Cyan#Etymology and terminology

Different shades of cyan can vary in terms of hue, chroma (also known as saturation, intensity, or colorfulness), or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or any combination of these characteristics. Differences in value can also be referred to as tints and shades, with a tint being a cyan mixed with white, and a shade being mixed with black.

Color nomenclature is subjective. Many shades of cyan with a bluish hue are called blue. Similarly, those with a greenish hue are referred to as green. A cyan with a dark shade is commonly known as teal. A teal blue shade leans toward the blue end of the spectrum. Variations of teal with a greener tint are commonly referred to as teal green.{{Cite web |url=https://knockoffdecor.com/what-color-is-teal/ |title=What Color Is Teal? How You Can Use it in Your Home |access-date=2024-02-13 |website=Knock Off Decor |last=Sadana |first=Nishtha |date=11 August 2021 }}

Turquoise, reminiscent of the stone with the same name, is a shade in the green spectrum of cyan hues.{{Cite web |url=https://differencedigest.com/education/general/what-is-the-difference-between-cyan-and-turquoise/ |title=What is the difference between cyan and turquoise? |date=2023-08-20 |access-date=2024-02-13 |website=Difference Digest}} Celeste is a lightly tinted cyan that represents the color of a clear sky. Other colors in the cyan color range are electric blue, aquamarine, and others described as blue-green.

Cyan boasts a rich and diverse history, holding cultural significance for millennia. In ancient civilizations, turquoise, valued for its aesthetic appeal, served as a highly regarded precious gem. Turquoise comes in a variety of shades from green to blue, but cyan hues are particularly prevalent. Approximately 3,700 years ago, an intricately crafted dragon-shaped treasure made from over 2,000 pieces of turquoise and jade was created. This artifact is widely recognized as the oldest Chinese dragon totem by many Chinese scholars.{{Cite news |title=Archaeologists Find Oldest Chinese Dragon Totem |url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/Archaeology/147178.htm |date=2005-11-01 |access-date=2024-02-14 |agency=Xinhua News Agency}}

Turquoise jewelry also held significant importance among the Aztecs, who often featured this precious gemstone in vibrant frescoes for both symbolic and decorative purposes. The Aztecs revered turquoise, associating its color with the heavens and sacredness.{{Cite web |url=https://azteczone.com/blogs/aztec-culture-articles/aztec-colors |title=What are the Aztec colors? |date=2023-08-12 |access-date=2024-02-14 |website=AZTECZONE |archive-date=2024-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227061331/https://azteczone.com/blogs/aztec-culture-articles/aztec-colors |url-status=usurped }} Additionally, ancient Egyptians interpreted cyan hues as representing faith and truth, while Tibetans viewed them as a symbol of infinity.{{Cite web |url=https://www.artandobject.com/news/allure-and-power-color-teal |title=The Allure and Power of the Color Teal |date=2022-06-21 |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=Art & Object |last=Parker |first=Dian}}

After earlier uses in various contexts, cyan hues found increased use in diverse cultures due to their appealing aesthetic qualities in religious structures and art pieces. For example, the prominent dome of the Goharshad Mosque in Iran, built in 1418, showcases this trend. Additionally, Jacopo da Pontormo's use of a teal shade for Mary's robe in the 1528 painting Carmignano Visitation demonstrates the allure for these hues. During the 16th century, speakers of the English language began using the term turquoise to describe the cyan color of objects that resembled the color of the stone.Maerz and Paul (1930). A Dictionary of Color. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 206; Color Sample of Turquoise [green]: Page 73, Plate 25, Color Sample I5.

In the 1870s, the French sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi began the construction of what would later become the Statue of Liberty. Over time, exposure to the elements caused the copper structure to develop its distinctive patina, now recognized as iconic cyan. Following this, there was a significant advancement in the use of cyan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Impressionist artists, such as Claude Monet in his renowned Water Lilies, effectively incorporated cyan hues into their works. Deviating from traditional interpretations of local color under neutral lighting conditions, the focus of artists was on accurately depicting perceived color and the influence of light on altering object hues. Specifically, daylight plays a significant role in shifting the perceived color of objects toward cyan hues.{{Cite web |url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/impressionism/a/impressionist-color |title=Impressionist color |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=Khan Academy |last1=Grant |first1=Kim |publisher=Google Classroom |last2=Cramer |first2=Charles |year=2021}} In 1917, the color term teal was introduced to describe deeper shades of cyan.Maerz and Paul (1930). A Dictionary of Color. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 205 (text), 101 (teal color sample). Plate 39 color sample L7 (on p. 101)

