Colours made from carbon
20 colours that our sources say are made from carbon.
#003153
Prussian blue
A deep blue pigment first made in Berlin in the early 1700sPigment · 🇯🇵 Japan
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
White
White lead
A historic opaque white pigment once made from lead and vinegarPigment
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
- Tyrian purple: Photograph: U.Name.Me Derivative work: TeKaBe, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- White lead: Thester11, CC BY 3.0, source
- Prussian blue: Picture created by publunch, Public domain, source