Black

This article is about the color. For the race, see black people. For other uses, see Black (disambiguation).

Black
 
Clockwise, from top left: Anubis statue; American black bear; Galaxy NGC 406; The Supreme Court of the United States in October 2022; Portrait painting of Queen Victoria.
About these coordinates     Color coordinates
Hex triplet#000000
sRGBB (r, g, b)(0, 0, 0)
HSV (h, s, v)(0°, 0%, 0%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)(0, 0, 0°)
SourceHTML/CSS[1]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
H: Normalized to [0–100] (hundred)

Black is a color[2] that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey.[3] It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.[4] Black and white have often been used to describe opposites such as good and evil, the Dark Ages versus Age of Enlightenment, and night versus day. Since the Middle Ages, black has been the symbolic color of solemnity and authority, and for this reason it is still commonly worn by judges and magistrates.[4]

Black was one of the first colors used by artists in Neolithic cave paintings.[5] It was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as the color of the underworld.[6] In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, and over the centuries it was frequently associated with death, evil, witches, and magic.[7] In the 14th century, it was worn by royalty, clergy, judges, and government officials in much of Europe. It became the color worn by English romantic poets, businessmen and statesmen in the 19th century, and a high fashion color in the 20th century.[4] According to surveys in Europe and North America, it is the color most commonly associated with mourning, the end, secrets, magic, force, violence, fear, evil, and elegance.[8]

Black is the most common ink color used for printing books, newspapers and documents, as it provides the highest contrast with white paper and thus is the easiest color to read. Similarly, black text on a white screen is the most common format used on computer screens.[9] As of September 2019, the darkest material is made by MIT engineers from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes.[10]

  1. ^ "CSS Color Module Level 3". 19 June 2018. Archived from the original on 29 November 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2007.
  2. ^ "Are Black and White Colors? | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
  3. ^ "Definition of achromatic". Free Dictionary. Archived from the original on 17 August 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Eva Heller, Psychologie de la couleur – effets et symboliques, pp. 105–26.
  5. ^ St. Clair 2016, p. 262.
  6. ^ Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-05120-7.
  7. ^ St. Clair 2016, p. 261.
  8. ^ Eva Heller (2000) Psychologie de la couleur – effets et symboliques, pp. 105–27.
  9. ^ Eva Heller, Psychologie de la couleur – effets et symboliques, p. 126.
  10. ^ Jennifer, Chu (12 September 2019). "MIT engineers develop "blackest black" material to date". MIT News Office. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.