In the late 19th century, while traditional nomenclature of red, yellow, and blue persisted, the printing industry initiated a shift towards utilizing magenta and cyan inks for red and blue hues, respectively. This transition aimed to establish a more versatile color gamut achievable with only three primary colors. In 1949, a document in the printing industry stated: “The four-color set comprises Yellow, Red (magenta), Blue (cyan), Black”. This practice of labeling magenta, yellow, and cyan as red, yellow, and blue persisted until 1961. As the hues evolved, the printing industry maintained the use of the traditional terms red, yellow, and blue. Consequently, pinpointing the exact date of origin for CMYK, in which cyan serves as a primary color, proves challenging.{{Cite journal |title=Semantic shift of the colour-terms maroon and magenta in British Standard English |journal=Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos |last=Wright |first=Laura |url=https://ojsspdc.ulpgc.es/ojs/index.php/LFE/article/view/121 |date=2011-11-27 |volume=17 |issue= |pages=341–376 }}

In August 1991, the HP Deskwriter 500C became the first Deskwriter to offer color printing as an option. It used interchangeable black and color (cyan, magenta, and yellow) inkjet print cartridges.{{Cite web |title=Twenty Years of Innovation: HP Deskjet Printers 1988 – 2008 |website=Hewlett-Packard |year=2008 |url=https://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2008/deskjet20/bg_deskjet20thannivtimeline.pdf}} With the inclusion of cyan ink in printers, the term "cyan" has become widely recognized in both home and office settings. According to TUP/Technology User Profile 2020, approximately 70% of online American adults regularly use a home printer.{{Citation |title=Home Printer Trends in the US |last=Ness |first=Dan |date=2021-02-25 |url=https://metafacts.com/home-printer-trends-in-the-us-tupdate/ |access-date=2024-04-21}}

Its name is derived from the Ancient Greek word kyanos (κύανος), meaning "dark blue enamel, Lapis lazuli".{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cyan|title=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=30 September 2014}}{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dku%2Fanos|title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, κύα^νος|access-date=30 September 2014}} It was formerly known as "cyan blue"{{cite book|title = The Colorist: Designed to Correct the Commonly Held Theory that Red, Yellow, and Blue are the Primary Colors and to Supply the Much Needed Easy Method of Determining Color Harmony|author = J. Arthur H. Hatt|publisher = D. Van Nostrand Company|year = 1908|url = https://archive.org/details/coloristdesigned00hatt |page = [https://archive.org/details/coloristdesigned00hatt/page/22 22]}} or cyan-blue,Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition. and its first recorded use as a color name in English was in 1879.Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill page 194 Further origins{{clarify|date=October 2021}} of the color name can be traced back to a dye produced from the cornflower (Centaurea cyanus).The Pigment Compendium: A Dictionary of Historical Pigments, Nicholas Eastaugh, Valentine Walsh, Tracey Chaplin, Ruth Siddall, 2004, Routledge, {{ISBN|9781136373855}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2OH28vpzzMsC&pg=PT395 |title=Pigment Compendium: A Dictionary of Historical Pigments |isbn=9781136373855 |access-date=30 September 2014 |last1=Eastaugh |first1=Nicholas |last2=Walsh |first2=Valentine |last3=Chaplin |first3=Tracey |last4=Siddall |first4=Ruth |date=30 March 2007 |publisher=Routledge}}

In most languages, 'cyan' is not a basic color term and it phenomenologically appears as a greenish vibrant hue of blue to most English speakers. Other English terms for this "borderline" hue region include blue green, aqua, turquoise,{{cite book |last1=Raffman |first1=Diana |title=Unruly Words: A Study of Vague Language |date=2014 |publisher=OUP USA |isbn=9780199915101 |pages=56–57 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NVfSAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA57 |access-date=31 July 2019}} teal, and grue.{{cite web |last1=Kay |first1=Paul |last2=Maffi |first2=Luisa |title=Number of Basic Colour Categories |url=https://wals.info/chapter/133 |website=The World Atlas of Language Structures Online |publisher=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |access-date=4 May 2021}}

{{Infobox color

|title=Cyan (additive secondary)

|hex=00FFFF

|source=X11

|isccname=Brilliant bluish green}}

The web color cyan shown at right is a secondary color in the RGB color model, which uses combinations of red, green and blue light to create all the colors on computer and television displays. In X11 colors, this color is called both cyan and aqua. In the HTML color list, this same color is called aqua.

