Azure (color)

Azure is a color that looks like the color of the sky on a bright, clear day. It is a pure chroma on the RGB color wheel halfway between blue and cyan. The complementary color of azure is orange.

Meaning of azure

 Azure is one of the national colors of Italy on its Coat of Arms.  Nations which use tones of Azure in their flags include Argentina, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Guatemala, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Palau, San Marino, Somalia, Sweden, and Ukraine.  The European Union uses a vivid tone of azure called royal blue (the web color royal blue) as the background color for its flag.

 The flag of the United Nations is a tone of azure called "United Nations Azure" or "United Nations Blue" (shown below).  It is also the color of the helmets worn by the United Nations peacekeeping forces.

 In Poetry, azure is often used to represent or refer to the sky or Heaven. Azure is often used in France to describe the Mediterranean Sea.

Where the name comes from
The word azure comes from the Persian لاژورد lazhward. Lazhward was the name of a place. This place was famous for a kind of deep blue stone. Now we call this stone "lapis lazuli". It means "stone of Lazhward".

The word came to Old French by the twelfth century. The French used this word to talk about the colors of coats of arms. From the French the word came to the English. The first recorded use of azure as a color name in English was in 1374.Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 190

Heraldry
In heraldry, the word azure simply means "blue". Azure is said to represent Jupiter and sapphires.

It belongs to the class of tinctures called "colors". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of horizontal lines or else marked with either az. or b. as an abbreviation.

In addition to the standard blue tincture called azure, there is a lighter blue sometimes found that is called bleu celeste or "sky blue". Neither azure nor bleu celeste is precisely defined as a particular shade of blue, but azure is consistently depicted in a much darker shade.

Tones of azure color comparison chart
 Azure Mist (web color "Azure") (Hex: #F0FFFF) (RGB: 240, 255, 255) Alice Blue (web color) (Hex: #F0F8FF) (RGB: 240, 248, 255) Bubbles (Xona.com color list) (Hex: #E7FEFF) (RGB: 231, 254, 255) Beau Blue (Plochere) (Hex: #BCD4E6) (RGB: 188, 212, 230) Pinewood Computer Core Complex Elevator Button (Hex: #8CB6E8) (RGB: 140, 182, 232) Baby Blue (Maerz & Paul) (Hex: #89CFF0) (RGB: 137, 207, 240) Light Cornflower Blue (Crayola: Cornflower)  (Hex: #93CCEA) (RGB: 147, 204, 234) Columbia Blue (Columbia University) (Hex: #9BDDFF) (RGB: 155, 221, 255) Baby Blue Eyes (Plochere) (Hex: #A1CAF1) (RGB: 161, 202, 241) Light Sky Blue (web color) (Hex: #87CEFA) (RGB: 135, 206, 250) Sky Blue (web color) (Hex: #87CEEB) (RGB: 135, 206, 235) Medium Sky Blue (Crayola: Sky Blue) (Hex: #76D7EA) (RGB: 118, 215, 234)	 	  Capri (Maerz & Paul) (web color "Deep Sky Blue") (Hex: #00BFFF) (RGB: 0, 191, 255) Maya Blue (www.99colors.net) (Hex: #73C2FB) (RGB: 115, 194, 215) Jordy Blue (Xona.com color list) (Hex: #8AB9F1) (RGB: 138, 185, 241) Aero (Maerz & Paul) (Hex: #7CB9E8) (RGB: 124, 185, 232) Picton Blue (Xona.com color list) (Hex: #45B1E8) (RGB: 69, 177, 232) Khazakstani Azure (Khazakstani Flag) (Hex: #00AFCA) (RGB: 0, 175, 202)	 Ukrainian Azure (Ukrainian Flag) (Hex: #42ADDE) (RGB: 66, 173, 222)  United Nations Azure (United Nations Blue) (UN Flag) (Hex: #5B92E5) (RGB: 91, 146, 229) Bleu de France (Pourpre.com) (Hex: #318CE7) (RGB: 49, 140, 231) Cornflower Blue (web color) (Hex: #6495ED) (RGB: 100, 149, 237) 	 	  Dodger Blue (web color) (Hex: #1E90FF) (RGB: 30, 144, 255) 	  Azure (color wheel) (Hex: #007FFF) (RGB: 0, 127, 255)  Brandeis Blue (Brandeis University) (Hex: #0070FF) (RGB: 0, 112, 255)	  Deep Azure (Crayola: Blue) (Hex: #0066FF) (RGB: 0, 102, 255) Teknikk X8400 (Hex: #2580EC) (RGB: 37, 128, 236) Royal Blue (web color) (Hex: #4169E1) (RGB: 65, 105, 225) True Blue (UCLA sports teams) (Hex: #0073CF) (RGB: 0, 115, 207)  	 	   Bright Navy Blue (Navy Blue (Crayola)) (Hex: #0066CC) (RGB: 0, 102, 204) Denim (Crayola) (Hex: #1560BD) (RGB: 21, 96, 189) Green-Blue (Crayola) (Hex: #1164B4) (RGB: 17, 100, 180) Star Command Blue (ISCC-NBS) (Hex: #007BB8) (RGB: 0, 123, 184) Medium Azure (Azure Blue) (Pantone TPX 17-4139) (Hex: #458AC6) (RGB: 69, 138, 198) Silver Lake Blue (Pantone TPX 17-4030) (Hex: #5D89BA) (RGB: 93, 137, 186) Air Force Blue (RAF) (Royal Air Force flag) (Hex: #5D8AA8) (RGB: 93, 138, 168) Air Superiority Blue (U.S. Federal Standard 595 #FS 5450) (Hex: #72A0C1) (RGB: 114, 160, 193) Wild Blue Yonder (Crayola) (Hex: #A2ADD0) (RGB: 162, 173, 208)	 Forget-Me-Not (ISCC-NBS #181) (Hex: #70A3CC) (RGB: 112, 163, 204) Argentinian Azure (Vexillogy) (color of Argentinian flag) (Hex: #74ACDF) (RGB: 116, 172, 223)  Celestial Blue (Blue Heaven) (Plochere) (Hex: #4997D0) (RGB: 73, 151, 208) Tufts Blue (Tufts University) (Hex: #417DC1) (RGB: 72, 145, 206) Steel Blue (web color) (Hex: #4682B4) (RGB: 70, 130, 180) Cerulean (www.99colors.net) (Hex: #007BA7) (RGB: 0, 123, 167) 	 French Blue (Maerz & Paul) (Hex: #0072BB) (RGB: 0, 114, 187) Honolulu Blue (Detroit Lions) (Hex: #006DBA) (RGB: 0, 109, 176) Blue Yonder (Pantone TPX 18-3937) (Hex: #5072A7) (RGB: 80, 114, 167) 	 Lapis Lazuli (Pourpre.com) (Hex: #26619c) (RGB: 38, 97, 156) 		 Swedish Azure (Swedish flagMost actual Swedish flags are lighter tones of azure.) (Hex: #005B99) (RGB: 0, 91, 153)  Sapphire (Maerz and Paul) (Hex: #0F52BA) (RGB: 15, 82, 186) 	  Royal Azure (Pantone Blue #286) (Hex: #0038A8) (RGB: 0, 56, 186) Air Force Blue (USAF) (United States Air Force) (Hex: #00308F) (RGB: 0, 48, 143) Royal Blue (traditional) (ISCC-NBS) (Hex: #002366) (RGB: 0, 35, 102)

Related pages
List of colors

References