Standard and safety colours
Colours fixed by a rule: safety signs, school buses, uniforms, paint charts.
#FF00FF
Magenta
A purplish-pink colour named after a battle and key to modern printingNamed shade 路 馃嚝馃嚪 France +4
Black
Vantablack
A super-black coating made from carbon nanotubes that absorbs nearly all visible lightPigment
#FFD800
School bus yellow
A yellow made for North American school buses to stand out and be seenNamed shade 路 馃嚭馃嚫 United States +2
#E32600
Methyl orange
An orange-red azo dye used as a pH indicator in chemistryDye
White
Zinc phosphate
A white inorganic compound used to protect metal and in dental cementPigment
#000F89
Phthalo blue
A strong, synthetic blue pigment made from copper phthalocyaninePigment 路 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany +1
#123524
Phthalo green
A synthetic green pigment made from copper and chlorinated phthalocyaninePigment
Yellow
Diarylide pigment
A family of yellow organic pigments widely used in printing inksPigment
Black
Super black
A surface treatment that absorbs nearly all visible lightStandard colour 路 馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom
Orange
Sunset yellow FCF
A synthetic orange-yellow dye used in food, cosmetics, and medicinesDye 路 馃嚭馃嚫 United States +1
Red
Carmoisine
A synthetic red dye used in foods and medicines in the EUDye
Red
Erythrosine
A bright red-pink synthetic dye used in food, cosmetics, and industryDye 路 馃嚭馃嚫 United States +4
Yellow
Quinoline Yellow WS
A greenish yellow synthetic dye used in foods, drinks, medicines and cosmeticsDye 路 馃嚘馃嚭 Australia +1
Black
Brilliant Black BN
A synthetic black dye used in foods and decorations, known as E151 in EuropeDye 路 馃嚭馃嚫 United States +2
Red
Scarlet GN
A synthetic red azo dye once used in foods and now mainly in cosmeticsDye 路 馃嚭馃嚫 United States +4
#333399
Blue (pigment)
A standard blue mixed from cyan and magenta inks in printingNamed shade
#00B7EB
Process cyan
The standard cyan ink used in four-colour printing (CMYK)Named shade
#00A550
Green (pigment)
The standard green made by mixing printer's cyan and yellow inksStandard colour
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Magenta: Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Phthalo blue: Smokefoot, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Vantablack: Surrey NanoSystems, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Methyl orange: Rubashkyn, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- School bus yellow: BMRR ( talk ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Sunset yellow FCF: MarinaVladivostok, CC0, source
- Carmoisine: MarinaVladivostok, CC0, source