The web colors are more vivid than the cyan used in the CMYK color system, and the web colors cannot be accurately reproduced on a printed page. To reproduce the web color cyan in inks, it is necessary to add some white ink to the printer's cyan below, so when it is reproduced in printing, it is not a primary subtractive color. It is called aqua (a name in use since 1598) because it is a color commonly associated with water, such as the appearance of the water at a tropical beach.Maerz and Paul The Dictionary of Color 1930 (see under Aqua in Index, page 189)

{{Infobox color

|title=Cyan (subtractive primary)

|hex=00B7EB

|source= CMYK{{cite web|url=http://www.tintbook.com/|title=tintbook.com|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310213952/http://www.tintbook.com/|archive-date=10 March 2007|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}{{unreliable source?|date = November 2017}}

|isccname=Brilliant greenish blue}}

Cyan is also one of the common inks used in four-color printing, along with magenta, yellow, and black; this set of colors is referred to as CMYK. In printing, the cyan ink is sometimes known as printer's cyan, process cyan, or process blue.

While both the additive secondary and the subtractive primary are called cyan, they can be substantially different from one another. Cyan printing ink is typically more saturated than the RGB secondary cyan, depending on what RGB color space and ink are considered. That is, process cyan is usually outside the RGB gamut,{{cite book |author1=P.U.P.A. Gilbert |author2=Willy Haeberli |title=Physics in the Arts |date=2011 |publisher=Academic Press |isbn=9780123918895 |page=110 |edition=Revised |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bobHqrTny4QC&pg=PA110 |access-date=31 July 2019}} and there is no fixed conversion from CMYK primaries to RGB. Different formulations are used for printer's ink, so there can be variations in the printed color that is pure cyan ink. This is because real-world subtractive (unlike additive) color mixing does not consistently produce the same result when mixing apparently identical colors, since the specific frequencies filtered out to produce that color affect how it interacts with other colors. Phthalocyanine blue is one such commonly used pigment. A typical formulation of process cyan is shown in the color box on the right.

• Pure water is nearly colorless. However, it does absorb slightly more red light than blue, giving significant volumes of water a bluish tint; increased scattering of blue light due to fine particles in the water shifts the blue color toward green, for a typically cyan net color.{{cite book|title = Clouds in a Glass of Beer: Simple Experiments in Atmospheric Physics|author = Craig F. Bohren|publisher = Courier Dover Publications|year = 2001|isbn = 0-486-41738-7|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CZuNCZqtZZUC&pg=PA156 }}

• Cyanide derives its name from Prussian blue, a blue pigment containing the cyanide ion.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GfqpDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA572|title=Colour Design: Theories and Applications|last=Best|first=Janet|date=2017-06-08|publisher=Woodhead Publishing|isbn=9780081018897|language=en}}

• Liquid oxygen (oxygen cooled to below −183 °C) is a clear cyan liquid.

• Cyanobacteria (sometimes called blue-green algae) are an important link in the food chain.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MdvdCgAAQBAJ&q=Cyanobacteria+%28sometimes+called+blue-green+algae%29+are+an+important+link+in+the+food+chain.&pg=PR23 |title=Impact of Water Pollution on Human Health and Environmental Sustainability |last=A. Elaine |first=McKeown |date=2015-10-27 |publisher=IGI Global|isbn=9781466695603|language=en}}

• The planet Uranus is colored cyan because of the abundance of methane in its atmosphere. Methane absorbs red light and reflects the blue-green light which allows observers to see it as cyan.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/pia00032.html |title=Uranus in True and False Color |date=2015-04-02 |publisher=NASA |access-date=2017-09-28}}

