Grey/Gray
— Commonly represents —
boredom, reality, seriousness, neutrality, mediocrity, and contentment
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#808080
sRGBB	(r, g, b)	(128, 128, 128)
Source		HTML/CSS[1]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Grey or gray (see spelling differences) describes the tints and shades ranging from black to white. These, including white and black, are known as achromatic colors or neutral colors. In recent years, "neutral colors" had been reclassified. These "new" neutrals have low colorfulness and/or chroma on the color wheel.

Greys are seen commonly in nature and fashion. Grey paints can be created by mixing complementary colors (that is colors directly opposite on the color wheel, e.g. yellow and violet). In the RGB color model used by computer displays, it is created by mixing equal amounts of red, green, and blue light. Images which consist wholly of neutral colors are called monochrome, black-and-white or greyscale.

In color theory

Most grey pigments have a cool or warm cast to them, as the human eye can detect even a minute amount of saturation.^{citation needed} Yellow, orange and red create a "warm grey". Green, blue, or purple, create a "cool grey".^[2] When there is no cast at all, it is referred to as "neutral grey" or simply "grey".

WARM GREY	COOL GREY
Mixed with 6% yellow.	Mixed with 6% blue.

Two colors are called complementary colors if grey is produced when they are combined. Grey is its own complement. Consequently, grey remains grey when its color spectrum is inverted, and so has no opposite, or alternately is its own opposite.

Artists sometimes use the two different spellings to distinguish between strict combinations of black and white versus combinations that have elements of hue.^{citation needed}

Web colors

There are several shades of grey available for use with HTML and CSS in word form, while there are 254 true greys available through Hex triplet. All are spelled with an a: using the e spelling can cause unexpected errors (this spelling was inherited from the X11 color list), and to this day, Internet Explorer's Trident browser engine does not recognize "grey" and will render it as green. Another anomaly is that "gray" is in fact much darker than the X11 color marked "darkgray;" this is because of a conflict with the original HTML gray and the X11's "gray," which is closer to HTML's "silver." The three "slategray" colors are not themselves on the greyscale, but are slightly saturated towards cyan (green + blue). Note that since there are an even (256, including black and white) number of unsaturated shades of grey, there are actually two grey tones straddling the midpoint in the 8-bit grayscale. The color name "gray" has been assigned the lighter of the two shades (128 also known as #808080), due to rounding up. In browsers that support it, "grey" has the same color as "gray."

Color coordinates

RGB

Grey values result when r = g = b, for the color (r, g, b)

CMYK

Grey values are produced by c = m = y = 0, for the color (c, m, y, k). Lightness is adjusted by varying k. In theory, any mixture where c = m = y is neutral, but in practice such mixtures are often a muddy brown (see CMYK#Why black ink is used).

HSL_and_HSV 

Greys result whenever s is 0 or undefined, as is the case when v is 0 or l is 0 or 1

Aging

The color grey is often associated with aging or the passage of time, likely due in part to the decreased pigment-production of hair follicles in time, corresponding to the greying of human hair.^[3] In this context, grey is often used synonymously with "elderly," as in "the grey pound" or "grey power" (when referring to the economic or social influence of the elderly), or as used by groups such as the Gray Panthers.

In popular culture

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Grey weather

Environmentalism

• Greys has been used pejoratively by environmentalists to describe technophiles as being those who like granite, concrete and other city materials, as opposed to the term "greens" to describe those in favor of environmentalism.

Ethics

• In a moral sense grey is either used
  • pejoratively to describe situations that have no clear moral value, or
  • positively to balance an all-black or all-white view (for example, shades of grey represent magnitudes of good and bad).

Folklore

• In folklore, grey is often associated with goblin folk of several kinds. Scandinavian folklore often depicts their gnomes and nisser in grey clothing. This is partly because of their association with dusk, partly because these races, including elves (see below), often are outside moral standards (black or white).

Journalism

• The "Grey Lady" is the nickname of the New York Times

Military

• In the American Civil War, Confederate Army uniforms were grey, and the war was sometimes called "The Blue and the Gray".

Nanotechnology

• Grey goo is to a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all living matter on Earth while building more of themselves (a scenario known as ecophagy).^[4]

Nazi Germany

• Martin Bormann was called the grey eminence because as the executive secretary to Adolf Hitler, he amassed great power behind the scene because he was the one who controlled access to the Führer. ^[5] The phrase originated as a description of François Leclerc du Tremblay, the French monk who served as advisor to Cardinal de Richelieu.

Neurology

• The substance that composes the brain is referred to as "grey matter", and so the color is associated with things intellectual.
• Grey is associated with former British Prime Minister John Major. His puppet on Spitting Image was entirely grey implying that he was incredibly dull.

Parapsychology

• It has been asserted that those who are suffering from the mental illness of depression have grey auras.^[6]

Parties

• A "grey person" is someone who goes unnoticed, a wallflower.

Psychology

• Grey is often synonymous with things that are dull and boring
• Grey represents pessimism whereas its opposite, optimism, is represented by the color rose.
• A concept that is in a grey area is a concept about which one is unsure what category in which to place it.

Religion

• In the Christian religion, grey is the color of ashes, and so a biblical symbol of mourning and repentance, described as sackcloth and ashes. It can be used during Lent or on special days of fasting and prayer.

Sexuality

• In the bandana code of the gay leather subculture, wearing a grey bandana means that one is into the fetish of bondage. ^{[7] [8]}
• In gay slang, a grey queen is a gay person who works for the financial services industry (this term originates from the fact that in the 1950s, people who worked in this profession often wore grey flannel suits).^[9]

Sociology

• Grey symbolizes mediocrity, the background noise of society.

Cigarette ash

Sound Engineering

• Grey noise is random noise subjected to a psychoacoustic equal loudness curve (such as an inverted A-weighting curve) over a given range of frequencies, giving the listener the perception that it is equally loud at all frequencies.

Sports

• In baseball, grey is the color typically used for road uniforms.

UFOs

• In popular UFO conspiracy theories and in science-fiction, small grey aliens, with large, tear-shaped black eyes are referred to as "little greys".

References

1. ^ W3C TR CSS3 Color Module, HTML4 color keywords
2. ^ Color Palette
3. ^ Dominique Van Neste and Desmond J. Tobin, "Hair cycle and hair pigmentation: dynamic interactions and changes associated with aging," Micron, 35, 3, April, 2004, pp 193-200.
4. ^ Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (June 9, 2004). "Leading nanotech experts put 'grey goo' in perspective". Press release. Retrieved on 2006-06-17.
5. ^ Martin Bormann—The Grey Eminence:
6. ^ Arthur E. Powell The Astral Body and Other Astral Phenomenon Wheaton, Illinois:1927—Theosophical Publishing House Page 12
7. ^ Card showing list of bandana colors and their meanings, available at Image Leather, 2199 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94114
8. ^ Gay City USA Hanky Codes:
9. ^ Rodgers, Bruce Gay Talk (The Queen’s Vernacular): A Dictionary of Gay Slang New York:1972 Paragon Books, an imprint of G.P. Putnam’s Sons Page 99

See also

• List of colors
• Payne's grey
• Davy's grey
• Grisaille
• Black and White Photography

External links

• Three computational biologists’ theory to explain how humans perceive achromatic colors:
• Chart showing a comparison of the achromatic (grey scale) values of the colors on the RYB and RGB color wheels, respectively (the chart is halfway down the webpage):