The color

cyan Cyan () is the color between blue and green on the visible spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength between 500 and 520 nm, between the wavelengths of green and blue. In the subtractive color system, or CMYK c ...

, a color between

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 ...

and

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 ...

, has notable

tints and shades In color theory, a tint is a mixture of a color with white, which increases lightness, while a shade is a mixture with black, which increases darkness. A tone is produced either by mixing a color with gray, or by both tinting and shading. M ...

. It is one of the subtractive primary colors along with

magenta Magenta () is a purple-red color. On color wheels of the RGB color model, RGB (additive) and subtractive color, CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located precisely midway between blue and red. It is one of the four colors of ink used in colo ...

, and

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

. The first recorded use of ''cyan blue'' as a color name was in 1879 ("cyan blue" being the name used for "cyan" in the 19th century).

Cyan in printing and the web colors cyan and aqua

Process cyan

color printing Color printing or colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color (as opposed to simpler black and white or monochrome printing). History of color printing Woodblock printing on textiles preceded printing on paper in both Ea ...

, the shade of cyan called process cyan or pigment cyan is one of the three primary pigment colors which, along with

and

, constitute the three subtractive primary colors of pigment. (The secondary colors of pigment are blue, green and red.) As such, the CMYK printing process was invented in the 1890s, when newspapers began to publish color

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

s. Process cyan is not an

RGB The RGB color model is an additive color model in which the red, green, and blue primary colors of light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three ...

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 adjacent. The source of the color shown adjacent is the color cyan that is shown in the diagram located at the bottom of the tintbooks for CMYK printing.

The web color cyan (aqua)

The web color cyan, shown adjacent, is one of the three secondary colors in the

RGB color model The RGB color model is an additive color, additive color model in which the red, green, and blue primary colors of light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials ...

, used for creating all colors on a computer or television display by mixing various combinations of red, green and blue light. The X11 name for this color is cyan; the HTML name for the same color is aqua. They are both composed of the same mixture of blue and green light, and are exactly the same color.

Additional variations of cyan

Azure (web)

In an artistic context, this color could also be called azure mist or cyan mist. Despite its name, this color is a lighter shade of cyan rather than a shade of azure.

Blue-green

Blue-green has been 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 ...

color since 1930.

Caribbean Current

Displayed adjacent is the color Caribbean Current.

Celeste

Adjacent is displayed the color celeste.

Bleu celeste Bleu celeste (, "sky blue") is a rarely occurring and non-standard tincture (heraldry), tincture in heraldry (not being one of the seven main colours or metals or the three Stain (heraldry), ''staynard colours''). This tincture is sometimes a ...

("sky blue") is a rarely occurring

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 ...

heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, Imperial, royal and noble ranks, rank and genealo ...

(not being one of the seven main colors or metals or the three "staynard colors"). This tincture is sometimes also called ciel or simply celeste. It is depicted in a lighter shade than the range of shades of the more traditional tincture azure, which is the standard blue used in heraldry. It has been used rarely since the 17th century, gaining popularity after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Charleston green

''Charleston green'' is an extremely dark shade of cyan. The name ''Charleston green'' originated after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, approximately 1865, when during

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

, it was widely used to paint homes in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

Dark cyan

Adjacent is displayed the web color dark cyan.

Electric blue

Electric blue is a

color Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co ...

close to

that is a representation of the color of

lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...

, an

electric spark An electric spark is an abrupt electrical discharge that occurs when a sufficiently high electric field creates an Ionization, ionized, Electric current, electrically conductive channel through a normally-insulating medium, often air or other ga ...

, and argon signs; it is named after the ionized air glow produced during electrical discharges. The first recorded use of ''electric blue'' as a color name in English was in 1884.

Keppel

Adjacent is displayed the color keppel. The color name ''keppel'' has been in use since 2001, when it was promulgated as one of the colors on the Xona.com Color List.

Light cyan

Adjacent is displayed the web color light cyan.

Light sea green

Adjacent is displayed the web color light sea green.

Midnight green

Midnight green (sometimes also called Eagle green) is a dark cyan. It (or more specifically #004C54) has been the primary team color for the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL)'s

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

since 1996.

Moonstone

Displayed adjacent is the color moonstone. It was formulated by

in 1994 as part of their Gem Tones range of crayons. It is a slightly dark shade of cyan that is reminiscent of the bluish-green glow of some moonstones.

Myrtle green

''Myrtle green'', also called ''myrtle'', is a color which is a representation of the color of the leaves of the myrtle plant. The first recorded use of ''myrtle green'' as a color name in English was in 1835. ''Myrtle'' is the official designation of the green stripes on Waterloo rugby club's shirts, the green of

Hunslet Hunslet () is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is southeast of the Leeds city centre, city centre and has an industrial past. It is situated in the Hunslet and Riverside (ward), Hunslet and Riverside ward of Lee ...

rugby league club, the green (along with the cardinal red) stripes of the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club, also known as the South Sydney Rabbitohs, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra, New South Wales, Maroubra that competes in the Nat ...

and the green of the blazers, sports kit and scarf of St. Aloysius' College, Glasgow. It is also one of the school colors of Lane Technical College Prep High School in Chicago, the other being

old gold Old gold is a dark yellow, which varies from light olive or olive brown to deep or strong yellow, generally on the darker side of this range. The first recorded use of ''old gold'' as a color name in English was in the early 19th century (exact ...

