For other uses, see Grey (disambiguation).
| Grey |
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| Common connotations |
| pessimism, depression, blandness, boredom, neutrality, fog, undefinedness, old age, contentment, the brain (grey matter), Fifty Shades of Grey and speed |
| Color coordinates |
| Hex triplet |
#808080 |
| sRGBB (r, g, b) |
(128, 128, 128) |
| CMYKH (c, m, y, k) |
(0, 0, 0, 50) |
| HSV (h, s, v) |
(--°, 0%, 50%) |
| Source |
HTML/CSS[1] |
B:Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
H:Normalized to [0–100] (hundred) |
Grey or gray is an achromatic or neutral color.
Complementary colors are defined to mix to grey, either additively or subtractively, and many color models place complements opposite each other in a color wheel. To produce grey in RGB displays, the R, G, and B primary light sources are combined in proportions equal to that of the white point. In four-color printing, greys are produced either by the black channel, or by an approximately equal combination of CMY primaries. Images which consist wholly of neutral colors are called monochrome, black-and-white or greyscale.
The first recorded use of grey as a color name in the English language was in AD 700.[2] Grey is the British, Canadian, Australian, Irish, New Zealand and South African spelling, although gray remained in common usage in the UK until the second half of the 20th century.[3] Gray is the preferred American spelling, although grey is an accepted variant.[4][5] Gray became the preferred spelling in American English around 1825.[6]
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Contents
- 1 In color theory
- 2 Web colors
- 3 Color coordinates
- 4 Grey in nature
- 5 Grey in culture
- 6 See also
- 7 References
- 8 External links
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In color theory
Most grey pigments have a cool or warm cast to them, as the human eye can detect even a minute amount of saturation.[citation needed] Yellow, orange, and red create a "warm grey". Green, blue, and violet create a "cool grey".[7] When there is no cast at all, it is referred to as "neutral grey", "achromatic grey" or simply "grey".
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| Warm grey |
Cool grey |
| Mixed with 6% yellow. |
Mixed with 6% blue. |
Two colors are called complementary colors if grey is produced when they are combined additively. Grey is its own complement.
Web colors
There are several tones of grey available for use with HTML and CSS in word form, while there are 254 true greys available through Hex triplet. All are spelled with an a: using the e spelling can cause unexpected errors (this spelling was inherited from the X11 color list), and to this day, Internet Explorer's Trident browser engine does not recognize "grey" and will render it as green. Another anomaly is that "gray" is in fact much darker than the X11 color marked "darkgray"; this is because of a conflict with the original HTML grey and the X11 grey, which is closer to HTML's "silver". The three "slategray" colors are not themselves on the greyscale, but are slightly saturated towards cyan (green + blue). Note that since there are an even (256, including black and white) number of unsaturated tones of grey, there are actually two grey tones straddling the midpoint in the 8-bit greyscale. The color name "gray" has been assigned the lighter of the two shades (128 also known as #808080), due to rounding up.
| HTML Color Name |
Sample |
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Hex triplet |
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(rendered by name) |
(rendered by hex triplet) |
| gainsboro |
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#DCDCDC |
| lightgray |
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#D3D3D3 |
| silver |
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#C0C0C0 |
| darkgray |
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#A9A9A9 |
| gray |
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#808080 |
| dimgray |
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#696969 |
| lightslategray |
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#778899 |
| slategray |
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#708090 |
| darkslategray |
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#2F4F4F |
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Color coordinates
- RGB
- Grey values result when r = g = b, for the color (r, g, b)
- CMYK
- Grey values are produced by c = m = y = 0, for the color (c, m, y, k). Lightness is adjusted by varying k. In theory, any mixture where c = m = y is neutral, but in practice such mixtures are often a muddy brown (see discussion on this topic).
- HSL and HSV
- Achromatic greys have no hue, so the h code is marked as "undefined" using a dash: -- ; greys also result whenever s is 0 or undefined, as is the case when v is 0 or l is 0 or 1
Grey in nature
Ammonites in a wall in Germany
Animals
- The grey wolf is the largest wild member of the Canidae family.
- The grey whale is a whale that travels between feeding and breeding grounds yearly.
