Sky blue

Light sky blue
Light sky blue
Colour coordinates
Hex triplet	#87CEFA
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(135, 206, 250)
HSV (h, s, v)	(203°, 46%, 98%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(80, 55, 233°)
Source	X11 color names
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Brilliant greenish blue
	B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte);

Celeste
Celeste
Colour coordinates
Hex triplet	#B2FFFF
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(178, 255, 255)
HSV (h, s, v)	(180°, 30%, 100%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(95, 38, 192°)
Source	S.Fantetti e C.Petracchi (2001). ; Il dizionario dei colori:; nomi e valori in quadricromia. ; Zanichelli. ISBN 8808079953.
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Very light bluish green
	B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte);

Sky blue
Sky blue
Common connotations
	boys, daylight, water, air, paleness
Colour coordinates
Hex triplet	#87CEEB
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(135, 206, 235)
HSV (h, s, v)	(197°, 43%, 92%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(79, 46, 223°)
Source	X11 color names
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Very light greenish blue
	B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte);

Sky blue is a colour that resembles that of an unclouded sky around noon (azure) reflecting off a metallic surface. The entry for "sky-blue" in Murray's New English Dictionary (1919) reports a first sighting of the term in the article on "silver" in Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia of 1728. However, many writers had used the term "sky blue" to name a colour before Chambers. For example, we find "sky blue" in A Collection of Voyages and Travels (London: Awnsham and John Churchill, 1704), vol. 2, p. 322, where John Nieuhoff describes certain flowers: "they are of a lovely sky blue colour, and yellow in the middle". The sense of this colour may have been first used in 1585 in a book by Nicolas de Nicolay where he stated "the tulbant [turban] of the merchant must be skie coloured".^[1]

Bright blue sky with clouds

Displayed at right is the web colour sky blue.

Variations[]

Celeste[]

Celeste (Spanish: [θeˈleste, se-], Italian: [tʃeˈlɛste], English: /sɪˈlɛst/) is the colloquial name for the pale turquoise blue colour. In Spanish and Italian, as the name indicates (celestial), it is an attempt to reproduce the colour of clear skies. In English, this colour may also be referred to as Italian sky blue. The Japanese equivalent is known as sora iro or mizudori, referring to the colour of the sky or its reflection on the sea.^[2]

Bleu celeste ("sky blue") is a rarely occurring tincture in heraldry (not being one of the seven main colours or metals or the three "staynard colours"). This tincture is sometimes also called ciel or simply celeste. It is depicted in a lighter shade than the range of shades of the more traditional tincture azure, which is the standard blue used in heraldry.^[3]

Gradations[]

The Italian Wikipedia cites Il dizionario dei colori: nomi e valori in quadricromia by S.Fantetti and C.Petracchi and describes multiple variants of Celeste as shown below, plus details as defined in the infobox above.^[4]


name	C	M	Y	R	G	B	HEX
celeste (sky blue, heavenly blue)	030	000	000	178	255	255	B2FFFF
celeste polvere powdery	010	000	000	230	255	255	E6FFFF
celeste pallido (pale)	016	000	003	204	255	255	CCFFFF
celeste velato Veiler overcast	020	010	010	204	230	230	CCE6E6
celeste opaco opaque	050	020	020	128	204	204	80CCCC

Light sky blue[]

Displayed at right is the web colour light sky blue. It is close in shade to baby blue.

Medium sky blue[]

Medium sky blue

Colour coordinates
Hex triplet	#80DAEB
sRGB^B (r, g, b)	(128, 218, 235)
HSV (h, s, v)	(190°, 46%, 92%)
CIELCh_uv (L, C, h)	(82, 46, 210°)
Source	Crayola
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Very light greenish blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Displayed at right is the colour medium sky blue. This is the colour that is called sky blue in Crayola crayons. This colour was formulated by Crayola in 1958.

"Sky blue" appears in the 32, 48, 64, 96 and 120 packs of crayons.

Vivid sky blue[]

Vivid sky blue

Colour coordinates
Hex triplet	#00CCFF
sRGB^B (r, g, b)	(0, 204, 255)
HSV (h, s, v)	(192°, 100%, 100%)
CIELCh_uv (L, C, h)	(76, 78, 226°)
Source	Crayola C.P.
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Brilliant greenish blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Displayed at right is the colour vivid sky blue.

Deep sky blue[]

Deep sky blue

Colour coordinates
Hex triplet	#00BFFF
sRGB^B (r, g, b)	(0, 191, 255)
HSV (h, s, v)	(195°, 100%, 100%)
CIELCh_uv (L, C, h)	(73, 83, 234°)
Source	X11
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Brilliant greenish blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Deep sky blue is an azure-cyan colour associated with deep shade of sky blue.

Deep sky blue is a web colour.

This colour is the colour on the colour wheel (RGB/HSV colour wheel) halfway between azure and cyan.

The traditional name for this colour is Capri.^[5]

The first use of Capri as a colour name in English was in 1920.^[6]

The colour Capri in general is named for the azure-cyan colour of the Mediterranean Sea around the island of Capri off Italy, the site of several villas belonging to the Roman Emperor Tiberius, including his Imperial residence in his later years, the Villa Jovis. Specifically, the colour Capri is named after the colour of the Blue Grotto on the island of Capri.^[7] as it appears on a bright sunny day. Today the island of Capri is a resort island popular with tourists.

The colour name deep sky blue for this colour did not come into use until the promulgation of the X11 colour list in 1987.

Sky-blue waters of the Blue Grotto in Capri

The name Capri is still used for this colour as well as the name deep sky blue.

