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Cyan (; from Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ??a?o?? / kyanous, meaning "blue") may be used as the name of any of a number of a range of colors in the blue/green part of the spectrum
Spectrum

A spectrum is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a Continuum . The word saw its first scientific use within the field of optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light when separated using a triangular prism ; it has since been applied by analogy to many fields other than op...
. In reference to the visible spectrum
Visible spectrum

The visible spectrum is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visual perception to the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called visible light or simply light....
 cyan is used to refer to the color
Color

Color or colour is the visual perception property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others....
 obtained by mixing equal amounts of green
Green

Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520?570-Nanometre....
 and blue
Blue

Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440?490 Nanometre....
 light
Light

Light, or visible light, is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is Visible spectrum to the human eye , or up to 380?750 nm. In the broader field of physics, light is sometimes used to refer to electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths, whether visible or not....
 or the removal of red from white light. As such, cyan is the complement
Complementary color

Complementary colors are pairs of colors that are of ?opposite? hue in some color model. The exact hue ?complementary? to a given hue depends on the model in question, and perceptual uniformity, additive color, and subtractive color models, for example, have differing complements for any given color....
 of red
Red

Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 625?740 Nanometer....
 in RGB and CMYK color systems: cyan pigment
Pigment

A pigment is a material that changes the color of light it Reflection as the result of selective color absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which the material itself emits light....
s absorb red light.

Cyan is also called aqua
Aqua (color)

Aqua is a cyan color, used mostly by graphic designers and other computer-related professionals such as web designers.Aqua is identical to the color electric cyan, the color on the HSV color space precisely halfway between green and blue....
 or blue-green
Blue-green

Blue-green is a name for a color with a mixture of blue and green. Some names used for different shades of this color are:* Teal for a dark shade of the color....
, and was previously known as "cyan blue".

Some shades of color close to cyan in the cyan color range are baby blue
Baby blue

At right is displayed the color baby blue. The color baby blue as shown here is identical to the web color light cyan. Baby blue is known as one of the pastel colors....
, teal
Teal (color)

Teal, also called teal blue, is equal parts blue and green. The color gets its name from the fact that it surrounds the eyes of the Common Teal, a member of the duck family....
, turquoise
Turquoise (color)

Turquoise is a slightly greenish shade of cyan. The color is based on the gem turquoise. The term comes from the French for Turkish ....
 and aquamarine
Aquamarine (color)

Aquamarine is color that is a tint of cyan.It is named after the mineral aquamarine. Aquamarine is found as a precious gemstone mainly found in granite rocks....
.

Electric cyan vs. process cyan
Electric cyan (web color aqua)
The vivid cyan that is seen on an electronic
Electronics

Electronics refers to the flow of charge through nonmetal electrical conductor , whereas electrical refers to the flow of charge through metal electrical conductor....
 display device
Display device

A display device is an output device for presentation of information for visual, tactile or Hearing_ reception, acquired, stored, or transmitted in various forms....
 (shown at right) is also referred to as electric cyan to distinguish it from the less vivid turquoise-like process cyan used in CMYK color printing
Color printing

Color printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color .While there are many techniques for reproducing images in color, specific graphic processes and industrial equipment are used for mass reproduction of color images on paper....
 (shown below).






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Cyan (; from Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ??a?o?? / kyanous, meaning "blue") may be used as the name of any of a number of a range of colors in the blue/green part of the spectrum
Spectrum

A spectrum is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a Continuum . The word saw its first scientific use within the field of optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light when separated using a triangular prism ; it has since been applied by analogy to many fields other than op...
. In reference to the visible spectrum
Visible spectrum

The visible spectrum is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visual perception to the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called visible light or simply light....
 cyan is used to refer to the color
Color

Color or colour is the visual perception property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others....
 obtained by mixing equal amounts of green
Green

Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520?570-Nanometre....
 and blue
Blue

Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440?490 Nanometre....
 light
Light

Light, or visible light, is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is Visible spectrum to the human eye , or up to 380?750 nm. In the broader field of physics, light is sometimes used to refer to electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths, whether visible or not....
 or the removal of red from white light. As such, cyan is the complement
Complementary color

Complementary colors are pairs of colors that are of ?opposite? hue in some color model. The exact hue ?complementary? to a given hue depends on the model in question, and perceptual uniformity, additive color, and subtractive color models, for example, have differing complements for any given color....
 of red
Red

Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 625?740 Nanometer....
 in RGB and CMYK color systems: cyan pigment
Pigment

A pigment is a material that changes the color of light it Reflection as the result of selective color absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which the material itself emits light....
s absorb red light.

