| 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 |
| ISCC–NBS descriptor | Pale yellow green |
| B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) | |
Beige is variously described as a pale sandy fawn color,[1] a grayish tan,[2] a light-grayish yellowish brown, or a pale to grayish yellow.[3] It takes its name from French, where the word originally meant natural wool that has been neither bleached nor dyed, hence also the color of natural wool.[4][5]
The word "beige" has come to be used to describe a variety of light tints chosen for their neutral or pale warm appearance.
Beige began to commonly be used as a term for a color in France beginning approximately 1855–60; the writer Edmond de Goncourt used it in the novel La Fille Elisa in 1877. The first recorded use of beige as a color name in English was in 1887.[6]
Beige is notoriously difficult to produce in traditional offset CMYK printing because of the low levels of inks used on each plate; often it will print in purple or green and vary within a print run.[citation needed]
Beige is also a popular color in clothing, such as for men's trousers, as well as for interior design.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary
- ^ Webster's New World Dictionary of the English Language, 1964
- ^ Macmillan On-Line Dictionary.
- ^ Le Petit Robert Dictionnaire.
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "beige". Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Maerz and Paul (1930). A Dictionary of Colour. New York, McGraw-Hill, p. 190; Color Sample of Beige: p. 45 Plate 11 Color Sample C2. The color shown above matches the color sample in the book.