A color term (or color name) is a word or

phrase In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...

that refers to a specific color. The color term may refer to human perception of that color (which is affected by visual context) which is usually defined according to the

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

, or to an underlying physical property (such as a specific

wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, t ...

visible light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 te ...

). There are also numerical systems of color specification, referred to as

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 represen ...

s. An important distinction must be established between color and shape, as these two attributes usually are used in conjunction with one another when describing in language. For example, they are labeled as alternative parts of speech terms color term and shape term. Psychological conditions for recognition of colors exist, such as those who cannot discern colors in general or those who see colors as sound (a variety of synesthesia).

Color dimensions

Typical human color vision is

trichromatic Trichromacy or trichromatism is the possessing of three independent channels for conveying color information, derived from the three different types of cone cells in the eye. Organisms with trichromacy are called trichromats. The normal expl ...

, meaning it is based on a three-dimensional color

gamut In color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut , is a certain ''complete subset'' of colors. The most common usage refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given circ ...

. These three dimensions can be defined in different ways, but often the most intuitive definition are the dimensions of the HSL/HSV color space: *

Hue In color theory, hue is one of the main properties (called color appearance parameters) of a color, defined technically in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that ...

: representing the different colors of the

rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

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'' ...

(e.g. 'red', 'orange', 'yellow', etc.); roughly analogous to the color's

. *

Saturation Saturation, saturated, unsaturation or unsaturated may refer to: Chemistry * Saturation, a property of organic compounds referring to carbon-carbon bonds **Saturated and unsaturated compounds ** Degree of unsaturation **Saturated fat or fatty aci ...

: the colorfulness of the color, i.e. a measure of vibrant vs. pale. * Luminosity: a measurement of intensity or 'brightness'.

In natural languages

Lexicology

Monolexemic color words are composed of individual lexemes, or ''root words'', such as 'red', 'brown', 'fuchsia' or 'olive'. The root words generally describe the hue of the color, but some root words - namely brown - can also describe the other dimensions. Compound color words make use of prefix adjectives (e.g. 'light brown', 'sea green'), that generally describe the saturation or luminosity or compounded basic color words (e.g. 'yellow-green'), which refine the hue of the color relative to root words. 'Vaaleanpunainen', the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

word for 'pink' is a clear

agglutination In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...

of the language's words for 'pale' ('vaalea') and 'red' ('punainen').

Basic color terms

Basic color terms meet the following criteria: * monolexemic ('green', but not 'light green' or 'forest green'), * high-frequency, and * agreed upon by speakers of that language.

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

has 11 basic color terms: 'black', 'white', 'red', 'green', 'yellow', 'blue', 'brown', 'orange', 'pink', 'purple', and 'grey'; other languages have between 2 and 12. All other colors are considered by most speakers of that language to be variants of these basic color terms. A useful litmus test involves replacing each of these basic terms with an approximation of other basic terms, e.g. replacing orange with red-yellow. If the approximation is ''

jarring Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although u ...

'', the replaced term likely meets the requirement for being a basic color term. An example of a color that comes close to being a basic color term in English is turquoise. It is monolexemic, but is not very high frequency, especially compared to alternatives teal or cyan. It also generally fails the above litmus test in that most people do not find the use of the approximation of other basic color terms (blue-green) to be jarring.

Color term hierarchy

In the classic study of Brent Berlin and Paul Kay (1969), '' Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution'', the researchers argued that the differences in number of basic color terms in languages follow a repeatable pattern. Color terms can be organized into a coherent hierarchy and there are a limited number of universal basic color terms which begin to be used by individual cultures in a relatively fixed order. This order is defined in stages I-VII. Berlin and Kay originally based their analysis on a comparison of color words in 20 languages from around the world. The model is presented below, broken into stages, with stage I on the left and stage VII on the right:

\begin\text \\ \text \end < \text < \begin\text \\ \text \end < \text < \text <\begin\text \\ \text \\ \text \\ \text \end

Berlin and Kay's study identified seven stages of color distinction systems. Each progressive stage features a color term that the previous stages do not.

Stage I

Stage I contains two terms, white and black (light and dark); these terms are referenced broadly to describe other undefined color terms. For example, the Jale highland group in New Guinea identify the color of blood as black. This is because blood, as a relatively dark liquid, is grouped into the same color classification as black. In the

Bassa language The Bassa language is a Kru language spoken by about 600,000 Bassa people in Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone. Phonology Consonants * /ʄ/ can be heard as a glide intervocalically within compound words. * /ɡ͡b/ when followed by a ...

