] from Greek: κύανoς, transliterated: kýanos, meaning "dark blue substance")[6] may be used as the name of any of a number of colors in the blue/green range of the spectrum. In reference to the visible spectrum cyan is used to refer to the color obtained by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light or the removal of red from white light. As such, cyan is the complement of red in RGB and CMYK color models: cyan pigments absorb red light.Cyan is also called aqua or blue-green, and was formerly known as "cyan blue".[7]
The first recorded use of cyan blue (as noted above, "cyan blue" was the name used for the color "cyan" in the 19th century) as a color name in English was in 1879.[8]
Some tones of color close to cyan in the cyan color range are teal, turquoise, electric blue and aquamarine.
Contents
Electric cyan vs. process cyan
Electric cyan (web color aqua)
Cyan (additive secondary)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #00FFFF RGBB (r, g, b) (0, 255, 255) HSV (h, s, v) (180°, 100%, 100%) Source X11 B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) The vivid cyan that is seen on an electronic display device (shown at right) is also referred to as electric cyan to distinguish it from the less vivid turquoise blue-like process cyan used in CMYK color printing (shown below). (Note: while the color is defined by definite RGB values, the display of the color will vary depending on the absolute color space used and the nature of the physical display device, e.g. computer monitor, and if this page is printed it is likely that the color shown will be far from representative.)
The web color aqua is an alias for electric cyan, that is, it is exactly the same color shown here as electric cyan.
To reproduce electric cyan in inks, it is necessary to add some white ink to the printer's cyan below, so when it is reproduced in printing, it is not a primary subtractive color. It is called aqua (a name in use since 1598) because it is a color commonly associated with water, such as the appearance of the water at a tropical beach.[9]
Process cyan (pigment cyan) (printer's cyan)
Cyan (subtractive primary)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #00B7EB RGBB (r, g, b) (0, 183, 235) HSV (h, s, v) (193°, 100%, 92[10]%) Source CMYK[11] B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) Cyan is also one of the common inks used in four-color printing, along with magenta, yellow, and black; this set of colors is referred to as CMYK as in spectrum(s).
While both the additive secondary and the subtractive primary are called cyan, they can be substantially different from one another. Cyan printing ink can be more saturated or less saturated than the RGB secondary cyan, depending on what RGB color space and ink are considered.
Process cyan 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 cyan ink. A typical formulation of process cyan is shown in the color box at right.
Variations of cyan
Further information: Variations of turquoiseLight cyan
Light Cyan
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #E0FFFF RGBB (r, g, b) (224, 255, 255) HSV (h, s, v) (180°, 97%, 97%) Source X11 B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) At right is displayed the web color light cyan.
Celeste
Celeste
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #B2FFFF RGBB (r, g, b) (178, 255, 255) HSV (h, s, v) (180°, 30%, 100%) Source S.Fantetti e C.Petracchi
(2001).
Il dizionario dei colori:
nomi e valori in quadricromia.
Zanichelli
. ISBN 8808079953.B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) At right is displayed the web color Celeste (Bianchi Green).
Light sea green
Light sea green
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #20B2AA RGBB (r, g, b) (32, 178, 170) HSV (h, s, v) (175°, 40%, 75%) Source X11 B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) At right is displayed the web color light sea green.
Dark cyan
Dark cyan
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #008B8B RGBB (r, g, b) (0, 139, 139) HSV (h, s, v) (180°, 24%, 100%) Source X11 B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) At right is displayed the web color dark cyan.
Teal
Main article: Teal (color)Teal
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #008080 sRGBB (r, g, b) (0, 128, 128) HSV (h, s, v) (180°, 100%, 50[12]%) Source HTML/CSS[13] B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) At right is displayed the web color teal.
In nature
Molecules
- Pure water is nearly colorless. However, it does absorb slightly more red light than blue, giving large volumes of water a bluish tint; increased scattering of blue light due to fine particles in the water shifts the blue color toward green, for a typically cyan net color.[14]
- Cyanide derives its name from Prussian blue, a blue pigment containing the cyanide ion.
Bacteria
- Cyanobacteria (sometimes called blue-green algae) are an important link in the food chain.
In human culture
Architecture
- Cyan colored tiles are often used to pave swimming pools to make the water within them seem more intensely colored, and therefore more inviting.
Astronomy
- The planet Uranus is colored cyan because of the abundance of methane in its atmosphere.
Computers
- CyanogenMod alternative firmware for the operating system Android.
Energy
- Natural gas (methane), used by many for home cooking on gas stoves, has a cyan colored flame when burned.
