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red (dict)

Red

For alternate uses see Red (disambiguation) Red is a color at the lowest frequencies of light discernible by the human eye. Red light has a wavelength range of roughly 630-760 nm. Red is an additive primary color, complementary to cyan. It was once considered to be a subtractive primary color, and is still sometimes described as such in non-scientific literature; however, the colors cyan, magenta and yellow are now known to be closer to the true subtractive primary colors detected by the eye, and are used in modern color printing. Lower frequencies are called infrared, or far red. A red filter used in black and white photography increases contrast in most scenes. For example, combined with a polarizer, it can turn the sky black. Films simulating the effects of infrared film (such as Ilford's SFX 200) do so by being much more sensitive to red than to other colors. Oxygenated blood is red due to the presence of hemoglobin. Red light is the first to be absorbed by sea water, so that many fish and marine invertebrates that appear bright red are black in their native habitat.

Usage, symbolism, colloquial expressions

  • Red is the color of warmth, for instance used to indicate warmer areas on a weather map, or for heat-related warnings.
  • Red catches people's attention, and is often used to indicate danger or emergency.
  • Red is the color of both romantic and carnal love, thus the red of a valentine heart and of a "red-light district". But it may also denote anger, as in the expression seeing red, or embarrassment, as in being red-faced.
  • Being the color of blood, red was associated with the god of war, Mars, and the reddish planet Mars became named after him. The phrase "red-blooded" describes someone who is audacious, robust, or virile; it is sometimes used to contrast with a cold or effete "blue blood" although the terms are unrelated in origin.
  • Beginning with the Revolution of 1848, "Socialist" red was used as a color of European Revolutionaries, often in the form of the red flag. It was also used by Garibaldi's camicie rosse ("redshirts") in the Italian Risorgimento, and taken up by Leftist and generally radical groups, while the white of legitimist Bourbon partisans became associated with pre-World War I conservatives.

Color Coordinates

  Hex triplet = #FF0000 or #F00  RGB    (r, g, b)    =  (255, 0, 0)  CMYK   (c, m, y, k) =  (0, 255, 255, 0)  HSV    (h, s, v)    =  (0, 100, 100) 

Variations

  • Scarlet - a shade of red that tends towards red-orange and has no hint of blue
  • Vermilion - a fiery shade of red that tends toward red-orange to a silghtly greater degree than scarlet, prepared from cinnabar, the artificial red sulphide of mercury used as a pigment
  • Pink - a very light, unsaturated red, traditionally the color of pinks
  • Maroon - a deep, dark, brownish (desaturated) red
  • Venetian Red (also known as India Red or Indian Red) - A shade of brownish red prepared from sulphate of iron.
  • Carmine - a dark, blue-tinged red traditionally the color of a dye made from the cochineal insect
  • Rose is a range of colors on the blue side of red
    • Damask specifically refers to the color of the Damask rose.
  • Crimson - a shade of red that has no hint of yellow and leans towards red-violet
  • Cerise - another dark blue-red
  • "Fire Engine Red" - an intense red commonly used on emergency vehicles
  • "Jungle Red" was the nail polish color in The Women.
  • Peach is a range of colors on the yellow side of red and generally tending toward a light tint.

See also

 

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