Cyan

{{Short description|Color between blue and green}} {{Use American English|date=June 2025}} {{about|the color||Cyan (disambiguation)}} {{redirect|Cyan blue|the album|Cyan Blue}} {{Infobox color |title=Cyan |hex=00FFFF |image={{photomontage |photo1a=Nympheas 71293 3.jpg |photo1b=American Robin Eggs in Nest.jpg |photo1c= |photo2a=Statue of Liberty frontal 2 crop.JPG |photo2b=Uranus clouds.jpg |photo2c=Arba'een Pilgrimage - Iranian People- Shia Muslim 15 (cropped).jpg |photo3a=Victoria view from Semi-Sub asv2024-09 img6.jpg | size = 243 | color_border = #FFFFFF | color = #000000 | foot_montage =}} | caption= Clockwise, from top left: ''Water Lilies'' by Claude Monet; American robin's eggs; surgical mask and headscarf of an Iranian woman; Fish underwater near Victoria, Seychelles; the Statue of Liberty; the planet Uranus |wavelength=490–520 |frequency=610–575 |symbolism=Water |source=CSS Color Module Level 4000<ref>[http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-color/#svg-color CSS Color Module Level 4000]</ref> |cmyk=(100, 0, 0, 0)}}

'''Cyan''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|aɪ|.|ə|n|,_|-|æ|n}})<ref>{{cite OED|cyan}}</ref><ref>{{cite Dictionary.com|cyan|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite American Heritage Dictionary|cyan}}</ref> is the color between blue and green on the visible spectrum of light.<ref>{{cite Merriam-Webster|cyan|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Shorter Oxford English Dictionary |edition=5th |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002}}</ref> It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength between 490 and 520 nm, between the wavelengths of green and blue.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://physics.about.com/od/lightoptics/a/vislightspec.htm |title=Visible Light Spectrum – Overview and Chart |first=Andrew Zimmerman |last=Jones |publisher=About.com |access-date=30 September 2014 |archive-date=3 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103185102/http://physics.about.com/od/lightoptics/a/vislightspec.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the subtractive color system, or CMYK color model, which can be overlaid to produce all colors in paint and color printing, cyan is one of the primary colors, along with magenta and yellow. In the additive color system, or RGB color model, used to create all the colors on a computer or television display, cyan is made by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light. Cyan is the complement of red; it can be made by the removal of red from white. Mixing red light and cyan light at the right intensity will make white light. It is commonly seen on a bright, sunny day in the sky.

==Shades and variations == 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'''.<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

Turquoise, reminiscent of the stone with the same name, is a shade in the green spectrum of cyan hues.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.

==History == In ancient civilizations, turquoise, valued for its aesthetic appeal, was a highly-regarded precious gem. Turquoise comes in a variety of shades from green to blue, but cyan hues are particularly prevalent. The oldest Chinese dragon totem was made of thousands of pieces of cyan turquoise.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Aztecs often used cyan turquoise in frescoes for both symbolic and decorative purposes,<ref>{{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 }}</ref> and ancient Egyptians and Tibetans made use of cyan turquoise in art.<ref name="artandobject_com">{{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}}</ref>

During the 16th century, speakers of the English language (particularly Las Govand) began using the term ''turquoise'' to describe the cyan color of objects that resembled the color of the stone,<ref>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.</ref> and In 1917, the color term ''teal'' was introduced to describe deeper shades of cyan.<ref>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)</ref>

In contrast to earlier, more literal uses of the color, Impressionist artists, such as Claude Monet in his ''Water Lilies'', used cyan hues more suggestively in their works. Deviating from traditional interpretations of local color under neutral lighting conditions, the focus of these artists was on accurately depicting perceived color and the influence of daylight on altering object hues.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> With the inclusion of cyan ink in printers, the term "cyan" has become more widely recognized in both home and office settings.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

==Etymology and terminology== Its name is derived from the Ancient Greek word ''kyanos'' (κύανος), meaning "dark blue enamel, Lapis lazuli".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cyan|title=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> It was formerly known as "cyan blue"<ref>{{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]}}</ref> or cyan-blue,<ref>''Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'', 5th edition.</ref> and its first recorded use as a color name in English was in 1879.<ref>Maerz and Paul ''A Dictionary of Color'' New York:1930 McGraw-Hill page 194</ref> Another origin of the color's name can be traced back to a dye produced from the cornflower (''Centaurea cyanus'').<ref>''The Pigment Compendium: A Dictionary of Historical Pigments'', Nicholas Eastaugh, Valentine Walsh, Tracey Chaplin, Ruth Siddall, 2004, Routledge, {{ISBN|9781136373855}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>

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'',<ref>{{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}}</ref> ''teal'', and ''grue''.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

==On the web and in printing==

===Web colors cyan and aqua=== {{Infobox color |title=Cyan (additive secondary) |hex=00FFFF |source=X11 |isccname=Brilliant bluish green}}

The web color cyan 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'', a name also used due to the color's common association with water, such as the appearance of the water at a tropical beach.

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.

===Process cyan=== {{Infobox color |title=Cyan (subtractive primary) |hex=00B7EB |source=<!-- tintbook does not tell me any of this: --> Pantone<ref>{{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}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date = November 2017}} |isccname=Brilliant greenish blue}}

Cyan is one of the common inks used in four-color printing, along with magenta, yellow, and black; this set of primary 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,<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.

==In science and nature==

===Color of water=== {{Main|Color of water}}

* 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.<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

===Cyan and cyanide=== * Cyanide derives its name from Prussian blue, a blue pigment containing the cyanide ion.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

=== Oxygen ===

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

===Bacteria=== * Cyanobacteria (sometimes called blue-green algae) are an important link in the food chain.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

===Astronomy=== * 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

===Energy=== * Natural gas (methane), used by many for home cooking on gas stoves, has a cyan colored flame when burned with a mixture of air.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

===Photography and film=== * 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> * 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.<ref>Belton, John (2000): CinecoIor. In: ''Film History, ''12,4, Color Film (2000), pp. 344–357.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/cinecolor2.htm|title=Cinecolor|website=widescreenmuseum.com|access-date=2017-11-10}}</ref>

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

==Gallery== <gallery> 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,<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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 clear, pale cyan liquid. </gallery>

==See also== {{commons category}} * Blue–green distinction in language * New riddle of induction * Shades of cyan * Lists of colors

==References== {{reflist}}

{{Shades of cyan|state=uncollapsed}} {{Shades of green}} {{Electromagnetic spectrum}} {{web colors}} {{Color topics}}

Category:Primary colors Category:Secondary colors Category:Optical spectrum Category:Shades of blue Category:Shades of green Category:Rainbow colors Category:Shades of cyan Category:Tertiary colors