. The

baggy green The baggy green is a cricket cap of dark myrtle green colour, which has been worn by Australian Test cricketers since around the turn of the twentieth century. The cap was not originally baggy as evidenced by photographs of early players. Th ...

, the

cricket cap A cricket cap is a type of soft cap, often made from felt, that is a traditional form of headwear for players of the game of cricket, regardless of age or sex. It is usually a tight-fitting skullcap, usually made of six or eight sections, wit ...

worn by Australian

Test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

ers since around the turn of the 20th century, is ''myrtle green'' in color.

Peacock blue

The color peacock blue is a deep greenish blue, from the iridescent color of a

peacock Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...

. As a color between blue and cyan, peacock blue has been used as the process-blue ink in

four-color printing The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refers ...

. Kelly Moore Paint's "color of the year" for 2019 was their peacock blue.

Robin egg blue

The color robin egg blue is displayed adjacent. The first recorded use of ''robin's egg blue'' as a color name in English was in 1873.

Skobeloff

Adjacent is displayed the color Skobeloff green. The first recorded use of ''Skobeloff green'' as a color name in English was in 1912.

Sky blue (Crayola)

Displayed at adjacent is the color medium sky blue. This is the color that is called ''sky blue'' in

crayons. This color was formulated by Crayola in 1958. "Sky blue" appears in the 32, 48, 64, 96 and 120 packs of crayons.

Teal

Adjacent is displayed the web color teal. The first recorded use of ''teal'' as a color name in English was in 1917.

Tiffany Blue

Tiffany Blue is the

colloquial Colloquialism (also called ''colloquial language'', ''colloquial speech'', ''everyday language'', or ''general parlance'') is the linguistic style used for casual and informal communication. It is the most common form of speech in conversation amo ...

name for the light medium

robin egg blue Robin egg blue, also called eggshell blue or robin's-egg blue, is a shade of teal (a blue-green color), approximating the shade of the eggs laid by the American robin, an abundant songbird of North America. The egg pigment is biliverdin, a prod ...

associated with Tiffany & Co., the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

jewelry Jewellery (or jewelry in American English) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment such as brooches, ring (jewellery), rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the ...

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

. The color was used on the cover of Tiffany's Blue Book, first published in 1845. Since then, Tiffany & Co. has used the color extensively on promotional materials, including boxes and bags. The Tiffany Blue color is protected as a color trademark by Tiffany & Co. in some jurisdictions (including the U.S.).

Turquoise

Adjacent is displayed the X11 color named turquoise. ''Turquoise'' is the name of a greenish blue color, based on the gem of the same name. The word ''turquoise'' comes from the French for Turkish, as the gem was originally imported from

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

.http://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/doclib/hom/turquoise.pdf Handbook of Mineralogy The first recorded use of ''turquoise'' as a color name in English was in 1573. Perhaps owing to sharing its name with a

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

, turquoise is currently a more common term in English than other cyan-like colors.

Verdigris

Verdigris is the common name for a

pigment A pigment is a powder used to add or alter color or change visual appearance. Pigments are completely or nearly solubility, insoluble and reactivity (chemistry), chemically unreactive in water or another medium; in contrast, dyes are colored sub ...

obtained through the application of

acetic acid Acetic acid , systematically named ethanoic acid , is an acidic, colourless liquid and organic compound with the chemical formula (also written as , , or ). Vinegar is at least 4% acetic acid by volume, making acetic acid the main compone ...

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

plates or the natural

patina Patina ( or ) is a thin layer that variously forms on the surface of copper, brass, bronze, and similar metals and metal alloys ( tarnish produced by oxidation or other chemical processes), or certain stones and wooden furniture (sheen prod ...

formed when copper,

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

is weathered and exposed to air or seawater over a period of time. The name ''verdigris'' comes from the

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

''vertegrez'', from the

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

''verte grez'', an alteration of ''vert-de-Grèce'' ("green of Greece"). Used as a pigment in paintings and other art objects (as green color) since ancient Greece, it was originally made by hanging copper plates over hot vinegar in a sealed pot until a green crust formed on the copper. The vivid green color of copper(II) acetate made this form of verdigris a much used

. Until the 19th century, verdigris was the most vibrant green pigment available and was frequently used in painting. Verdigris was sometimes used to illustrate cyan colors in early color wheels.https://archive.org/details/principlesscien00bensgoog ''Principles in the Science of Colour Concisely Stated'' by William Benson, 1868

Zomp

Displayed adjacent is the color zomp. ''Zomp'' is one of the colors on th
Resene Color List

References

{{Color topics Shades of blue Shades of green