Variations of

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 ...

or grey include achromatic

grayscale In digital photography, computer-generated imagery, and colorimetry, a greyscale (more common in Commonwealth English) or grayscale (more common in American English) image is one in which the value of each pixel is a single sample (signal), s ...

shades, which lie exactly between

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 ...

and

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 ...

, and nearby colors with low

colorfulness Colorfulness, chroma and saturation are attributes of perceived color relating to chromatic intensity. As defined formally by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) they respectively describe three different aspects of chromatic ...

. A selection of a number of these various colors is shown below.

Chart of computer web color grays

Below is a chart showing the computer

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 ...

grays. An ''achromatic gray'' is a gray color in which the red, green, and blue codes are exactly equal. The web colors ''gray'', ''gainsboro'', ''light gray'', ''dark gray'', and ''dim gray'' are all achromatic colors. A ''chromatic gray'' is a gray color in which the red, green, and blue codes are not exactly equal, but are close to each other, which is what makes it a shade of gray.

White and black

The colors

and

are not usually thought of as shades of gray, but they can be thought of as shades of achromatic gray, as both contain equal amounts of red, blue and green. White is at the extreme upper end of the achromatic value scale and black is at the extreme lower end of the achromatic value scale, with all the colors normally considered tones of achromatic gray colors in between. Since achromatic colors have no hue, the hue code (h code) is left blank for achromatic colors (usually marked as a dash).

White

White is a color, the

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 ...

of which is evoked by

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– ...

that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in equal amounts and with high

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 ...

compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness. White is the lightest possible color.

Achromatic grays

Achromatic grays are colors in which the RGB (red, green, and blue) values are exactly equal. Since achromatic grays have no hue, the hue code (the h in the hsv values of the color) is indicated with a dash. Achromatic grays are the axis of the color sphere, with white at the

north pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

and black at the

south pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...

of the color sphere. The various tones of achromatic gray are along the axis of the color sphere from white at the top of the axis to black at the bottom of the axis.

Gray

At right is displayed the color ''gray''. The first recorded use of ''gray'' as a color name in the English language was in 700. This tone of gray ( HTML gray) is universally used as the standard for gray because it is that tone of gray which is halfway between white and black.

Gainsboro

At right is displayed the

''Gainsboro'' ''Gainsboro'' is a pale tone of gray named after british painter

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (; 14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists o ...

. Prior to standardization as a web color, ''Gainsboro'' was included as one of the

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 ''< ...

. It was, however, absent from the original 1987 version of the list, but present in Paul Raveling's version which added, amongst other things, " ght and off-white colors, copied from several Sinclair Paints color samples".

Silver

Displayed at right is the

''silver'' This color is a representation of the color of the metal

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

. This is supposed to be a

metallic color A metallic color is a color that appears to be that of a polished metal. The visual sensation usually associated with metals is its metallic shine. This cannot be reproduced by a simple solid color, because the shiny effect is due to the mater ...

; however, there is no mechanism for displaying metallic colors on a flat computer screen.

Medium gray

At right is displayed the color ''medium gray'', or ''gray'' in the

, which is lighter than the HTML/CSS gray shown below. The coordinates in the X11 were set at 190 to avoid gray being displayed as white on 2-bit grayscale displays. See the chart Color names that clash between X11 and HTML/CSS in the X11 color names article to see those colors which are different in HTML/CSS and X11.

Spanish gray

''Spanish gray'' is the color that is called ''gris'' (gray in Spanish) 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.

Davy's gray

''Davy's gray'' is a dark gray color, made from powdered

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

iron oxide An iron oxide is a chemical compound composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Ferric oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of which is rust. Iron ...

and

carbon black Carbon black (with subtypes acetylene black, channel black, furnace black, lamp black and thermal black) is a material produced by the incomplete combustion of coal tar, vegetable matter, or petroleum products, including fuel oil, fluid cataly ...

named for Henry Davy. The first recorded use of ''Davy's gray'' as a color name in English was around 1940.

Tundora

Tundora refers to a dark shade of gray which lies between gray and black.

Off-grays

Off-grays are colors that are very close to achromatic grays, but whose red, green, and blue color codes are not exactly equal.

Xanadu

Displayed in the adjacent image is the color xanadu. The color "xanadu" is a greenish-gray color whose name is derived from the Philodendron. The color ultimately comes from the 2001 Resene RGB Values List.

Platinum

''Platinum'' is a color that is the metallic tint of pale grayish-white resembling the metal

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

. This is supposed to be a metallic color; however, there is no mechanism for displaying metallic colors on a flat computer screen. The first recorded use of ''platinum'' as a color name in English was in 1918.

Ash gray

Displayed in the adjacent image is the color ''ash gray''. The color ''ash gray'' is a representation of the color of ash; also known (from its name in Latin language) as cinereous. The first recorded use of ''ash gray'' as a color name in English was in 1374.

Battleship gray

The color ''battleship gray'' is displayed in the adjacent image. It is so called because the color is the shade of gray from the specular

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into fragile elastic plates. This characteristic is described as ''perfect basal cleavage''. Mica is co ...

ceous

hematite Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...

paint used for rustproofing iron and steel

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

s. The

normalized color coordinates Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in v ...

for battleship gray are identical to old silver, first recorded as a color name in English in 1905.