, there are two terms for classifying colors; ''ziza'' (white, yellow, orange and red) and ''hui'' (black, violet, blue, and green). In the

Pirahã language Pirahã (also spelled ''Pirahá, Pirahán''), or Múra-Pirahã, is the indigenous language of the isolated Pirahã people of Amazonas, Brazil. The Pirahã live along the Maici River, a tributary of the Amazon River. Pirahã is the only survivi ...

, there appear to be no color terms beyond describing lightness and darkness.

Stage II (red)

Stage II implements a third term for red. Objects begin to rely less on their brightness for classification and in this stage we instead see each term cover a larger scope of colors. Specifically, blue and other darker shades continue to be described as black, yellow and orange colors are classified with red, and other bright colors continue to be classified with white. In the Bambara language, there are three color terms: ''dyema'' (white, beige), ''blema'' (reddish, brownish) and ''fima'' (dark green, indigo and black).

Stage III/IV (yellow + green)

Stage III identifies a third term referring either to green (IIIa) or yellow (IIIb). Most languages in the study with this system identify yellow over green, such as the

Komi language The Komi language ( kv, коми кыв, ''komi kyv''), also known as Zyryan, Zyrian or Komi-Zyryan (Komi: коми-зырян кыв, komi-zyrjan kyv),Ibibio language and the Philippine

Hanunoo language Hanunoo, or Hanunó'o (), is a language spoken by Mangyans in the island of Mindoro, Philippines. It is written in the Hanunoo script. Phonology Consonants Vowels * can be heard as within closed syllables. * can be heard as wi ...

both identify green instead of yellow. The Ova-Himba use four color names: ''zuzu'' stands for dark shades of blue, red, green, and purple; ''vapa'' is white and some shades of yellow; ''buru'' is some shades of green and blue; and ''dambu'' is some other shades of green, red, and brown. It is thought that this may increase the time it takes for the Ova-Himba to distinguish between two colors that fall under the same Herero color category, compared to people whose language separates the colors into two different color categories. Stage IV incorporates green or yellow, which ever was not already present, i.e. stage IIIa languages will adopt yellow and stage IIIb languages will adopt green. Most stage IV languages continue to colexify blue and green, as listed in ''

Blue–green distinction in language In many languages, the colors described in English as "blue" and "green" are colexified, i.e. expressed using a single cover term. To describe this English lexical gap, linguists use the portmanteau word ''grue'', from ''green'' and ''blue'' ...

''. The

Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanj ...

青 (pronounced in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

and in Japanese) has a meaning that covers both blue and green. In more contemporary terms, they are 藍 (, in Mandarin) and 綠 (, in Mandarin) respectively. Japanese also has two terms that refer specifically to the color green, (, derived from the classical Japanese descriptive verb 'to be in leaf, to flourish' in reference to trees) and (, which is derived from the English word 'green').

Stage V (blue)

Stage V introduces blue as its own color term, differentiating from black or from green.

Stage VI (brown)

The seventh basic color term is likely to be brown. In English, this is the first basic color term (other than black and white) that is not differentiated on hue, but rather on lightness. English splits some hues into several distinct colors according to lightness: such as red and pink or orange and brown. To English speakers, these pairs of colors, which are objectively no more different from one another than light green and dark green, are conceived of as belonging to different categories.

Stage VII

Stage VII adds additional terms for orange, pink, purple or

grey Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

, but these do not exhibit the same hierarchy as the previous seven colors. English contains eleven basic color terms: 'black', 'white', 'red', 'green', 'yellow', 'blue', 'brown', 'orange', 'pink', 'purple', and 'grey'.

Stage VII+

Languages with further color distinction use relativistic light / dark terms like light blue / dark blue (in comparison to blue sky / blue ocean), or pale red / deep red.

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

have twelve basic color terms, each distinguishing blue and light blue. A Russian will make the same red / pink and orange / brown distinctions, but will also make a further distinction between and , which English speakers would simply call dark and light blue. To Russian speakers, and are as separate as red and pink, or orange and brown. Hungarian, Argentine Spanish and Turkish distinguish multiple words for 'red': and (Hungarian; is a darker red), and , , and (Turkish); ''kırmızı'' now includes all reds but originally referred to crimson, to which it is cognate, while ''kızıl'' mainly refers to scarlet and other orange-tinted or brownish reds. Two words for 'red' are also found in Irish and

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...

: ( for light, bright red and or respectively for dark, brownish red). Turkish also has two words for 'white' ( and ) and 'black' ( and ). ''Ak'' and ''beyaz'' have the same meaning, while ''kara'' is a broader term than ''siyah'' and also includes dark browns; which word is used also depends on the kind of object being described. Both ''Ak'' and ''kara'' are of turkic origin, while ''siyah'' is borrowed from

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, and ''beyaz'' from Arabic ''bayāḍ'' ''بياض''. In Serbian/Croatian language there are differences in dark brown (''mrk''), brown (''smeđ'' & ''kestenjast''), red (''crven''), pink (''ružičast'') and orange (''narandžast''), as well as in blue hues: very dark blue or blue-green (''teget''), dark blue (''modar''), blue (''plav'') and ash blue (''sinj''). An interesting case that deviates from this pattern is

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

's two words for green: * denotes the green color of plants * denotes artificial greens of dyes, paints etc. This distinction is made even if two shades are identical.