French sky blue[]

French sky blue

Colour coordinates
Hex triplet	#77B5FE
sRGB^B (r, g, b)	(119, 181, 254)
HSV (h, s, v)	(212°, 53%, 100%)
CIELCh_uv (L, C, h)	(72, 74, 247°)
Source	Pourpre.com
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Brilliant blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the colour French sky blue, which is the tone of sky blue that is called sky blue (bleu ciel) in the Pourpre.com colour list, a colour list widely popular in France.

Spanish sky blue[]

Spanish sky blue

Colour coordinates
Hex triplet	#00AAE4
sRGB^B (r, g, b)	(0, 170, 228)
HSV (h, s, v)	(195°, 100%, 89%)
CIELCh_uv (L, C, h)	(65, 75, 234°)
Source	Gallego and Sanz^[8]
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Brilliant greenish blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Spanish sky blue is the colour that is called celeste (the Spanish word for "sky blue") in the Guía de coloraciones (Guide to colourations) by Rosa Gallego and Juan Carlos Sanz, a colour dictionary published in 2005 that is widely popular in the Hispanophone realm.

Dark sky blue[]

Dark sky blue

Colour coordinates
Hex triplet	#8CBED6
sRGB^B (r, g, b)	(140, 190, 214)
HSV (h, s, v)	(199°, 35%, 84%)
CIELCh_uv (L, C, h)	(74, 36, 225°)
Source	Pantone TPX^[9]
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Light greenish blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Displayed at right is the colour dark sky blue.

This is the colour called sky blue in Pantone.

The source of this colour is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" colour list, color #14-4318 TPX—Sky Blue.^[10]

In culture[]

Sports

Argentina: Following the colours of the Flag of Argentina, in which sky blue (celeste in Spanish) is the predominant colour, many Argentine sport teams feature the colour, including Racing Club de Avellaneda, Belgrano de Córdoba, Racing de Córdoba, Club Atlético Temperley, Atlético Rafaela, Villa San Carlos, Gimnasia y Esgrima de Jujuy, Gimnasia y Tiro de Salta, and Gimnasia y Esgrima de Concepción del Uruguay. In addition, the Argentina national football team is known as the albicelestes due to the white-and-sky blue striping on their jerseys. This colour scheme is featured in other prominent national squads in popular sports such as rugby, field hockey, polo or volleyball, to name a few.
Australia: Sky blue is the main colour of the Australian rugby league team, New South Wales Blues, as it is the official colour of the state they represent.
Italy: Celeste is the main colour of the football team S.S.Lazio of Rome, and one of the two main colours (the other being dark blue) of the football team Calcio Lecco 1912 of Lecco.
United Kingdom Manchester City adopted sky blue as the main colour of their home jersey in 1894 and have used that ever since then.^[11]
Uruguay: The Uruguay national football team has worn a sky blue jersey since 1910, after Uruguayan club team River Plate F.C. wore sky blue while defeating contemporary Argentine powerhouse Alumni Athletic Club. The national team is nicknamed La Celeste. As in Argentina, a number of Uruguayan club teams use sky blue in their uniforms, such as C.A. Cerro, Club Atlético Torque, Club Oriental de Football, and Rocha F.C.

References[]

^ Cited as 1585 in Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 204; Color Sample of Sky Blue: Page 89 Plate 33 Color Sample E6; the quote is from the English translation of Nicolay's Navigations, peregrinations...faicts en la Turcquie (1577).
^ Japanese colours
^ Scott-Giles, C. W. (1958). Boutell's Heraldry (rev. ed.). London & New York: Frederick Warne & Co.
^ S.Fantetti e C.Petracchi (2001). Il dizionario dei colori: nomi e valori in quadricromia. Zanichelli. ISBN 8808079953.
^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Color Sample of Capri: Page 93 Plate 35 Color Sample L7; The color Capri is shown as lying halfway between Cyan and Azure.
^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 191
^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 152 Discussion of the color Capri
^ Gallego, Rosa; Sanz, Juan Carlos (2005). Guía de coloraciones (Gallego, Rosa; Sanz, Juan Carlos (2005). Guide to Colorations) Madrid: H. Blume. ISBN 84-89840-31-8
^ Type the words "Sky Blue" into the indicated window on the Pantone Color Finder and the colour will appear.
^ Pantone TPX Pantone Color Finder—Type the words "Sky Blue" into the indicated window on the Pantone Color Finder and the colour will appear:
^ "Manchester City". Historical Kits. Retrieved 19 November 2020.

[1] Cited as 1585 in Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 204; Color Sample of Sky Blue: Page 89 Plate 33 Color Sample E6; the quote is from the English translation of Nicolay's Navigations, peregrinations...faicts en la Turcquie (1577).

[2] Japanese colours

[3] Scott-Giles, C. W. (1958). Boutell's Heraldry (rev. ed.). London & New York: Frederick Warne & Co.

[4] S.Fantetti e C.Petracchi (2001). Il dizionario dei colori: nomi e valori in quadricromia. Zanichelli. ISBN 8808079953.

[5] Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Color Sample of Capri: Page 93 Plate 35 Color Sample L7; The color Capri is shown as lying halfway between Cyan and Azure.

[6] Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 191

[7] Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 152 Discussion of the color Capri

[8] Gallego, Rosa; Sanz, Juan Carlos (2005). Guía de coloraciones (Gallego, Rosa; Sanz, Juan Carlos (2005). Guide to Colorations) Madrid: H. Blume. ISBN 84-89840-31-8

[9] Type the words "Sky Blue" into the indicated window on the Pantone Color Finder and the colour will appear.

[10] Pantone TPX Pantone Color Finder—Type the words "Sky Blue" into the indicated window on the Pantone Color Finder and the colour will appear:

[MCFC-11] "Manchester City". Historical Kits. Retrieved 19 November 2020.

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