Spectral color

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Spectral color

A spectral color is a color that is evoked by a single wavelength

Wavelength

In physics, wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a propagating wave of a given frequency. It is commonly designated by the Greek language letter lambda ....
of 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....
in 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....
, or by a relatively narrow band of wavelengths. Every wavelength of light is perceived as a spectral color, in a continuous spectrum; the colors of sufficiently close wavelengths are indistinguishable.

The spectrum is often divided up into named colors, though any division is somewhat arbitrary: the spectrum is continuous.

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Encyclopedia

A spectral color is a color that is evoked by a single wavelength

Wavelength

In physics, wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a propagating wave of a given frequency. It is commonly designated by the Greek language letter lambda ....
of light

Light

Visible spectrum

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....
, orange, 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....
, 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....
, 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....
, and violet

Violet (color)

As the name of a color, violet is used in two senses: first, referring to the color of light at the short-wavelength end of the optical spectrum, approximately 380?420 nanometre when indigo is recognized, or more commonly 380?450 nm ....
.

Indigo

Indigo

Indigo is the color on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nanometre in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet . Although traditionally considered one of seven divisions of the optical spectrum, modern color scientists do not usually recognize indigo as a separate division and generally classify wavelengths shorter...
is often omitted as simply a shade of blue/violet, and cyan

Cyan

Cyan may be used as the name of any of a number of a range of colors in the blue/green part of the spectrum. In reference to the visible spectrum cyan is used to refer to the color obtained by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light or the removal of red from white light....
was not included historically. The first division was by Newton

Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton, Fellow of the Royal Society was an English people physicist, mathematician, Astronomy, Natural philosophy, Alchemy, and Theology and one of the the 100 in human history....
, in his color wheel

Color theory

In the visual arts, color theory is a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual impact of specific color combinations. Although color theory principles first appear in the writings of Leone Battista Alberti and the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci , a tradition of "colory theory" begins in the 18th century, initially within a...
, and he used Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet; a mnemonic

Mnemonic

A mnemonic device is a memory aid. Commonly met mnemonics are often verbal, something such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something, particularly lists, but may be visual, kinesthetic or auditory....
is ROYGBIV.

Among some of the colors that are not spectral colors are:

Grayscale colors, such as White
White

White is a color, the Color vision#Physiology of color perception which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in near equal amount and with high brightness compared to the surroundings....
, Silver
Silver (color)

Silver is the metallic Tints and shades resembling gray, closest to that of polished silver.The visual sensation usually associated with the metal silver is its metallic shine....
, Gray, 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....
Any color obtained by mixing a grayscale color and a spectral color
Purple
Purple

Purple is a general term for the range of shades of color occurring between red and blue. It occurs by mixing the primary colors red and blue in varying proportions, with possibly a very small quantity of the third primary color ....
(similarly, 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....
), which is a mixture of Blue and 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....

The visible spectrum as a combination of spectral colors

Visible light is a blend of (normally) all spectral colors, leading to a common understanding of visible light as "white"; however, depending upon the specific light source, the relative intensity of each color varies. This phenomenon explains why there exists a tinge of color perceived in certain light sources themselves. For example, high pressure sodium and some fluorescent sources have an off-white color. This phenomenon is important in evaluating the effects of light upon humans from light sources that are not matched well to the spectrum of natural sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total spectroscopy of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is Filter ed through the Earth's atmosphere, and the solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon....
. The study of these health effects is dealt with in the field of over-illumination

Over-illumination

Over-illumination is the presence of lighting intensity beyond that required for a specified activity. Over-illumination was commonly ignored between 1950 and 1995, especially in office and retail environments; only since then has the interior design community begun to reconsider this practice....
.

Spectral color

The visible spectrum as a combination of spectral colors

See also