Grey in culture
Environmentalism
- Greys has been used pejoratively by environmentalists to describe technophiles as being those who like granite, concrete and other city materials, as opposed to the term "greens" to describe those in favor of environmentalism.
Ethics
- In a moral sense grey is either used
- pejoratively to describe situations that have no clear moral value, or
- positively to balance an all-black or all-white view (for example, shades of grey represent magnitudes of good and bad).
Folklore
- In folklore, grey is often associated with goblin folk of several kinds. Scandinavian folklore often depicts their gnomes and nisser in grey clothing. This is partly because of their association with dusk, partly because these races, including elves (see below), often are outside moral standards (black or white).
Gerontology
- The color grey is often associated with aging or the passage of time, likely due in part to the decreased pigment-production of hair follicles in time, corresponding to the greying of human hair.[8] In this context, grey is often used synonymously with "elderly," as in "the grey pound" or "grey power" (when referring to the economic or social influence of the elderly), or as used by groups such as the Gray Panthers.
Literature
- In J. R. R. Tolkien's works:
- Gandalf is called the Grey Pilgrim.
- The Grey Havens
- The Grey Elves
- Ered Mithrin, the Grey Mountains. Tolkien chose grey from folklore tradition mentioned above.
- The Noldor and the Dúnedain typically have grey eyes.
- Rand al'Thor of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time is described as having grey eyes.
- In the series The T*Witches, those of magical power are described as having grey eyes.
- In Michael Ende's Momo, the men in grey are malicious spirits who prey on people's time and trick them into "saving" it.
- In Don DeLillo's 1985 novel White Noise, the inventor of Dylar is at first only referred to as Mr. Gray.
- Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are two seminal sword-and-sorcery fantasy heroes created by Fritz Leiber.
- The Brenin Llwyd, the eponymous antagonist of The Grey King, by Susan Cooper.
- The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel by Oscar Wilde.
- The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, by Sloan Wilson, is a 1950s novel and film about the American search for purpose in a world dominated by business.
- Gray Lensman by E.E. Smith is part of the Lensman series.
- Fifty Shades of Grey is a best-selling 2011 erotic novel by E.L. James about a woman’s relationship as a BDSM bottom with a wealthy older man.
Journalism
- The "Grey Lady" is the nickname of the New York Times
Military
- In the American Civil War, Confederate Army uniforms were grey, and the two sides in the war were sometimes called "The Blue and the Gray".
- The military of Nazi Germany used a green-grey shade called feldgrau.
Music
- A purposely nonsensical line in Paul Simon's song "I Do It For Your Love": "We were married / On a rainy day / The sky was yellow / And the grass was gray."
- A song from The Kinks Muswell Hillbillies album is titled Here Come the People in Grey.
Nanotechnology
- Grey goo is to a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating nanobots consume all living matter on Earth while building more of themselves (a scenario known as ecophagy).[9]
Neurology
- The substance that composes the brain is referred to as "grey matter", and so the color grey is associated with things intellectual.
Parapsychology
- It has been asserted that those who are suffering from the mental illness of depression have grey auras.[10]
Politics
- Martin Bormann was called the grey eminence because, as the executive secretary to Adolf Hitler, he amassed great power behind the scene, because he was the one who controlled access to the Führer.[11] The phrase originated as a description of François Leclerc du Tremblay, the French monk who served as advisor to Cardinal de Richelieu.
- The National Renaissance Party was an American neo-fascist group led by James Hartung Madole. The party was active from 1949 to 1979 and was also known as the grey shirts.[12]
- Grey is associated by some with former British Prime Minister John Major. His puppet on Spitting Image was entirely grey implying that he was incredibly dull.
Psychology
- Grey is often associated with things that are dull and boring
- Grey represents pessimism whereas its opposite, optimism, is represented by the color rose.
- A concept that is in a grey area is a concept about which one is unsure what category in which to place it.
Religion
- In the Christian religion, grey is the color of ashes, and so a biblical symbol of mourning and repentance, described as sackcloth and ashes. It can be used during Lent or on special days of fasting and prayer.
