Colours made from carbon
20 colours that our sources say are made from carbon.
Blue
Methylene blue
A synthetic blue dye and medicine first made in 1876Dye
#003153
Prussian blue
A deep blue pigment first made in Berlin in the early 1700sPigment · 🇯🇵 Japan
Yellow
Tartrazine
A synthetic lemon yellow dye widely used in food, cosmetics and medicinesDye
Purple and violet
Tyrian purple
A reddish-purple dye once worth its weight in silver, made from sea snailsDye · 🇱🇧 Lebanon +4
#50C878
Paris Green
A toxic emerald-green pigment once prized in art and used as an early insecticidePigment · 🇩🇪 Germany +4
Black
Bone char
A deep black pigment and filter made by charring animal bonesPigment
White
White lead
A historic opaque white pigment once made from lead and vinegarPigment
Yellow
Riboflavin
A yellow-orange vitamin used as a food colour and supplementPigment
Yellow
Curcumin
The bright yellow pigment found in turmeric rootPigment
Orange
Sunset yellow FCF
A synthetic orange-yellow dye used in food, cosmetics, and medicinesDye · 🇺🇸 United States +1
Yellow
Zeaxanthin
A yellow pigment found in corn, saffron, paprika and many plantsPigment
Red
Carmoisine
A synthetic red dye used in foods and medicines in the EUDye
Blue
Indigo carmine
A water-soluble blue dye made from indigo, used in food, medicine and sciencePigment · 🇺🇸 United States
Orange
Canthaxanthin
A reddish-orange pigment used in food and animal feedPigment · 🇺🇸 United States +1
Red
Ponceau 4R
A synthetic strawberry red dye used in foods outside the United StatesDye
Green
Green S
A synthetic green dye used in food and eye testsDye · 🇦🇺 Australia +4
Yellow
Quinoline Yellow WS
A greenish yellow synthetic dye used in foods, drinks, medicines and cosmeticsDye · 🇦🇺 Australia +1
Red
Amaranth
A synthetic red azo dye once used in foods and cosmeticsDye · 🇺🇸 United States +1
Orange
Violaxanthin
An orange pigment found in many plants and used as a food colouring in some countriesPigment · 🇦🇺 Australia +1
Blue
Formazan
A group of synthetic dyes with colours from dark blue to deep red or orangePigment
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Paris Green: Chris goulet at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Riboflavin: Sphingomonas, Public domain, source
- Tyrian purple: Photograph: U.Name.Me Derivative work: TeKaBe, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- White lead: Thester11, CC BY 3.0, source
- Bone char: Honza Groh ( Jagro ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tartrazine: Buli, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Green S: Edgar181, Public domain, source
- Amaranth: Mrgreen71, Public domain, source
- Curcumin: Holger M Mürk, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Methylene blue: Amanda Slater, Flickr user amandabhslater, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Prussian blue: Picture created by publunch, Public domain, source
- Sunset yellow FCF: MarinaVladivostok, CC0, source
- Zeaxanthin: Jynto ( talk ), CC0, source
- Carmoisine: MarinaVladivostok, CC0, source
- Indigo carmine: -- メルビル ( talk ) 08:10, 28 January 2011 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ponceau 4R: Nizil Shah, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Violaxanthin: Yikrazuul, Public domain, source
- Formazan: Прокопюк Владимир Юрьевич, CC BY-SA 4.0, source