Safety orange
Encyclopedia
Hue
Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...
. Its deeper, more saturated shade is known as international orange
International orange
International orange is a color used in the aerospace industry to set things apart from their surroundings, similar to safety orange, but deeper and with a more reddish tone.-International orange :...
. Safety orange is used to set objects apart from their surroundings, particularly in complementary contrast
Color theory
In the visual arts, color theory is a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual impacts of specific color combinations. Although color theory principles first appeared in the writings of Leone Battista Alberti and the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci , a tradition of "colory theory"...
to the azure
Azure (color)
The color bleu de France is displayed at right.Bleu de France is a color that has been associated in heraldry with the Kings of France since the 12th century.-Brandeis blue:...
color of the sky (azure is the complementary color
Complementary color
Complementary colors are pairs of colors that are of “opposite” hue in some color model. The exact hue “complementary” to a given hue depends on the model in question, and perceptually uniform, additive, and subtractive color models, for example, have differing complements for any given color.-...
of orange, and therefore there is a very strong contrast between the two colors). The color is commonly used for high-visibility clothing
High-visibility clothing
High-visibility clothing, a type of personal protective equipment , is any clothing worn that has highly reflective properties or a colour that is easily discernible from any background. Yellow waistcoats worn by emergency services are a common example....
.
ANSI
American National Standards Institute
The American National Standards Institute is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organization also coordinates U.S. standards with international...
standard Z535.1–1998 states how safety orange is defined in the following notation systems:
- Munsell NotationMunsell color systemIn colorimetry, the Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on three color dimensions: hue, value , and chroma . It was created by Professor Albert H...
:
- 5.0YR (Hue) 6.0/15 (Value/Chroma)
- CIEInternational Commission on IlluminationThe International Commission on Illumination is the international authority on light, illumination, color, and color spaces...
Data:
- CIE
- x=0.5510 y=0.4214 Y%=30.05
- Approximate PMS (PantonePantonePantone Inc. is a corporation headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System , a proprietary color space...
) Color (actually, mixing directions):
- Approximate PMS (Pantone
- 13 parts YellowYellowYellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...
, 3 parts Warm Red, 1/4 part BlackBlackBlack is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
Safety orange is the same color as blaze orange, the shade of orange (Color No. 12199) required by United States law
Law of the United States
The law of the United States consists of many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the United States Constitution, the foundation of the federal government of the United States...
(U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade, Section 1150.3) to be on the tips of barrels of replica guns such as airsoft
Airsoft
Airsoft is a sport in which participants shoot round non-metallic pellets launched via replica firearms.Gameplay varies in style and composition but often range from short-term skirmishes, organized scenarios, military simulations, historical reenactments, to competition target shooting events...
guns, and cap or toy guns.
Safety orange is the color usually used in the United States for traffic cone
Traffic cone
Traffic cones, also called traffic pylons, road cones, highway cones, safety cones, construction cones or witches' hats or safety wizards, are usually cone-shaped markers that are placed on roads or footpaths to temporarily redirect traffic in a safe manner...
s, stanchion
Stanchion
A stanchion is an upright bar or post, often providing support for some other object.* An architectural term applied to the upright iron bars in windows that pass through the eyes of the saddle bars or horizontal irons to steady the leadlight. A stanchion is an upright bar or post, often...
s, barrel
Barrel
A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container, traditionally made of vertical wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. Traditionally, the barrel was a standard size of measure referring to a set capacity or weight of a given commodity. A small barrel is called a keg.For example, a...
s, and other construction zone marking devices. OSHA
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Labor. It was created by Congress of the United States under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, signed by President Richard M. Nixon, on December 29, 1970...
requires that certain construction equipment must be painted safety orange. Two large trucking companies, Allied Van Lines
Allied Van Lines
Allied Van Lines is a moving company founded in 1928 as a cooperative non-profit organization owned by its member agents on the east coast of the United States, to help with organizing return loads and minimizing dead-heading . In 1968 it was reorganzied as a standard public company, with shares...
and Schneider National, paint their trucks and trailers safety orange. In Europe, Dayglo orange (or "luminous orange"; RAL
RAL (color space system)
RAL is a color matching system used in Europe. In colloquial speech RAL refers to the RAL CLASSIC system, mainly used for varnish and powder coating.- RAL CLASSIC:...
2005) serves the same purpose.
See also
- Construction site safetyConstruction site safetyConstruction is the most dangerous land-based work sector in Europe, after the fishing industry. In the European Union, the fatal accident rate is nearly 13 workers per 100,000 as against 5 per 100,000 for the all sector average ....
- Fire engine redFire engine redFire engine red is an intense, bright red commonly used on emergency vehicles in the United States and Canada; mostly on, as the name implies, fire engines.Most traditional older fire departments in larger U.S...
- High-visibility clothingHigh-visibility clothingHigh-visibility clothing, a type of personal protective equipment , is any clothing worn that has highly reflective properties or a colour that is easily discernible from any background. Yellow waistcoats worn by emergency services are a common example....
- International orangeInternational orangeInternational orange is a color used in the aerospace industry to set things apart from their surroundings, similar to safety orange, but deeper and with a more reddish tone.-International orange :...
- List of colors
- School bus yellowSchool bus yellowSchool bus yellow is a color which was especially formulated for use on School buses in North America in 1939. The color is now officially known in Canada and the U.S. as National School Bus Glossy Yellow and was originally called National School Bus Chrome. The pigment used for this color was, for...