Linguistic relativity

These colors roughly correspond to the sensitivities of the retinal ganglion cells, leading Berlin and Kay to argue that color naming is not merely a cultural phenomenon, but is one that is also constrained by biology—that is, language is shaped by perception. A 2012 study suggested that the origin of this hierarchy may be tied to human vision and the time ordering in which these color names get accepted or agreed upon in a population perfectly matches the order predicted by the hierarchy.

Non-hue terms

This article mostly describes the color terms that define the ''hue'' of a color, since hue is considered the most innate dimension of the three. However, other terms are often used to describe the other two dimensions, which can be seen as common prefixes to the root terms that generally describe hue. Adding prefixes to root color terms generates multilexemic colors. Examples of common prefix adjectives can be seen in a list of color names and are described: *

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

: can describe either high luminosity or high saturation, according to the

Helmholtz–Kohlrausch effect The Helmholtz–Kohlrausch effect (after Hermann von Helmholtz and V. A. Kohlrausch) is a perceptual phenomenon wherein the intense saturation of spectral hue is perceived as part of the color's luminance. This brightness increase by saturation, ...

and/or Hunt Effect. * Lightness: describes both a high luminosity ''and'' low saturation *

Darkness Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low ...

: the opposite of lightness, or low luminosity * Paleness, ''dullness'': a measure of desaturation *

Deep Deep or The Deep may refer to: Places United States * Deep Creek (Appomattox River tributary), Virginia * Deep Creek (Great Salt Lake), Idaho and Utah * Deep Creek (Mahantango Creek tributary), Pennsylvania * Deep Creek (Mojave River tributary), ...

Royal Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ...

: may refer to darkness and/or high saturation; unrelated to color depth. *

Pure Pure may refer to: Computing * A pure function * A pure virtual function * PureSystems, a family of computer systems introduced by IBM in 2012 * Pure Software, a company founded in 1991 by Reed Hastings to support the Purify tool * Pure-FTPd, F ...

, ''Bold'',

Vivid Vivid may refer to: Music * Vivid (band), a Japanese rock band * "Vivid" (song), by Electronic, 1999 *"ViViD", a 2016 song by Loona from '' HeeJin'' Albums * ''Vivid'' (Vivian Green album), 2015 * ''Vivid'' (Crystal Kay album), 2012 * ''Vivi ...

Rich Rich may refer to: Common uses * Rich, an entity possessing wealth * Rich, an intense flavor, color, sound, texture, or feeling **Rich (wine), a descriptor in wine tasting Places United States * Rich, Mississippi, an unincorporated commun ...

: all referring to high saturation * Pastel: refers to colors with high luminosity and low saturation. * Neon: bright, in either of the word's connotations; alluding to the bright glow of

neon lighting Neon lighting consists of brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Neon lights are a type of cold cathode gas-discharge light. A neon tube is a sealed glass tube with a metal electrode ...

. *

Fluorescent Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, ...

: very bright, sometimes also highly saturated. Named after the

fluorescence Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, tha ...

effect of

pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compou ...

s and dyes, which can produce a luminous glow when viewed under

UV light Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation i ...

, thereby appearing significantly brighter than their surroundings.

Non-dimensional terms

Other terms sometimes used to describe color are related to physical phenomenon that do not describe a single color, but describe the dynamic nature of an object's color. These include: *

Glossy Gloss is an optical property which indicates how well a surface reflects light in a specular (mirror-like) direction. It is one of the important parameters that are used to describe the visual appearance of an object. The factors that affect glo ...

: whether the surface reflects ''diffusely'' or ''specularly'' (sharply) *

Metallic Metallic may be a reference to: *Metal * Metalloid, metal-like substance *Metallic bonding, type of chemical bonding * Metallicity, in astronomy the proportion of elements other than helium and hydrogen in an object *Metallic color, a color that ...

: distinguishing 'gold' and 'silver' from shades of 'yellow' and 'grey', respectively * Iridescent: dependence of color on viewing angle, innate to

structural coloration Structural coloration in animals, and a few plants, is the production of colour by microscopically structured surfaces fine enough to interfere with visible light instead of pigments, although some structural coloration occurs in combination wi ...

