Amber (color)

Amber is an orange-yellow color that got its name from the material known as amber. Due to this, amber can refer not to one but to a series of shades of orange (shown below in the shades of amber color comparison chart), since the natural material varies from nearly yellow when newer to orange or reddish-orange when older.

Amber

Amber as shown in the color box at right is a pure chroma color on the color wheel halfway between orange and yellow. It is a color that is 75% yellow and 25% red.

The first recorded use of amber as a color name in English was in 1500.

Use in automotive lighting

Amber is one of several technically-defined colors used in automotive signal lamps. In North America, SAE standard J578 governs the colorimetry of vehicle lights, while outside North America the internationalized European ECE regulations hold force. Both standards designate a range of orange and yellow hues in the CIE colorspace as "amber". In the past, the ECE amber definition was more restrictive than the SAE definition, but the current ECE definition is identical to the more permissive SAE standard. The SAE formally uses the term "yellow amber", though the color is most often referred to as "yellow". This is not the same as selective yellow, a color used in some fog lamps and headlamps.

Formal definitions

Previously, ECE amber was defined according to the 1968 Convention on Road Traffic, as follows:

Limit towards green	$y\; le\; 0.429$
Limit towards red	$y\; ge\; 0.398$
Limit towards white	$z\; le\; 0.007$

Recent revisions to the ECE regulations have aligned ECE Amber with SAE Yellow, defined as follows:

Limit towards green	$y\; le\; x\; -\; 0.120$
Limit towards red	$y\; ge\; 0.390$
Limit towards white	$y\; ge\; 0.790\; -\; 0.670\; x$

The entirety of these definitions lie outside the gamut of the sRGB color space — such a pure color cannot be represented using RGB primaries. The color swatch to the right is a desaturated approximation, created by taking the centroid of the standard definition and moving it towards the D65 white point, until it meets the sRGB gamut triangle.

Amber in human culture

Computers

• VT220 computer terminals were available with amber colored characters on their CRTs.

Interior Design

• The original Amber Room in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg was a complete chamber decoration of amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors. Due to its singular beauty, it was sometimes dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Religion

• The color amber is associated with Zoroastrianism because of its practice of fire worship in fire temples (actually, the holy fire is simply a representation of the spiritual energy of God [Ahura Mazda ] ).

Sports

• Amber is a color worn by Hull City AFC, an English football team. This is to represent their club nickname of 'The Tigers' and in many kits is used with black.

Symbolism

• Amber is a symbolic color representing energy.

Transportation Planning

• Amber is used in traffic lights and turn signals.

References

External links

• UNECE Regulation No. 6: Uniform Provisions Concerning the Approval of Direction Indicators for Motor Vehicles and their Trailers (E/ECE/324-E/ECE/TRANS/505/Rev.1/Add.5/Rev.3/Amend.2)
• UNECE Regulation No. 48: Uniform Provisions Concerning the Approval of Vehicles with Regard to the Installation of Lighting and Light-Signalling Devices (E/ECE/324-E/ECE/TRANS/505/Rev.1/Add.47/Rev.3/Amend.2)
• Dialight: Transportation Chromaticity Standards A manufacturer's page showing various color definitions on the CIE colorspace.