Medicine
- Cyanosis is an abnormal blueness of the skin, usually a sign of poor oxygen intake. i.e. the patient is "cyanotic".
Music
- Cyan, was a British progressive rock band from the 1980s and 1990s.
Photography
- Cyanotype, or blueprint, a monochrome photographic printing process that predates the use of the word cyan as a color, yields a deep cyan-blue colored print based on the Prussian blue pigment.[15]
Video games
- Cyan Garamonde is a named character in Final Fantasy VI.
- Cyan Worlds released the video game Myst for the Macintosh computer in 1993.
See also
- List of colors
- Distinguishing blue from green in language
- Orange, formerly called "yellow-red" (compare with blue-green)
References
- ^ "Results for "cyan"". Dictionary.com. Lexico Publishing Corp.. 2007. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cyan. Retrieved 2007-11-22.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary
- ^ Khalifa, Rashad (trans). "Sura 76, The Human (Al-Insaan)". Quran The Final Testament. http://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/noframes/ch76.html#21. Retrieved 2007-11-30.
- ^ "cyan". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2nd ed. 1989.
- ^ Cyan definition on dictionary.com
- ^ κύανος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ^ J. Arthur H. Hatt (1908). The Colorist: Designed to Correct the Commonly Held Theory that Red, Yellow, and Blue are the Primary Colors and to Supply the Much Needed Easy Method of Determining Color Harmony. D. Van Nostrand Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=qFa_qP780RQC&pg=PA22&dq=%22cyan+blue%22+%22three+color+printing%22&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=pxItSKTOGaectAPy3OnvAg.
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill page 194
- ^ Maerz and Paul The Dictionary of Color 1930 (see under Aqua in Index, page 189)
- ^ Using HSL color space#Conversion from RGB to HSL or HSV, v=247/255
- ^ Tintbooks - Get Accurate CMYK Color Results For Your Printing Projects CMYK color tintbook:
- ^ Web.forret.com, Color Conversion Tool set to hex code of color #008080 (Teal):
- ^ W3.org, W3C TR CSS3 Color Module, HTML4 color keywords
- ^ Craig F. Bohren (2001). Clouds in a Glass of Beer: Simple Experiments in Atmospheric Physics. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0486417387. http://books.google.com/books?id=CZuNCZqtZZUC&pg=PA156&dq=absorption+scattering+water+blue+red&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=a684ScHhGI3WlQTM-_W7Bg.
- ^ Mike Ware (1999). Cyanotype: the history, science and art of photographic printing in Prussian blue. NMSI Trading Ltd. ISBN 1900747073. http://books.google.com/books?id=C-7I69gFIbMC&pg=PA21&ots=alsMw9t0Kr&dq=cyanotype+prussian-blue+color&sig=s12O6C39teka_vg41EDxbflKMI4#PPA40,M1.
Shades of cyanAlice blue Aqua Aquamarine Celeste Cerulean Cyan Electric blue Jungle green Magic mint Mint Persian green Pine green Robin egg blue Sea green Skobeloff Tiffany Blue Teal Turquoise The samples shown above are only indicative. Shades of blueAir Force blue Alice blue Azure Baby blue Bleu de France Blue Bondi blue Brandeis blue Cambridge Blue Carolina blue Celeste Cerulean Cobalt blue Columbia blue Cornflower blue Cyan Dark blue Deep sky blue Dodger blue Duke blue Egyptian blue Electric blue Eton blue Federal blue Glaucous Electric indigo International Klein Blue Iris Light blue Majorelle Blue Maya blue Midnight blue Navy blue Non-photo blue Palatinate blue Periwinkle Persian blue Phthalo blue Powder blue Prussian blue Royal blue Sapphire Sky blue Steel blue Teal Tiffany Blue True Blue Tufts Blue Turquoise UCLA Blue Ultramarine Yale Blue The samples shown above are only indicative. Shades of greenApple green Asparagus Bright green Chartreuse Dark olive green Dark spring green Dartmouth green Electric green Fern green Forest green Green Green-yellow Harlequin Honeydew Hunter green India green Islamic green Jungle green Lawn green Lime Lime green Mantis Mint Mint cream Office green Olive Olive drab Pakistan green Paris Green Persian green Phthalo green Pigment green Pine green Pistachio Sea green Shamrock green Spring bud Spring green Teal Yellow-green The samples shown above are only indicative. Web colorsblack gray silver white maroon red purple fuchsia green lime olive yellow navy blue teal aqua Color topics Color perception Color space Basic colors Related Categories:- Shades of cyan
- Shades of blue
- Shades of green
- Optical spectrum
- Greek loanwords
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