* opacity: opaque (solid) vs. translucent (transparent or see-through)

Abstract and descriptive color terms

Color terms can be classified as ''abstract'' or ''descriptive'', though the distinction is often unclear. Abstract color terms only refer to the color they represent and any etymological link to an object of that color is lost. In English white, black, red, yellow, green, blue, brown, and grey are abstract color terms. These terms are also ''basic color terms'' (as described above), though other abstract terms like maroon and

magenta Magenta () is a color that is variously defined as pinkish- purplish- red, reddish-purplish-pink or mauvish-crimson. On color wheels of the RGB (additive) and CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located exactly midway between red and blu ...

are not considered basic color terms. Descriptive color terms are secondarily used to describe a color but primarily refer to an object or phenomenon. 'Salmon', 'rose', 'saffron', and 'lilac' are descriptive color terms in English because their use as color terms is derived in reference to natural colors of

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...

flesh,

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

flowers, infusions of

saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of ''Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in ...

pistils, and lilac blossoms respectively. Abstract color terms in one may be represented by descriptive color terms in another; for example in Japanese pink is (, lit. 'peach-color') and grey is either or (, , lit. 'ash-color' for light greys and 'mouse-color' for dark greys respectively). Nevertheless, as languages evolve they may adopt or invent new abstract color terms, as Japanese has adopted () for pink and () for grey from English. While most of the 11 basic color terms in English are decidedly abstract, three of them (all stage VII, so understandably the youngest basic color terms) are arguably still descriptive: * ''Pink'' was originally a descriptive color term derived from the name of a flower called a 'pink'. However, because the word 'pink' is rarely used to refer to the flower anymore, relative to its common usage as a color, it is often regarded as an abstract color term. * ''Purple'' is another example of this shift, as it was originally a word that referred to the dye named

Tyrian purple Tyrian purple ( grc, πορφύρα ''porphúra''; la, purpura), also known as Phoenician red, Phoenician purple, royal purple, imperial purple, or imperial dye, is a reddish-purple natural dye. The name Tyrian refers to Tyre, Lebanon. It i ...

, which took its name from the latin , which referred to both the dye and the sea snail from which the dye was derived. However, this etymological link has been lost in translation. * ''

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 * ...

'' is difficult to categorize as abstract or descriptive because both its uses, as a color term and as a word for an object, are very common and it is difficult to distinguish which of the two is primary. As a basic color term it became established in the early to mid 20th century; before that time artist's palettes called it 'yellow-red'. In English, the use of the word 'orange' for a fruit predates its use as a color term. The word comes from French , which derives via

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

''narand͡ʒ'' and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

from a

Dravidian language The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant imm ...

such as

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

or Tulu. The derived form ''orangish'' as a color is attested from the late 19th century by reference to the fruit.

Struggle in linguistics

Research on color terms is often conducted without reference to common uses of the term or its significance within the context of its original language. In John A. Lucy's article ''The linguistics of 'colour he identifies two key categories. One of these is 'characteristic referential range', or the use of a color term to identify or differentiate a referent over a wide context.

Standardized systems

In contrast with the color terms of natural language, systematized color terms also exist. Some examples of color naming systems are CNS and ISCC–NBS lexicon of color terms. The disadvantage of these systems, however, is that they only specify specific color samples, so while it is possible to, by interpolating, convert any color to or from one of these systems, a lookup table is required. In other words, no simple invertible equation can convert between

CIE XYZ The CIE 1931 color spaces are the first defined quantitative links between distributions of wavelengths in the electromagnetic visible spectrum, and physiologically perceived colors in human color vision. The mathematical relationships that defi ...

and one of these systems.

Philatelists Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is possi ...

traditionally use names to identify postage stamp colors. While the names are largely standardized within each country, there is no broader agreement, and so for instance the US-published Scott catalogue will use different names than the British Stanley Gibbons catalogue. On modern computer systems a standard set of basic color terms is now used across the web color names (SVG 1.0/CSS3),

HTML color names Web colors are colors used in displaying web pages on the World Wide Web, and the methods for describing and specifying those colors. Colors may be specified as an RGB triplet or in hexadecimal format (a ''hex triplet'') or according to their ...

X11 color names In computing, on the X Window System, X11 color names are represented in a simple text file, which maps certain strings to RGB color values. It was traditionally shipped with every X11 installation, hence the name, and is usually located in ''< ...

and the

.NET Framework The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...

color names, with only a few minor differences. The

Crayola Crayola LLC, formerly the Binney & Smith Company, is an American manufacturing company specializing in art supplies. It is known for its brand ''Crayola'' and best known for its crayons. The company is headquartered in Forks Township, Pennsylva ...

company is famous for its many crayon colors, often creatively named. Heraldry has standardized names for '

tincture A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...

s', subdivided into 'colors', 'metals', and 'furs'.