Variations of gray
Encyclopedia
There are many tints and shades
Tints and shades
In color theory, a tint is the mixture of a color with white, which increases lightness, and a shade is the mixture of a color with black, which reduces lightness...

 of the color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...

 gray
Grey
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...

. A selection of these various colors are shown below.

Chart of computer web color grays

Below is a chart showing the computer web color grays. An achromatic gray is a gray color in which the red, green, and blue codes are exactly equal. The web colors gray, gainsboro, light gray, dark gray, and dim gray are all achromatic colors. A chromatic gray is a gray color in which the red, green, and blue codes are not exactly equal, but are close to each other, which is what makes it a shade of gray.
EWLINE
HTML Color Name Sample Hex triplet
(rendered by name) (rendered by hex triplet)
gainsboro #DCDCDC
lightgray #D3D3D3
gray #808080
darkgray #A9A9A9
dimgray #696969
lightslategray #778899
slategray #708090
darkslategray #2F4F4F

White and Black

The colors white
White
White is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...

 and black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...

 are not usually thought of as shades of gray, but they can be thought of as shades of achromatic gray, as both contain equal amounts of red, blue and green. White is at the extreme upper end of the achromatic value scale and black is at the extreme lower end of the achromatic value scale, with all the colors normally considered tones of achromatic gray colors in between. Since achromatic colors have no hue, the hue code (h code) is left blank for achromatic colors (usually marked as a dash).

White

White is a color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...

, the perception of which is evoked by light
Light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light has wavelength in a range from about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm, with a frequency range of about 405 THz to 790 THz...

 that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in equal amounts and with high brightness
Brightness
Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to be radiating or reflecting light. In other words, brightness is the perception elicited by the luminance of a visual target...

 compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue
Hue
Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...

 and grayness. White is the lightest possible color.

Black

Black is the color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...

 of objects that do not emit or reflect
Reflection (physics)
Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two differentmedia so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. Common examples include the reflection of light, sound and water waves...

 light
Light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light has wavelength in a range from about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm, with a frequency range of about 405 THz to 790 THz...

 in any part of the visible spectrum
Visible spectrum
The visible spectrum is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called visible light or simply light. A typical human eye will respond to wavelengths from about 390 to 750 nm. In terms of...

; they absorb all such frequencies of light.
Black is the darkest possible color.

Achromatic grays

Achromatic grays are colors in which the rgb (red, green, and blue) values are exactly equal. Since achromatic grays have no hue, the hue code (the h in the hsv values of the color) is indicated with a dash. Achromatic grays are the axis of the color sphere, with white at the north pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...

 and black at the south pole
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...

 of the color sphere. The various tones of achromatic gray are along the axis of the color sphere from white at the top of the axis to black at the bottom of the axis.

Gainsboro

At right is displayed the web color gainsboro.

Gainsboro is a pale tone of gray.

There is no evidence the name gainsboro was used as a color name before it was included as one of the X11 colors
X11 color names
In computing, on the X Window System, X11 color names are represented in a simple text file, which maps certain strings to RGB color values. It is shipped with every X11 installation, hence the name, and is usually located in <X11root>/lib/X11/rgb.txt.It is not known who originally compiled...

 when they were formulated in 1987.

Light gray

At right is displayed the web color light gray.

Medium gray (gray (X11))

At right is displayed the color medium gray, i.e. gray as defined in the X11 color names
X11 color names
In computing, on the X Window System, X11 color names are represented in a simple text file, which maps certain strings to RGB color values. It is shipped with every X11 installation, hence the name, and is usually located in <X11root>/lib/X11/rgb.txt.It is not known who originally compiled...

, which is lighter than the HTML/CSS gray shown below.

See the chart Color names that clash between X11 and HTML/CSS in the X11 color names article to see those colors which are different in HTML/CSS and X11.

Dark medium gray (dark gray (X11))

At right is displayed the color dark medium gray, i.e. dark gray as defined in the X11 color names
X11 color names
In computing, on the X Window System, X11 color names are represented in a simple text file, which maps certain strings to RGB color values. It is shipped with every X11 installation, hence the name, and is usually located in <X11root>/lib/X11/rgb.txt.It is not known who originally compiled...

. This color, altho it is called dark gray in X11, is actually lighter than the HTML/CSS gray shown below because it is called dark gray in relation to the X11 gray shown above.

Gray

At right is displayed the color gray.

The first recorded use of gray as a color name in the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 was in 700
700
Year 700 was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 700 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- North America :* The Mount Edziza volcanic complex...

.

This tone of "gray" (HTML gray) is universally used as the standard for gray because it is that tone of gray which is halfway between white and black.

Dim gray

At right is displayed the web color dim gray.

This color is a dark tone of gray.

Off-grays

Off-grays are colors that are very close to achromatic grays, but whose red, green, and blue color codes are not exactly equal.

