Shades & Tints Of Blue

"Blue", the hue, is the wavelength of light that most stimulates the blue sensor in the human eye. It is one of the three additive primaries and is present in as a single pixel in all computer display devices. It is one of the most famous colours of all and is the most popular colour among humans. It is associated with commonly associated with the sky, the sea, ice, cold, and sometimes with sadness.

Interestingly, most of the colours that people think of as "blue" are not of this hue at all, but between true Blue and Green. Examples include the sky, the sea, robin's eggs, duck eggs, turquoise and "blue" spruce. Examples of true Blue hue are more limited with just a few minerals, cut gem stones and synthetic chemicals to cover the darker shades. Tints of true Blue suffer badly from the Abney effect meaning that Forget-Me-Not and Cornflower appear to be of Violet hue, but they are not.

It is amazing that such a famous colour should be so rare in nature and the lack of secondary exemplars here demonstrates that beautifully as no other hue is so hard to find examples of! Go figure...

There were a lack good pigments and dyes for Blue from the beginning, with the only really clean and lightfast blues being Lapus Lazuli which was very expensive and Egyptian Blue whose secret of manufacture was lost. Nonetheless there were cheap, temporary options with dirty dyes, so it has always been well represented in clothing if not so much in painting. Such pigments include: Indigo from the plant Indigofera tinctoria, Smalt from powdered cobalt glass, and Woad which was obtained from the plant Isatis tinctoria.

Today there are other spectacular bright and clean blues available such as: Pthalo Blue and synthetic Ultramarine Blue.

Forget-Me-Not	Forget-Me-Not	Blue Plumbago
HSB 235°, 30%, 100% RGB 179, 185, 255
"Forget-Me-Not" is the colour of ...	Forget-Me-Nots are flowering plants of the genus Myosotis. There are approx 200 species in the genus of varying flower colour. This is Myosotis scorpioides or the "True Forget-Me-Not".	Plumbago is a genus of flowering plants comprising more than 10 species of varying colours. This is Plumbago auriculata.

Cornflower	Cornflower	Missing
HSB 235°, 48%, 100% RGB 133, 143, 255
"Cornflower" is the colour of cornflower.	Cornflower, Centaurea cyanus, is a small flowering plant native to Europe. They do vary a little in colour but by_and_large this is what they look like.	If you find another natural object of the colour swatch on the left please email me.

Light Blue	Sapphire	Missing
HSB 240°, 65%, 100% RGB 89, 89, 255
"Blue" is the colour of a cut sapphire.	Sapphires do vary in colour and can be slightly in hue but not enough to put them in the adjacent category which is ...	If you find another natural object of the colour swatch on the left please email me.

Blue	Lapis Lazuli	Missing
HSB 240°, 100%, 100% RGB 0, 0, 255
"Ultra Marine" is the colour of Lapis Lazuli.	Lapis Lazuli is a rock which contains lazurite, a mineral with the formula (Na,Ca)₈[(S,Cl,SO₄,OH)₂\|(Al₆Si₆O₂₄)]. This has an intense blue colour due to the presence of S^-₃ ions. Its colour may vary toward cyan due to impurities. It may be ground to produce natural Ultramarine pigment.	If you find another natural object of the colour swatch on the left please email me.

Dark Blue	Scottish Football Team	Missing
HSB 240°, 100%, 48% RGB 0, 0, 122
"Navy Blue" is the colour of various uniforms although, interestingly, not most naval uniforms. Originally all Navy uniforms were dyed with indigo, so the old versions of this colour and modern imitations are actually Prussian Blue or Cobalt Blue. Some organisations however have taken up the modern hue, which is pure Blue.	Navy Blue is the uniform colour of numerous sporting clubs around the world. These include: Carlton FC, US National Soccer Team, Tottenham Hotspur FC, San Diego Chargers etc. this is the uniform of the Scottish National Football Team.	If you find another natural object of the colour swatch on the left please email me.