Cyan is also called aqua
Aqua (color)

Aqua is a cyan color, used mostly by graphic designers and other computer-related professionals such as web designers.Aqua is identical to the color electric cyan, the color on the HSV color space precisely halfway between green and blue....
 or blue-green
Blue-green

Blue-green is a name for a color with a mixture of blue and green. Some names used for different shades of this color are:* Teal for a dark shade of the color....
, and was previously known as "cyan blue".

Some shades of color close to cyan in the cyan color range are baby blue
Baby blue

At right is displayed the color baby blue. The color baby blue as shown here is identical to the web color light cyan. Baby blue is known as one of the pastel colors....
, teal
Teal (color)

Teal, also called teal blue, is equal parts blue and green. The color gets its name from the fact that it surrounds the eyes of the Common Teal, a member of the duck family....
, turquoise
Turquoise (color)

Turquoise is a slightly greenish shade of cyan. The color is based on the gem turquoise. The term comes from the French for Turkish ....
 and aquamarine
Aquamarine (color)

Aquamarine is color that is a tint of cyan.It is named after the mineral aquamarine. Aquamarine is found as a precious gemstone mainly found in granite rocks....
.

Electric cyan vs. process cyan


Electric cyan (web color aqua)


The vivid cyan that is seen on an electronic
Electronics

Electronics refers to the flow of charge through nonmetal electrical conductor , whereas electrical refers to the flow of charge through metal electrical conductor....
 display device
Display device

A display device is an output device for presentation of information for visual, tactile or Hearing_ reception, acquired, stored, or transmitted in various forms....
 (shown at right) is also referred to as electric cyan to distinguish it from the less vivid turquoise-like process cyan used in CMYK color printing
Color printing

Color printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color .While there are many techniques for reproducing images in color, specific graphic processes and industrial equipment are used for mass reproduction of color images on paper....
 (shown below). (Note: while the color is defined by definite RGB values, the display of the color will vary depending on the absolute color space
Absolute color space

In color science, there are two meanings of the term absolute color space:* A color space in which the perceptual difference between colors is directly related to color difference as represented by points in the color space....
 used and the nature of the physical display device, e.g. computer monitor, and if this page is printed it is likely that the color shown will be far from representative.)

The web color aqua
Aqua (color)

Aqua is a cyan color, used mostly by graphic designers and other computer-related professionals such as web designers.Aqua is identical to the color electric cyan, the color on the HSV color space precisely halfway between green and blue....
 is an alias for electric cyan, that is, it is exactly the same color shown here as electric cyan.

To reproduce electric 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
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
, such as the appearance of the water at a tropical beach.

Process cyan (pigment cyan) (printer's cyan)


Cyan is also one of the common inks used in four-color printing, along with magenta
Magenta

Magenta is a purplish pink color evoked by lights with less power in yellowish-green wavelengths than in blue and red wavelengths . In light experiments, magenta can be produced by removing the lime-green wavelengths from white light....
, yellow
Yellow

Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, but does not significantly stimulate the S cone cells; that is, light with much red and green but not very much blue....
, and black
Black

Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflection light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light....
; this set of colors is referred to as CMYK.

While both the additive secondary and the subtractive primary are called cyan, they can be substantially different from one another. Cyan printing ink can be more saturated or less saturated than the RGB secondary cyan, depending on what RGB color space
RGB color space

An RGB color space is any additive color space based on the RGB color model. A particular RGB color space is defined by the three chromaticity of the red, green, and blue additive primaries, and can produce any chromaticity that is the triangle defined by those primary colors....
 and ink are considered.