Gunmetal

''Gunmetal'' is a shade of gray that has a bluish purple tinge. It describes the color of several metals used in industrial applications, such as tarnished

gunmetal Gun metal, also known as red brass in the United States, is a type of bronze – an alloy of copper, tin, and zinc. Proportions vary but 88% copper, 8–10% tin, and 2–4% zinc is an approximation. Originally used chiefly for making cannon, ...

, or parkerized steel.

Lead gray

''Lead gray'' is a shade of gray resembling the color of a

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

nodule. This color is widely used as a wall paint color.

Charcoal

''Charcoal'' is a color that is a representation of the dark gray color of burned wood. The first recorded use of ''charcoal'' as a color name in English was in 1606.

Stone gray

''Stone gray'' is a color represented in the list of RAL classic colors from

RAL colour standard RAL is a color management, colour management system used in Europe that is created and administered by the German (RAL non-profit LLC), which is a subsidiary of the German . In colloquial speech, RAL refers to the RAL Classic system, mainly us ...

. This is the main color on the Indian 500-rupee note.

Cool grays

Cool grays have noticeably bluish,

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 ...

ish, or violetish hues.

Cool gray

''Cool gray'', is a medium light color gray mixed with 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 ...

. This color is a dull shade of '' blue-gray''. This color is identical with color sample No. 203 (identified as ''gray blue'') at the following website: —The ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Colo(u)r Names (1955), a website for stamp collectors to evaluate the colors of their stamps. Poet George Sterling once wrote a poem calling

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

the "cool grey city of love" The phrase ''cool grey'' as applied to San Francisco refers to the frequent fogs from the Pacific Ocean that envelop the city.

Cadet gray

''Cadet gray'' is a slightly bluish shade of gray. The first recorded use of ''cadet grey'' as a color name in English was in 1912. Before 1912, the word ''cadet gray'' was used as a name for a type of military issue uniforms. Most famously, it was the color of the uniforms of the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fi ...

. In 1815, it had earlier become the color of the uniforms of the United States Military Academy (West Point).

Blue-gray

''Blue-gray'' was a

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

crayon color from 1958 to 1990.

Glaucous

''Glaucous'' (from the Latin ''glaucus'', meaning "bluish-gray", from the Greek ''glaukos'') is used to describe the pale gray or blue appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus''), glaucous-winged gull (''Larus glaucescens''), glaucous macaw (''Anodorhynchus glaucus''), and glaucous tanager (''Thraupis glaucocolpa'').

Slate gray

''Slate gray'' is a gray color with a slight azure tinge that is a representation of the average color of the material

. The first recorded use of ''slate gray'' as a color name in English was in 1705.

Gray-green

''Gray-green'' (also known as ''grayish-green'', ''greenish-gray'', ''emerald-gray'', or ''green-gray'') is a greenish-gray color.

Marengo

''Marengo'' is a shade of gray (black with gray tinge) or blue colors. Sometimes the color is described as the color of a wet asphalt.

Nardo gray

''Nardo gray'' is a color chosen by

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

in 2013 for their new RS7. Since featuring this color, many other vehicle companies copied their lead and introduced a similar color availability for their cars and SUVs. The color code is Y7C.

Warm grays

''Warm grays'' are colors that are noticeably

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

ish,

pink Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...

ish grays, or reddish

purple Purple is a color similar in appearance to violet light. In the RYB color model historically used in the arts, purple is a secondary color created by combining red and blue pigments. In the CMYK color model used in modern printing, purple is ...

grays. The color brown is itself a dark shade of orange. Brown colors also include dark shades of

rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

, red, and

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin. Examples of it have been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since the Neolithic times, and worked as a gemstone since antiquity."Amber" (2004). In Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen (eds.) ''Encyclopedia ...

. Pink colors include light tones of rose, red, and orange. These tones of pink become warm grays when they are mixed with gray.

Rose quartz

There is a grayish tone of

called ''rose quartz''. The first recorded use of ''rose quartz'' as a color name in English was in 1926.

Cinereous

''Cinereous'' is a color, ashy gray in appearance, either consisting of or resembling ashes, or a gray color tinged with coppery

. It is derived from the Latin ''cinereous'', from ''cinis'' (ashes). The first recorded use of ''cinereous'' as a color name in English was in 1661.

Taupe

The color displayed at right matches the color sample called ''taupe'' referenced below in the 1930 book ''A Dictionary of Color'', the world standard for color terms before the invention of computers. However, the word ''taupe'' may often be used to refer to lighter shades of taupe today, and therefore another name for this color is ''dark taupe''. The first use of ''taupe'' as a color name in English was in the early 19th century.Maerz and Paul, p. 205; Discussion of Color Taupe, p. 183; Color Sample of Taupe: p. 55 Plate 16 Color Sample A6

Greige

This is a warm gray that combines

beige Beige ( ) is variously described as a pale sandy fawn color, a grayish tan, a light-grayish yellowish brown, or a pale to grayish yellow. It takes its name from French, where the word originally meant natural wool that has been neither ble ...

and gray. Its name is believed to have originated from the French word "gris," meaning gray. Georgio Armani pioneered its use in fashion in 1975.

References

Bibliography

* Maerz, Aloys John and Paul, M. Rea (1930) ''A Dictionary of Color'', New York: McGraw-Hill {{Color shades fr:Gris#Noms de nuances de gris