Sexuality
- In the bandana code of the gay leather subculture, wearing a grey bandana means that one is into the fetish of bondage.[13]
- In gay slang, a grey queen is a gay person who works for the financial services industry (this term originates from the fact that in the 1950s, people who worked in this profession often wore grey flannel suits).[14]
Sound Engineering
- Grey noise is random noise subjected to a psychoacoustic equal loudness curve (such as an inverted A-weighting curve) over a given range of frequencies, giving the listener the perception that it is equally loud at all frequencies.
Sports
- In baseball, grey is the color typically used for road uniforms. This came about because in the 19th and early 20th century, away teams didn't normally have access to laundry facilities on the road, thus stains were not noticeable on the darker grey uniforms as opposed to the white uniforms worn by the home team.
Television
- The Grey Council consists of the nine leaders of the Minbari in the Babylon 5 universe.
- Grey's Anatomy is a popular drama TV series. This name is derived from the anatomy textbook Gray's Anatomy
UFOs
- In popular UFO conspiracy theories and in science-fiction, small grey aliens, with large, tear-shaped black eyes are referred to as greys.
See also
- Black
- Black-and-white
- Vin gris (grey wine in French)
- List of colors
- Variations of grey
- White
References
- ^ W3C TR CSS3 Color Module, HTML4 color keywords Archived 14 December 2010 at WebCite
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 196
- ^ Marianne Celce-Murcia, Donna Brinton, and Janet M. Goodwin (1996). Teaching pronunciation: a reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge University Press. p. 282. ISBN 978-0-521-40694-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=twC-H4a8VcYC&pg=PA282.
- ^ "Gray - Definition and More". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gray. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
- ^ "Grey - Definition and More". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grey. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
- ^ "Gray vs. grey". Grammarist. February 17, 2011. http://grammarist.com/spelling/gray-grey/. Retrieved May 3, 2012.
- ^ Color Palette Archived 14 December 2010 at WebCite
- ^ Dominique Van Neste and Desmond J. Tobin, "Hair cycle and hair pigmentation: dynamic interactions and changes associated with aging," Micron, 35, 3, April, 2004, pp 193-200.
- ^ "Leading nanotech experts put 'grey goo' in perspective" (Press release). Center for Responsible Nanotechnology. June 9, 2004. http://www.crnano.org/PR-IOP.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-17.
- ^ Arthur E. Powell The Astral Body and Other Astral Phenomenon Wheaton, Illinois:1927—Theosophical Publishing House Page 12
- ^ Martin Bormann—The Grey Eminence
- ^ Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke Page 85
- ^ Gay City USA Hanky Codes:
- ^ Rodgers, Bruce Gay Talk (The Queen’s Vernacular): A Dictionary of Gay Slang New York:1972 Paragon Books, an imprint of G.P. Putnam’s Sons Page 99
External links
- Three computational biologists’ theory to explain how humans perceive achromatic colors:
- Chart showing a comparison of the achromatic (greyscale) values of the colors on the RYB and RGB color wheels, respectively (the chart is halfway down the webpage):
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Color topics
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| Color perception |
- Color vision
- Color blindness
- Visible spectrum
- Color constancy
- Color term
- Color theory
- Complementary colors
- Analogous colors
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| Color space |
- Hue
- Lightness
- Colorfulness
- Additive color
- Subtractive color
- Primary color
- Secondary color
- Tertiary color
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| Basic colors |
- White
- Grey
- Black
- Red
- Pink
- Orange
- Brown
- Yellow
- Green
- Blue
- Purple
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| Related |
- Pantone
- Distinguishing blue from green in language
- Grue and bleen
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Web colors |
| black |
gray |
silver |
white |
maroon |
red |
purple |
fuchsia |
green |
lime |
olive |
yellow |
navy |
blue |
teal |
aqua |
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Shades of grey |
| Grey |
Ash grey |
Battleship grey |
Black |
Blue-grey |
Cadet grey |
Charcoal |
Cool grey |
Davy's grey |
Payne's grey |
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| Gunmetal |
Silver |
Slate grey |
Taupe |
Purple taupe |
Medium taupe |
Rose quartz |
Taupe grey |
Timberwolf |
White |
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| The samples shown above are only indicative. |