Process cyan is not an RGB color, 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. A typical formulation of process cyan is shown in the color box at right. The source of the color shown at right is the color cyan that is shown in the diagram located at the bottom of the following Web site offering tint books for CMYK printing: http://www.tintbook.com/

Variations of cyan


Light sea green


Displayed at right is the web color light sea green.

Dark cyan


Displayed at the right is the web color dark cyan.

Cyan in nature

  • Pure water is nearly colorless. However, it does absorb
    Water absorption

    Water absorption is a phenomenon in the transmission of electromagnetic radiation through a medium containing water molecules. Water molecules are excited by radiation at certain wavelengths and tend to selectively Absorbance portions of the spectrum while allowing the balance of the spectrum to be Transmittance with minimal effect....
     slightly more red light than blue, giving large 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.
  • Cyanobacteria
    Cyanobacteria

    Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, blue-green bacteria or Cyanophyta, is a phylum of bacteria that obtain their energy through photosynthesis....
     (sometimes called blue-green algae) are an important link in the food chain
    Food chain

    Food chains, also called, food networks and/or trophic social networks, describe the eating relationships between species within an ecosystem....
    .
  • Cyanide
    Cyanide

    A cyanide is any chemical compound that contains the nitrile , which consists of a carbon atom chemical bond to a nitrogen atom. Inorganic cyanides are hydrogen cyanide salts in which cyanide is generally the anion CN-....
     derives its name from Prussian blue
    Prussian blue

    Prussian blue is a very dark blue, colorfast, non-toxic pigment ? one of the first synthetic pigments ? which was discovered accidentally in Berlin in 1704....
    , a blue pigment containing the cyanide ion.


Cyan in human culture


Architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....

  • Cyan colored tile
    Tile

    A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, Rock , metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, and walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops....
    s are often used to pave swimming pool
    Swimming pool

    A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is an artificially enclosed body of water intended for swimming or water-based recreation....
    s to make the water within them seem more inviting to swim in, by making the cyan color of their water seem more intensely colored. Water in swimming pool is colored a bright tint of cyan anyway because chlorine bleach, which is cyan, is added to water in swimming pools for disinfection.


Astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....

  • The planet
    Planet

    A planet , as 2006 definition of planet by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting a star or Stellar evolution#Stellar remnants that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared the neighbourhood of planetesimals....
     Uranus
    Uranus

    Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and the third-largest and fourth most massive planet in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus the father of Kronos and grandfather of Zeus ....
     is cyan because of the abundance of methane
    Methane

    Methane is a chemical compound with the molecular formula . It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Methane's bond angles are 109.5 degrees....
     in its atmosphere
    Atmosphere

    An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, by the gravity of the body, and are retained for a longer duration if gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low....
    .


Computer games
Personal computer game

A personal computer game is a game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine. Computer games have evolved from the simple graphics and gameplay of early titles like Spacewar!, to a wide range of more visually advanced titles....
/video games

  • There is a computer game company called Cyan Worlds
    Cyan Worlds

    Cyan Worlds, Inc. is a computer game company, founded by brothers Rand Miller and Robyn Miller in 1987. After the release of Riven: The Sequel to Myst in 1997, Robyn left Cyan to pursue other interests....
     (a.k.a., Cyan, Inc.).
  • There is a Final Fantasy VI
    Final Fantasy VI

    , also known as Final Fantasy III in North America when it was first released, is a console role-playing game developed and published by Square Co....
     character named Cyan Garamonde.


Energy
Energy

In physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of Work_ that can be performed by a force. Energy is an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law....

