Gray
As a gray one is color stimulus refers to the darker than white and brighter than black but no or only a small colored impression ( color stimulus generated). So gray has no chromaticity, it is an achromatic color. The gradations between pure white and pure black (black-and-white scale) are called gray levels . While gray also includes slightly colored nuances in everyday language , the technical terms neutral gray and pure gray emphasize that there is no color cast.
Color spaces
Gray arises in the additive and in the subtractive color mixture when the proportions of the respective basic colors are the same, but the brightness is neither maximum (white) nor minimum (black).
- R = G = B (additive color mixing); see grayscale table
- C = M = Y (subtractive color mixing)
In the HSV color space , gray is unsaturated and achromatic; accordingly, zero saturation is referred to as the gray value . A value for the color tone is therefore not defined, since only the brightness determines the gray tone.
Color constancy
In photography , gray tones are often referred to as halftones . However, the perception of (neutral) gray is influenced by neighboring surfaces.
A true color graphics system (24 bit color depth ) can display 256 pure gray tones. The gamut , i.e. the technical limitations of the playback system, limits this number. For example, even with good calibration , a standard monitor gives the color values below the RGB value {16, 16, 16} as maximum black (mathematically, the maximum black would only be {0, 0, 0}) and all values above {235, 235 , 235} as pure white (mathematically only at {255, 255, 255}). Since dark gray is subjectively perceived as black and light gray subjectively as white, only the displayed gray values between about 10–95% would be called “gray”. This restriction also applies to the technical possibility of other display systems, such as art prints.
Color names
Everyday language
color code: # 293C42
In everyday language , a distinction is often made between three shades of gray: light , medium and dark gray . Less saturated colors close to gray are indicated with additions such as pale , light , whitish , pale , dull or dark , blackish . For different shades of gray with different color casts there are well-known, everyday names that identify the colors by comparing them. Some commonly used terms are:
- Anthracite , a dark , warm gray. This color designation is mainly used for clothing or vehicles , as it is not jet black and thus associates the sheen of anthracite charcoal .
color code: # B2BEB5
- Ash gray , the very whitish cold gray of wood ash.
- Concrete gray , also cement gray, a clearly yellowish, medium-light shade of gray.
- Field gray , different shades of gray-green, color designation of the uniforms of the German army from the early 20th century to 1945.
- Dove gray, a bluish medium gray.
- Mouse gray , a visually neutral medium gray , from the sensation it is the "non-color gray" par excellence.
- Smoke gray , darker, slightly bluish nuances.
- Slate gray , named after the shade of slate .
- Silver gray , implies the iridescent metallic sheen of silver in its tone.
Neutral gray - cool gray - warm gray
Neutral gray is a gray without any color cast . In the RGB color space , this means the same additive proportions of the primary colors red, green and blue (r = g = b). Most people perceive neutral gray as a warm color . A shade that is perceived as neutral in color perception is slightly bluish. The painter calls gray nuances with a clear bluish cast as cooling gray , such as the artist's color Payne's gray . This is the ideal color to represent translucent shadows.
Meanings
Low irritation color
In general, the color gray is considered boring , sad and meaningless. Gray is inconspicuous and stands for something insignificant or uninteresting. The proverbial term for an inconspicuous (“colorless”) or shy person is a gray mouse .
The hazy gray of a cloudy sky signals bad weather and a negative, depressing mood. Gray stands symbolically for monotony and gloom . In expressions such as “gray everyday life” or “see everything gray in gray”, gray is set in this sense in contrast to the positively charged bright, “radiant” colors.
The "sinking in a gray mass" describes the disappearance of individuality in a no longer differentiable, uniform monotony. In the background here is the experience that a “chaotic mixture of color pixels” almost always appears gray when viewed from a distance.
Inconspicuousness is also in the foreground when choosing gray as a clothing color. Such was Feldgrau the eve of the First World War introduced the first camouflage of the uniforms of the German army and solved in Germany, the traditional 19th century brightly colored uniform colors of the military from. On the other hand, gray also stands for elegance : gray clothing is sometimes seen as elegant, precisely because its color does not attract much attention and signals "elegant restraint".
Gray also stands for objectivity and a certain lack of liveliness and esprit , which can be tiring. The color is therefore often associated with bureaucracy and generally associated with dry, dreary, monotonous, bland, unoriginal, unimaginative, moody, tension-free and irritating materials, properties or forms of appearance.
Intermediate tone
Gray is neither white nor black and is therefore used for compound words in the sense of intermediate tone and intermediate value.
- In the gray area is the undefined, which is neither bad (black) nor good (white).
- In this sense, gray also stands for neutrality and impartiality.
- The gray market (Engl. Gray market ) is a market which, however, is not completely legal not illegal.
- The gray market is between the legal trade and the (illegal) smuggling.
- Gray literature is literature that is not available in bookshops.
- Gray bread is the mixed bread made from “white” wheat and “black” rye flour.
- The dawn is the transition from the dark night into bright day.
- Gray ware is the gray and coarse utility ceramics of the Middle Ages and early modern times in contrast to fine porcelain and light faience .
Ghosts
Fog figures such as ghosts or the restless dead have the color gray in many artistic representations. You are in a state between life ( white ) and death ( black ). The gray fog covers the clear colors of the sunny day and supports a mystical, “remote” view.
Age
The hair becomes lighter and lighter due to the decreasing proportion of the pigment melanin and gray hair is a sign of advanced age. An effect on many mammals and birds. Although the term "gray hair" is common, the individual hair turns white rather than gray. As long as the colors of the other hairs shine through, the "white hair" appears in a shade of gray. Only when all hair, depending on the original color, is white, is the main hair snow white .
Gray hair stands for dominance through experience, as with " gray eminence " or "gray wolf", on the other hand for the elimination from the struggle for reproduction . This ambivalence between threat and harmlessness expresses the phrase “grayed in honor”, where age is coupled with the meaning of awe . This transferred meaning can be found in the gray prehistory .
In the political color landscape , the color in this meaning was chosen by the party The Gray - Gray Panthers , and also by The Gray - Generations Party . So it is parties that represent the interests of the gray people.
Achromatic
Another application is the addition of gray for terms and things that “hardly” name colored things.
- Gray cast iron is cast iron that can be recognized by its gray fracture surface.
- Grauwacke is a rock from Paleozoic debris sediment of different gray.
- Gray Sisters is another name for the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Elisabeth and refers to her gray religious clothing.
- Gray matter is those parts of the brain and spinal cord that nerve cells make to look gray.
- Gray wedge is a representation of various neutral shades of gray that is used as an aid in optical reproduction or as a calibration aid in color measurement.
- In animals, the neutral shade can also appear as a characteristic in the name.
- The best-known example of this is the gray animal , the donkey.
- Another example is the gray heron .
heraldry
Gray is not a heraldic designation, even if it is used in depictions for silver (heraldic white) or iron color despite the lack of gloss . Grauwerk is the fur in heraldry.
Grayscale table
The value for XY is given in hexadecimal notation: XY => #XYXYXY. The colors are monitor RGB, not the colors of the RGB color space , see also neutral gray |
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Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Charles Poynton : Color FAQ (May 11, 2006)
- ↑ Color sample according to color 783 Schmincke Paynesgrau ( Memento from February 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), H. Schmincke & Co. GmbH & Co. KG (May 11, 2006)
- ↑ German vocabulary. In: wortschatz.uni-leipzig.de. University of Leipzig, Institute for Computer Science, Language Processing Department, 2016, accessed on October 25, 2016 .
- ↑ color sample according to druck-hilfe.de - printing inks ( memento of the original of December 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 26, 2011.