Safety orange

Last updated
Safety Orange
 
Gtk-dialog-info.svg    Color coordinates
Hex triplet #FF7900
sRGB B (r, g, b)(255, 121, 0)
HSV (h, s, v)(28°, 100%, 100%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)(66, 127, 28°)
Source ANSI Z535
ISCC–NBS descriptor Vivid reddish orange
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
A safety orange warning sign for road construction sites. Sign Road Work Ahead.jpg
A safety orange warning sign for road construction sites.

Safety orange (also known as blaze orange, vivid orange, OSHA orange, hunter orange, or Caltrans orange) is a hue. Safety orange is used to set objects apart from their surroundings, particularly in complementary contrast to the azure color of the sky. (Azure is the complementary color of orange, and thus there is a stark contrast between the two colors.) The high-visibility color is commonly used for hunting during the rifle season, and is also used for upland-bird hunting. Places such as construction sites use this orange to help ensure the safety of others.

Contents

ANSI standard Z535.1–1998 states how safety orange is defined in the following notation systems:

5.0YR (hue) 6.0/15 (value/chroma)
13 parts yellow, 3 parts warm red, 14 part black
152
x = 0.5510 y = 0.4214 Y% = 30.05

Note that this CIE color point is outside the gamut of common color spaces like sRGB or Adobe RGB.[ citation needed ]

Man holding safety orange paper Man holding safety orange paper.jpg
Man holding safety orange paper

The closest CIE color point that is still in the sRGB gamut is x = 0.54091, y = 0.40869, Y% = 30.05, corresponding to the sRGB-255 coordinates (232, 118, 0). [1]

The Adobe RGB color space is larger than the sRGB color space; the closest "safety orange" CIE color point that is still in the Adobe RGB gamut is x = 0.54467, y = 0.41424, Y% = 30.05%, corresponding to the AdobeRGB-255 coordinates (206, 118, 0).

Safety orange is the color usually used in the United States for traffic cones (starting in 1961 [2] ), stanchions, barrels, and other construction zone marking devices. [3] OSHA requires that certain construction equipment must be painted safety orange. Two large trucking companies, Allied Van Lines and Schneider National, paint their trucks and trailers safety orange. In Europe, Dayglo orange (or "luminous orange"; RAL 2005) serves the same purpose.

Safety orange is the same color as blaze orange, the shade of orange (Color No. 12199) required by United States law (U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade, Section 1150.3) to be on the tips of barrels of replica guns such as airsoft guns, and cap or toy guns. Hunter orange is also the color of hats, caps, and other safety wear required to be worn while hunting in most US states.

Elsewhere

Orange vests using colors such as safety orange as high visibility clothing may be commonly worn by workers in the US, but this is not merely a legal standard but can be influenced by culture. Since such colored patterned gear is easily produced, it can be assigned any kind of meaning. In Indonesia, it is commonly worn by parking attendants. Similarly in Thailand, it is used by motorcycle taxi workers. In Hong Kong, some Government Flying Service's aircraft and helicopters are painted in safety orange.

See also

Notes

  1. Poynton (2006) Color FAQ #18
  2. "The History of Traffic Cones | Traffic Safety Store".
  3. "The History of Colors".

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primary color</span> Sets of colors that can be mixed to produce gamut of colors

A set of primary colors or primary colours consists of colorants or colored lights that can be mixed in varying amounts to produce a gamut of colors. This is the essential method used to create the perception of a broad range of colors in, e.g., electronic displays, color printing, and paintings. Perceptions associated with a given combination of primary colors can be predicted by an appropriate mixing model that reflects the physics of how light interacts with physical media, and ultimately the retina.

Pantone LLC is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphic design, fashion design, product design, printing and manufacturing and supporting the management of color from design to production, in physical and digital formats, among coated and uncoated materials, cotton, polyester, nylon and plastics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hue</span> Property of a color indicating balance of color perceived by the normal human eye

In color theory, hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet," within certain theories of color vision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CIELAB color space</span> Standard color space with color-opponent values

The CIELAB color space, also referred to as L*a*b*, is a color space defined by the International Commission on Illumination in 1976.. It expresses color as three values: L* for perceptual lightness and a* and b* for the four unique colors of human vision: red, green, blue and yellow. CIELAB was intended as a perceptually uniform space, where a given numerical change corresponds to a similar perceived change in color. While the LAB space is not truly perceptually uniform, it nevertheless is useful in industry for detecting small differences in color.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gamut</span> Color reproduction

In color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut, is a certain complete subset of colors. The most common usage refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given circumstance, such as within a given color space or by a certain output device.