  • Natural gas
    Natural gas

    Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills....
     (methane
    Methane

    Methane is a chemical compound with the molecular formula . It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Methane's bond angles are 109.5 degrees....
    ), used by many for home cooking on gas stove
    Gas stove

    In cooking, a gas stove is a cooker which uses natural gas as a fuel source.The first gas stoves were developed as early as the 1820s, but these remained isolated experiments....
    s, when burned has a cyan colored flame
    Flame

    A flame is the visible part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic reaction taking place in a thin zone. If a fire is hot enough to ionize the gaseous components, it can become a Plasma ....
    .


Film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....

  • A silverless dye track used for soundtracks on 35mm film stock. Red light readers are required to read cyan soundtracks. .


Interior design
Interior design

Interior Design is a profession concerned with anything that is found inside a space - walls, windows, doors, finishes, textures, light, furnishings and furniture....
 and industrial design
Industrial design

Industrial design is an applied art whereby the aesthetics and usability of mass-produced Product may be improved for marketability and Manufacturing....

  • The color cyan (called aqua by interior designers) was commonly used in the interior design
    Interior design

    Interior Design is a profession concerned with anything that is found inside a space - walls, windows, doors, finishes, textures, light, furnishings and furniture....
     of the 1950s in combination with either magenta
    Magenta

    Magenta is a purplish pink color evoked by lights with less power in yellowish-green wavelengths than in blue and red wavelengths . In light experiments, magenta can be produced by removing the lime-green wavelengths from white light....
     or pink
    Pink

    Pink is a pale red color; the use of the word for the color was first recorded in the late 17th century, describing the flowers of Dianthus, flowering plants in the genus Dianthus. Pink itself is a combination of red and white....
     and black
    Black

    Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflection light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light....
     to give a modern
    Modern architecture

    Modern architecture is a set of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of Ornament ....
     feel to interiors (these colors were also popular for automobile
    Automobile

    An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transportation passengers, which also carries its own car engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally f...
    s in the 1950s).


Medical

  • Cyanosis
    Cyanosis

    Cyanosis is a blue coloration of the skin and mucous membranes due to the presence of > 5g/dl deoxygenated hemoglobin in blood vessels near the skin surface....
     is an abnormal blueness of the skin, usually a sign of poor oxygen intake. i.e the patient is "cyanotic".


Music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....

  • There is a band called Cyan
    Cyan (band)

    Cyan is a United Kingdom progressive rock band original formed by Rob Reed in 1984, but which split up after a few performances and one demo tape....
    , a British
    United Kingdom

    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
     progressive rock
    Progressive rock

    Progressive rock is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." The term "art rock" is often used interchangeably with "progressive rock", but while there are crossovers between the two genres, they are not identical....
     band from the 1980s and 1990s.


Panelology
Panelology

Comic book collecting is a hobby that treats comic books and related items as collectibles or Visual arts to be sought after and preserved. Though considerably more recent than the collecting of postage stamps or books , it has a major following around the world today and is partially responsible for the increased interest in comics after t...

  • Cyan is the name of a character in the Norwegian
    Norway

    Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
     comic strip Nemi
    Nemi (comic strip)

    Nemi is a Norway comic strip, written and drawn by Lise Myhre. It made its first appearance in 1997 under the title Den svarte siden . At that time it was a very dark cartoon about the Black metal and goth subculture subcultures, but Myhre has turned it brighter with the years, although she still frequently publishes strips about serious...
    .


Photography
Photography

Photography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an ....

  • Cyanotype
    Cyanotype

    Cyanotype is a photographic process that gives a cyan print.The English scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel discovered this procedure in 1842....
    , or blueprint, a monochrome
    Monochrome

    Monochrome comes from the Greek language ?????????? , meaning ?of one color?, which is a combination of ????? , meaning ?alone? or ?solitary?, and ????a , meaning ?color?....
     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
    Prussian blue

    Prussian blue is a very dark blue, colorfast, non-toxic pigment ? one of the first synthetic pigments ? which was discovered accidentally in Berlin in 1704....
     pigment.


See also


  • List of colors
    List of colors

    The following is a complete list of colors with associated articles. See also color names and the list of color topics.Note that a large percentage of the color swatches below are taken from computer-domain-specific naming schemes such as X11 or HTML4 ....