Beige
Beige (#F5F5DC)
#F5F5DC
Beige is a very pale yellowish-cream colour.
The term originates from beige cloth, a woollen fabric left in its natural colour. It has since come to be used for a range of light tints chosen for their neutral or cool appearance.
Beginning in the 1920s, the meaning of the term beige expanded to the point where it is now also used for a wide range of pale brown shades, some of more notable of which are shown below.
Beige
| Beige | |
|---|---|
 Color coordinates | |
| Hex triplet | #F5F5DC |
| sRGBB (r, g, b) | (245, 245, 220) |
| HSV (h, s, v) | (60°, 10%, 96%) |
| CIELChuv (L, C, h) | (96, 19, 86°) |
| Source | X11 |
| B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) | |
The colour "beige" is displayed at right.
The first recorded use of beige as a color name in English was in 1887. [1]
Cosmic Latte
| Cosmic Latte | |
|---|---|
| Color coordinates | |
| Hex triplet | #FFF8E7 |
| sRGBB (r, g, b) | (255, 248, 231) |
| HSV (h, s, v) | (42°, 9%, 100%) |
| CIELChuv (L, C, h) | (98, 15, 70°) |
| Source | Internet |
| B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) | |
Cosmic latte is a name assigned in 2002 to the average colour of the universe (derived from a sampling of the electromagnetic radiation from 200,000 galaxies), given by a team of astronomers from Johns Hopkins University.
Beige and Desert Sand
| Desert Sand | |
|---|---|
| Color coordinates | |
| Hex triplet | #EDC9AF |
| sRGBB (r, g, b) | (237, 201, 175) |
| HSV (h, s, v) | (25°, 26%, 93%) |
| CIELChuv (L, C, h) | (83, 34, 44°) |
| Source | Crayola |
| B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) | |
The colour desert sand is displayed at right. It may be regarded as a deep shade of beige. It is a pale tint of a colour called desert. The colour name "desert" was first used in 1920. [2]
In the 1960s the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) marketed desert sand coloured telephones for offices and homes. However, they described the colour as "beige." It is therefore common for many people to refer to the colour desert sand as "beige."
Beige and Ecru
| Ecru | |
|---|---|
| Colour coordinates | |
| Hex triplet | #C2B280 |
| sRGBB (r, g, b) | (194, 178, 128) |
| HSV (h, s, v) | (45°, 34%, 76%) |
| CIELChuv (L, C, h) | (73, 39, 71°) |
| Source | ISCC-NBS |
| B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) | |
The colour ecru is displayed at right.
Originally in the 19th century and up to at least 1930, the color ecru meant exactly the same colour as beige (i.e. the pale cream color shown above as beige) [3] , and the word is often used to refer to such fabrics as silk and linen in their unbleached state. Ecru comes from the French word écru, which means literally 'raw' or 'unbleached'.
Since at least the 1950s, however, the colour ecru has been regarded as a different colour from beige, presumably in order to allow interior designers a wider palette of colours to choose from. [4]
French Beige
| French Beige | |
|---|---|
| Color coordinates | |
| Hex triplet | #A67B5B |
| sRGBB (r, g, b) | (166, 123, 91) |
| HSV (h, s, v) | (26°, 45%, 65%) |
| CIELChuv (L, C, h) | (55, 41, 41°) |
| Source | ISCC-NBS |
| B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) | |
At right is displayed the color French beige.
It is perhaps the existence of this colour that led people to believe that beige is a light brown colour instead of the pale cream shown in the colour box at the beginning of this article. The first recorded use of French beige as a colour name in English was in 1927. [5]
The source of this colour is the following website: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Colour Names (1955)--Colour Sample of French beige (colour sample #57)
Mode Beige (Drab)
| Mode Beige | |
|---|---|
| Color coordinates | |
| Hex triplet | #967117 |
| sRGBB (r, g, b) | (150, 113, 23) |
| HSV (h, s, v) | (43°, 85%, 59%) |
| CIELChuv (L, C, h) | (50, 58, 58°) |
| Source | ISCC-NBS |
| B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) | |
The colour mode beige is displayed at right. Mode beige is a very dark shade of beige.
Two other alternate names for this exact colour are drab and sand dune [6], in use, respectively, since 1686 [7] and 1925. [8]
The first recorded use of mode beige as a colour name in English was in 1928. [9]
Colours in the beige range
Related names used for colors in the beige range include cream, buff, ecru, tan, and Khaki. Pale beige tinted with grey or pink is commonly called oyster.
Beige in human culture
- The Beige Book, more formally called the Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions, is a report published by the Federal Reserve Board eight times a year. Each report is a gathering of "anecdotal information on current economic conditions" by each Federal Reserve Bank in its district.
- Beige shades have so often been used for personal computer cases and peripherals like mice and monitors that the term beige box has come to mean an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, generic, unremarkable personal computer, and by extension anything which is generic or run-of-the-mill.
- The skin colour of some paler Caucasians may be described as beige or peach.
- Beige is a common color of cargo pants (the second most popular after khaki), and is the most popular shade of pantyhose (tights in the UK)[citation needed].
- Beige has also appeared as the lead character of a filmic serial story by Peninsula SUFM published in installments throughout July and August 2007. It was named the Serial Drama Movie and involved characters such as Red, Blue and Yellow, who were too cool for Beige, and made him feel ostracized.[citation needed]
- In many languages, as in English, the word for beige is an adaptation of the French word.
- Beige was the color of New Zealand Cricket team from 1984-1989.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Colour New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 190; Colour Sample of Beige: Page 45 Plate 11 Colour Sample C2
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Colour New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 194; Colour Sample of Desert: Page 47 Plate 12 Colour Sample I7
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Colour New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 149--Discussion of the colour Beige (shown in this book's colour sample as being the same colour that is displayed as "beige" in the Wikipedia colour box shown above) notes that beige is exactly the same colour as Ecru.
- ^ 1955 ISCC-NBS colour chart (scanned onto the Internet) shows ecru as being a different colour than beige):
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Colour New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 195; Colour Sample of French beige: Page 49 Plate 13 Colour Sample A7
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Colour New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 50
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Colour New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 194
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Colour New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 204
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Colour New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 199; Colour Sample of Mode Beige: Page 47 Plate 14 Colour Sample B5