Royal blue is a deep and vivid shade of blue. It is said to have been created by a consortium of mills in Rode, Somerset, which won a competition to make a robe for Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III. In winning the prize, a business in the village invented the dye and received a certificate to sell it under that name.[3]

Royal blue (traditional)
 
About these coordinates     Color coordinates
Hex triplet#002366
sRGBB (r, g, b)(0, 35, 102)
HSV (h, s, v)(219°, 100%, 40%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)(16, 44, 260°)
SourceThe Mother of All HTML Colo(u)r Charts[1]
ISCC–NBS descriptorDeep blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
Royal blue (web color)
 
About these coordinates     Color coordinates
Hex triplet#4169E1
sRGBB (r, g, b)(65, 105, 225)
HSV (h, s, v)(225°, 71%, 88%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)(48, 103, 260°)
SourceX11
ISCC–NBS descriptorVivid blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
Royal blue (Pantone)
 
About these coordinates     Color coordinates
Hex triplet#3D428B
sRGBB (r, g, b)(61, 66, 139)
HSV (h, s, v)(236°, 56%, 55%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)(31, 58, 264°)
SourcePantone[2]
ISCC–NBS descriptorDeep purplish blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Brightness

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The Oxford English Dictionary defines "royal blue" as "a deep vivid blue",[4] while the Cambridge English Dictionary defined it as "a strong, bright blue colour",[5] and the Collins English Dictionary defines it as "a deep blue colour".[6] US dictionaries give it as further towards purple, e.g. "a deep, vivid reddish or purplish blue" (Webster's New World College Dictionary)[7] or "a vivid purplish blue" (Merriam-Webster).[8]

By the 1950s, many people[who?] began to think of royal blue as a brighter color, and it is this brighter color that was chosen as the web color "royal blue" (the web colors when they were formulated in 1987 were originally known as the X11 colors). The World Wide Web Consortium designated the keyword "royalblue" to be this much brighter color, rather than the traditional darker version of royal blue.

Cree Inc. uses the term Royal Blue to describe light emitting diodes in the wavelength range 450–465 nanometers, slightly shorter than the regular blue range of 465–485 nanometers.[9]

Variations

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Queen blue

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Queen blue
 
      Color coordinates
Hex triplet#436B95
sRGBB (r, g, b)(67, 107, 149)
HSV (h, s, v)(211°, 55%, 58%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)(44, 43, 245°)
SourceISCC-NBS
ISCC–NBS descriptorModerate blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Queen blue is a medium tone of royal blue.

The first recorded use of queen blue as a color name in English was in 1926. Before that, since 1661, this color had been called queen's blue.[10]

Imperial blue

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Imperial blue
 
      Color coordinates
Hex triplet#005A92
sRGBB (r, g, b)(0, 90, 146)
HSV (h, s, v)(203°, 100%, 57%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)(37, 57, 247°)
SourcePantone[11]
ISCC–NBS descriptorModerate blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Imperial blue is recorded as an alternative name for the traditional royal blue color above.[1] The name is also used for a distinct, medium blue color by Pantone.

In culture

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Literature
Auto racing
Flags
Australian rules football
Football
  • Royal blue is the official colour of the shirts of Birmingham City F.C., whose nickname in consequence is Blues.
  • Royal blue is the colour of the shirts of FC Schalke 04 and also one of their nicknames.
  • Royal blue is the colour of the shirts of Everton F.C. and The Blues is one of their nicknames.
American football
Ice hockey
Uniforms
University
  • Imperial blue is the brand colour of the Imperial College London, which is used through all College communications.
  • Royal blue is the brand colour of Yonsei University, used in its emblem, flag, and various university designs.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "The Mother of All HTML Colo(u)r Charts". Archived from the original on 30 March 2004.
  2. ^ "PANTONE 19-3955 TCX Royal Blue". Pantone. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  3. ^ "The Origin of Royal Blue". Rode History. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
  4. ^ "royal blue". Oxford Living Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on January 22, 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  5. ^ "royal blue". Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  6. ^ "royal blue". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  7. ^ "royal blue". Webster's New World College Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  8. ^ "royal blue". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  9. ^ "XLamp XP-E2 LEDs | Cree LEDs".
  10. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill Page 201; Color Sample of Queen Blue: Page 95 Plate 36 Color Sample B8
  11. ^ "PANTONE 19-4245 TCX Imperial Blue". Pantone. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  12. ^ "Flags – Ministry for Culture and Heritage". Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  13. ^ Uniform Market News July 2008:
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