Charcoal

Charcoal is a color that is a representation of the dark gray color of burned wood
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

.

The first recorded use of charcoal as a color name in English was in 1606.

Source of color: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of Charcoal (color sample #187).

Platinum

Platinum is a color that is the metallic tint
Tint
In color theory, a tint is the mixture of a color with white.Tint may also refer to:* Tint control, an adjustment to correct for phase error in the picture color on a NTSC television set* Tint , an album by Merzbow...

 of pale grayish-white resembling the metal platinum
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...

.

The first recorded use of platinum as a color name in English was in 1918.

Timberwolf

Timberwolf is a light gray color with a hue that is somewhat toward the white. It is a representation of the color of the fur of lower snout and the legs of a gray wolf
Gray Wolf
The gray wolf , also known as the wolf, is the largest extant wild member of the Canidae family...

. It is between gray and white in terms of its value (darkness). Timberwolf was a color that was created by Crayola
Crayola
Crayola is a brand of artists' supplies manufactured by Crayola LLC, which was founded in 1885 as Binney & Smith. It is best known for its crayons...

 in 1993. It came from the Big Box of 96. The shade also appears in Crayola's 36 and 50 colored pencil sets as "Cool Gray".

Ash gray

Displayed at right is the color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...

 ash gray.

The color ash gray is a representation of the average color of ash
Wood ash
Wood ash is the residue powder left after the combustion of wood. Main producers of wood ash are wood industries and power plants.-Composition:...

.

The first recorded use of ash gray as a color name in English was in 1374.

Battleship gray

The color battleship gray is displayed at right. It is so called because the color is the drab shade of gray used for battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 camouflage
Camouflage
Camouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...

. It is also the color British Railways location cases are painted, after buying the excess paint from the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

The color lends its name to the song Battleship Grey
Battleship Grey (song)
"Battleship Grey" is a song by Tiësto with Kirsty Hawkshaw providing vocals. It appeared in his first album, In My Memory. It was also included in Hawkshaw's album, Meta Message. Miro or Miromusic created a chillout remix which received great acclaim, and led to the release of the single...

by Tiësto
Tiësto
Tijs Michiel Verwest, , known as Tiësto , is a Dutch musician, DJ and record producer of electronic dance music. Although he has used many aliases in the past, he is best known for his work as DJ Tiësto...

 with Kirsty Hawkshaw
Kirsty Hawkshaw
Kirsty Hawkshaw is a British dance/electronica/house/trance musician and songwriter. She is known for her participation as lead vocalist for the group Opus III, and her collaborative work with other musicians and producers....

 providing vocals. It appeared in his first album, In My Memory.

Cool grays

Cool grays are colors that are noticeably blue
Blue
Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...

ish gray, cyan
Cyan
Cyan from , transliterated: kýanos, meaning "dark blue substance") may be used as the name of any of a number of colors in the blue/green range of the spectrum. In reference to the visible spectrum cyan is used to refer to the color obtained by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light or the...

ish gray, green
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...

ish gray, or violetish
Violet (color)
As the name of a color, violet is synonymous with a bluish purple, when the word "purple" is used in the common English language sense of any color between blue and red, not including either blue or red...

 gray.

Cool gray

Cool gray is a medium light color gray mixed with the color blue
Blue
Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...

.

This color is a dull shade of blue-gray.

This color is identical with color sample #203 (identified as a tone of "gray blue" or "grayish blue") at the following website: http://tx4.us/nbs/nbs-g.htm—The ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Colo(u)r Names (1955), a website for stamp collectors to evaluate the colors of their stamps.

Poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 George Sterling
George Sterling
George Sterling was an American poet based in California who, during his time, was celebrated in Northern California as one of the greatest American poets, although he never gained much fame in the rest of the United States.-Biography:Sterling was born in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, the...

 once wrote a poem calling San Francisco the Cool Grey City of Love. The phrase cool grey as applied to San Francisco refers to the frequent fogs from the Pacific Ocean that envelop the city
San Francisco Fog
San Francisco Fog Rugby Football Club , also known as "The Fog", is a rugby union football club in San Francisco, California. It is the first such team in the western United States established specifically to actively reach out to traditionally under-represented groups in rugby; such as people of...

.

Cadet gray

Cadet gray is a slightly bluish shade of the color gray. The first recorded use of cadet grey as a color name in English was in 1912.

Before 1912, the word cadet gray was used as a name for a type of military issue uniforms. Most famously, it was the color of the uniforms of the Confederate Army. Later, it became the color of the uniforms of the United States Military Academy (West Point)
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...

.

Blue-Gray

Blue-Gray was a Crayola
Crayola
Crayola is a brand of artists' supplies manufactured by Crayola LLC, which was founded in 1885 as Binney & Smith. It is best known for its crayons...

 crayon color from 1958 to 1990.

