Varieties of the color yellow 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 a yellow or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors is shown below.
Red, green and blue lights, representing the three basic additive primary colors of the RGB color system, red, green, and blue. Pure yellow light is composed of equal amount of red and green light.
The color box at right shows the most intense yellow representable in 8-bit RGB color model; yellow is a secondary color in an additive RGB space.
Process yellow (also called pigment yellow or printer's yellow), also known as canary yellow, is one of the three colors typically used as subtractive primary colors, along with magenta and cyan. Canary yellow is derived from the colour of an average canary bird, though canaries can vary in colour from dark yellow to light pink.
Process yellow is not an RGB color, and in the CMYK color model 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 yellow ink.
The first recorded use of canary yellow as a color name in English was in 1789.[3]
The hues of the Munsell color system, at varying values, and maximum chroma to stay in the sRGB gamut.
The color defined as yellow in the Munsell color system (Munsell 5Y) is shown at apex of color wheel. The Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on three color dimensions: hue, value (lightness), and chroma (color purity), spaced uniformly in three dimensions in the elongated oval at an angle shaped Munsell color solid according to the logarithmic scale which governs human perception. In order for all the colors to be spaced uniformly, it was found necessary to use a color wheel with five primary colors—red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
The Munsell colors displayed are only approximate as they have been adjusted to fit into the sRGB gamut.
The color "xanthic" is derived from "xantho" (meaning yellow or golden), from the Ancient Greek ξανθός and "ic" (meaning of or pertaining to), from the Ancient Greek adjectival suffix -ικός.
The color "xanthic" is the color of Xanthine and Xanthate, both of which are xanthic acids.
The color unmellow yellow was formulated by Crayola in 1990.
The color "unmellow yellow" is a similar fluorescent yellow to laser lemon but the color is brighter. In crayons, the color may appear slightly orange, though the computer display can appear more pale depending on one's monitor.
The color is supposed to be fluorescent, but there is no mechanism to display fluorescence on a flat computer screen.
Gold, also called golden, is a yellow-orange color which is a representation of the color of the elementgold.
The web color gold (also referred to as orange-yellow) is sometimes referred to as golden to distinguish it from the color metallic gold. The use of gold as a color term in traditional usage is more often applied to the color "metallic gold".
The first recorded uses of golden as a color name in English were in 1300 to refer to the element gold and in 1423 to refer to blonde hair.[10]
Safety yellow is one of the standard high-visibility safety colors defined by ANSI standard Z535, which specifies standards for safety and accident prevention information. It is often used on hazard symbols, warning signs, guard rails, dangerous equipment, and some high-visibility clothing and personal protective equipment. The definition is mirrored in British Standard BS 381C and Australian Standard AS2700 (where it is known as golden yellow). In 1937, it was determined that safety yellow was the best color to be noticed by the human brain; as a result, the paint color of all United States school buses was changed from orange to safety yellow (see also school bus yellow).
Displayed at right is the color green earth. It is also known as terre verte and Verona green. It is an inorganic pigment derived from the minerals celadonite and glauconite.[17][18]
^Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 201 (See under Orpiment [a synonym of the color name Royal Yellow] ); color sample of Royal Yellow: Page 43 Plate 10 Color Sample K3
^Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 195
^Type the words "Cyber Yellow" into the indicated window on the Pantone Color Finder and the color will appear.
^The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called chartreuse in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color chartreuse is displayed on page 45 Plate 11, Color Sample L1.
^Aloys John Maerz; Morris Rea Paul (1930) A Dictionary of Color, p. 192, New York: McGraw-Hill
Color coordinates