In the visual arts, color theory is the body of practical guidance for color mixing and the visual effects effects of a specific color combination. Color terminology based on the color wheel and its geometry separates colors into primary color, secondary color, and tertiary color. The understanding of color theory dates to antiquity. Aristotle and Claudius Ptolemy already discussed which and how colors can be produced by mixing other colors. The influence of light on color was investigated and revealed further by al-Kindi and Ibn al-Haytham (d.1039). Ibn Sina, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, and Robert Grosseteste discovered that contrary to the teachings of Aristotle, there are multiple color paths to get from black to white. More modern approaches to color theory principles can be found in the writings of Leone Battista Alberti and the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. A formalization of "color theory" began in the 18th century, initially within a partisan controversy over Isaac Newton's theory of color and the nature of primary colors. From there it developed as an independent artistic tradition with only superficial reference to colorimetry and vision science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe RGB color space</span> Color space developed by Adobe

The Adobe RGB (1998) color space or opRGB is a color space developed by Adobe Systems, Inc. in 1998. It was designed to encompass most of the colors achievable on CMYK color printers, but by using RGB primary colors on a device such as a computer display. The Adobe RGB (1998) color space encompasses roughly 50% of the visible colors specified by the CIELAB color space – improving upon the gamut of the sRGB color space, primarily in cyan-green hues. It was subsequently standardized by the IEC as IEC 61966-2-5:1999 with a name opRGB and is used in HDMI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spectral color</span> Color evoked by a single wavelength of light in the visible spectrum

A spectral color is a color that is evoked in a typical human by a single wavelength of light in the visible spectrum, or by a relatively narrow band of wavelengths, also known as monochromatic light. Every wavelength of visible light is perceived as a spectral color, in a continuous spectrum; the colors of sufficiently close wavelengths are indistinguishable for the human eye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amber (color)</span> Color term midway between the colors of gold and orange

The color amber is a pure chroma color, located on the color wheel midway between the colors of yellow and orange. The color name is derived from the material also known as amber, which is commonly found in a range of yellow-orange-brown-red colors; likewise, as a color amber can refer to a range of yellow-orange colors. In English, the first recorded use of the term as a color name, rather than a reference to the specific substance, was in 1500.

A color model is an abstract mathematical model describing the way colors can be represented as tuples of numbers, typically as three or four values or color components. When this model is associated with a precise description of how the components are to be interpreted, taking account of visual perception, the resulting set of colors is called "color space."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shades of orange</span> Varieties of the color orange

In optics, orange has a wavelength between approximately 585 and 620 nm and a hue of 30° in HSV color space. In the RGB color space it is a secondary color numerically halfway between gamma-compressed red and yellow, as can be seen in the RGB color wheel. The complementary color of orange is azure. Orange pigments are largely in the ochre or cadmium families, and absorb mostly blue light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shades of green</span> Varieties of the color green

Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma or lightness, or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a green or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors is shown below.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shades of red</span> Varieties of the color red

Varieties of the color red may differ in hue, chroma or lightness, or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a red or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors is shown below.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Color space</span> Standard that defines a specific range of colors

A color space is a specific organization of colors. In combination with color profiling supported by various physical devices, it supports reproducible representations of color – whether such representation entails an analog or a digital representation. A color space may be arbitrary, i.e. with physically realized colors assigned to a set of physical color swatches with corresponding assigned color names, or structured with mathematical rigor. A "color space" is a useful conceptual tool for understanding the color capabilities of a particular device or digital file. When trying to reproduce color on another device, color spaces can show whether shadow/highlight detail and color saturation can be retained, and by how much either will be compromised.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shades of yellow</span> Overview about the shades of yellow

Varieties of the color yellow may differ in hue, chroma or lightness, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Line of purples</span> Edge of visible color

In color theory, the line of purples or purple boundary is the locus on the edge of the chromaticity diagram formed between extreme spectral red and violet. Except for these endpoints of the line, colors on the line are non-spectral. Rather, every color on the line is a unique mixture in a ratio of fully saturated red and fully saturated violet, the two spectral color endpoints of visibility on the spectrum of pure hues. Colors on the line and spectral colors are the only ones that are fully saturated in the sense that, for any point on the line, no other possible color being a mixture of red and violet is more saturated than it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shades of blue</span> Variety of the color blue

Varieties of the color blue may differ in hue, chroma, or lightness, or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a blue or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these colors is shown below.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shades of azure</span> Varieties of the color azure

Azure is a variation of blue that is often described as the color of the sky on a clear day.