Glaucous

Glaucous (from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 glaucus, meaning "bluish-gray", from the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 glaukos) is used to describe the pale gray or blue appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the Glaucous Gull
Glaucous Gull
The Glaucous Gull is a large gull which breeds in the Arctic regions of the northern hemisphere and the Atlantic coasts of Europe. It is migratory, wintering from in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans as far south as the British Isles and northernmost states of the USA, also on the Great...

 (Larus hyperboreus), Glaucous-winged Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
The Glaucous-winged Gull, Larus glaucescens, is a large, white-headed gull residing from the western coast of Alaska to the coast of Washington. It also breeds on the northwest coast of Alaska. During non-breeding seasons they can be found along the coast of California...

 (Larus glaucescens), Glaucous Macaw
Glaucous Macaw
The Glaucous Macaw, Anodorhynchus glaucus, is a large South American parrot. This macaw is critically endangered or possibly extinct. It is closely related to the Lear's Macaw A. leari and the Hyacinth Macaw A. hyacinthinus. In Guaraní, it was called guaa-obi after its...

 (Anodorhynchus glaucus), and Glaucous Tanager
Glaucous Tanager
The Glaucous Tanager is a species of bird in the Thraupidae family. The term glaucous describes its colouration. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and heavily degraded former forest.-References:* BirdLife International...

 (Thraupis glaucocolpa).

Slate gray

Slate is a gray color with a slight azure
Azure (color)
The color bleu de France is displayed at right.Bleu de France is a color that has been associated in heraldry with the Kings of France since the 12th century.-Brandeis blue:...

 tinge that is a representation of the average color of the material slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

.

The first recorded use of slate gray as a color name in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 was in 1705.

Warm grays

Warm grays are colors that are noticeably brown
Brown
Brown is a color term, denoting a range of composite colors produced by a mixture of orange, red, rose, or yellow with black or gray. The term is from Old English brún, in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color....

ish or pink
Pink
Pink is a mixture of red and white. Commonly used for Valentine's Day and Easter, pink is sometimes referred to as "the color of love." The use of the word for the color known today as pink was first recorded in the late 17th century....

ish grays. The color brown is itself is a dark shade of orange. Brown colors also include dark shades of rose
Rose (color)
Rose is the color halfway between red and magenta on the HSV color wheel, also known as the RGB color wheel, on which it is at hue angle of 330 degrees.Rose is one of the tertiary colors on the HSV color wheel...

, red
Red
Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...

, and amber
Amber (color)
Amber is an orange-yellow color that got its name from the material known as amber. Due to this, amber can refer not to one but to a series of shades of orange, since the natural material varies from nearly yellow when newer to orange or reddish-orange when older.-Amber:Amber is a pure chroma color...

. Pink colors include light tones of rose, red, and orange. These tones of pink become warm grays when they are mixed with gray.

Puce

Puce is the color of the belly of a flea
Flea
Flea is the common name for insects of the order Siphonaptera which are wingless insects with mouthparts adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood...

. Puce is the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 word for flea.

"Puce" has been in use as a color name in French since the 14th century.

Mountbatten pink

Mountbatten pink, also called Plymouth pink, is a naval
Navy
A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...

 camouflage
Camouflage
Camouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...

 color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...

, a grayish tone of mauve
Mauve
Mauve is a pale lavender-lilac color, one of many in the range of purples. The color mauve is named after the mallow flower....

, invented by Louis Mountbatten of the British Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 in autumn 1940 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Rose Quartz

There is a grayish tone of rose
Rose (color)
Rose is the color halfway between red and magenta on the HSV color wheel, also known as the RGB color wheel, on which it is at hue angle of 330 degrees.Rose is one of the tertiary colors on the HSV color wheel...

 called rose quartz.

The first recorded use of rose quartz as a color name in English was in 1926.

Cinereous

Cinereous is a color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...

, meaning ashy gray in appearance, either consisting of or resembling ashes, or a gray color tinged with coppery
Copper (color)
Copper is a reddish brown color that resembles the metal copper.At right is displayed the color copper.The first recorded use of copper as a color name in English was in 1594.-Pale copper:...

 brown
Brown
Brown is a color term, denoting a range of composite colors produced by a mixture of orange, red, rose, or yellow with black or gray. The term is from Old English brún, in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color....

. It is derived from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 cinereous, from cinis (ashes).

The first recorded use of cinereous as a color name in English was in 1661.

Taupe

The color displayed at right matches the color sample called taupe referenced below in the 1930 book A Dictionary of Color, the world standard for color terms before the invention of computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

s. However, the word taupe may often be used to refer to lighter shades of taupe today, and therefore another name for this color is dark taupe.

The first use of "taupe" as a color name in English was in the early 19th century (exact year is not known).
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