• Natural gas (methane), used by many for home cooking on gas stoves, has a cyan colored flame when burned with a mixture of air.{{Cite web|url=http://www.elgas.com.au/blog/1585-why-does-a-gas-flame-burn-blue-lpg-gas-natural-propane-methane|title=Gas Flame Colour Temperature Chart (Yellow Flame vs Blue Flame)|last=Hahn|first=Eric|website=ELGAS – LPG Gas for Home & Business|access-date=2017-11-10}}

• Cyanotype, or blueprint, a monochrome photographic printing process that predates the use of the word cyan as a color, yields a deep cyan-blue colored print based on the Prussian blue pigment.{{cite book|title = Cyanotype: the history, science and art of photographic printing in Prussian blue|author = Mike Ware|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=C-7I69gFIbMC&pg=PA21 |publisher = NMSI Trading Ltd|year = 1999|isbn = 1-900747-07-3}}
• Cinecolor, a bi-pack color process, the photographer would load a standard camera with two films, one orthochromatic, dyed red, and a panchromatic strip behind it. Color light would expose the cyan record on the ortho stock, which also acted as a filter, exposing only red light to the panchromatic film stock.Belton, John (2000): CinecoIor. In: Film History, 12,4, Color Film (2000), pp. 344–357.{{Cite web|url=http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/cinecolor2.htm|title=Cinecolor|website=widescreenmuseum.com|access-date=2017-11-10}}

• Cyanosis is an abnormal blueness of the skin, usually a sign of poor oxygen intake; patients are typically described as being "cyanotic".{{cite book |title=Mosby's Medical, Nursing & Allied Health Dictionary |series=Mosby-Year Book |year=1994 |page=425 |edition=4th}}
• Cyanopsia is a color vision defect where vision is tinted blue. This can be a drug-induced side effect or experienced after cataract removal.

File:Green and blue make cyan.png|In the RGB color model, used to make colors on computer and TV displays, cyan is created by the combination of green and blue light.

File:RGB color wheel.svg|In the RGB and CMY(K) color wheel, cyan is midway between blue and green.

File:SubtractiveColor.svg|In the CMYK color model, used in color printing, cyan, magenta and yellow combined make black. In practice, since the inks are not perfect, some black ink is added.

File:Refill Ink Kit Color crop.jpg|Color printers today use, magenta, cyan and yellow ink to produce a wide range of colors.

File:Komplementärfarben cyan auf rot.svg|Cyan and red are complementary colors in most color spaces (mixing them in equal amounts produces an achromatic color). They have a strong contrast.

File:Wham-a different corner.jpg|Cyan is the color of shallow water over a sandy beach. The water absorbs the color red from the sunlight, leaving a greenish-blue color.

File:Samarkand05.jpg|The dome of the Tilla Kari Mosque in Samarkand, Uzbekistan (1660) is cyan. The color is widely used in architecture in Turkey and Central Asia.

File:Uranus Voyager2 color calibrated.png|The planet Uranus, seen from the Voyager 2 spacecraft. The cyan color comes from a combination of methane gas and atmospheric haze in the planet's atmosphere.

File:Wirbelsäulenoperation OKM.jpg|alt=A surgical team in Germany. It has been suggested that surgeons and nurses adopted a cyan-colored gown and operating rooms because it is complementary to the color of red blood and thus reduced glare, though the evidence for this claim is limited.|A surgical team in Germany. It has been suggested that surgeons and nurses adopted a cyan-colored gown and operating rooms because it contrasts the color of red blood, thus reducing glare,{{cite journal |last1=Belkin |title=Surgical scrubs--where we were, where we are going. |journal=Todays Surg Nurse |date=March–April 1998 |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=28–34 |pmid=10026627}} though the evidence for this claim is limited.

File:Old photo colors degredated into cyan.jpg|The pigments in color photographs may degrade at different rates, potentially resulting in a cyan tint.

File:Liquid oxygen in a beaker (cropped and retouched).jpg|While oxygen is normally a colorless gas in standard temperature and pressure, liquid oxygen is a pale cyan liquid.

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• Blue–green distinction in language
• New riddle of induction
• Shades of cyan
• Lists of colors

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