Does anyone know the orgin of fluorescent fluorescent colors. I work in the printing industry and we use fluorescent inks all the time. I’ve wondered who invented these colors or where they came from for years now.
This site deals with one brand in particular, but maybe it has some of what you’re looking for.
Hope this helps.
AFAIK, the reason that flourescant colours seem so bright is that they are very pure in tone and are tuned specifically to the peak effectiveness of certain colour receptors in the eye.
We do not see all colours at the same intensity, if you were to draw a repsonse curve you would see three peaks that correspond to certain light wavelengths, red, yellow and green, and flourescant colours correspond to the peaks.
Here is partial explanation having to do with the fluorescent properties of certain diagnostic dyes that (I think) can be extrapolated to neon and fluorescent colors in general.
“When fluorescent materials are involved, the effect of color and fluorescence is not so straightforward. LPI materials fluoresce because they contain one or more dyes that absorb electromagnetic radiation over a particular wavelength and the absorption of photons leads to changes in the electronic configuration of the molecules. Since the molecules are not stable at this higher energy state, they almost immediately re-emit the energy. There is some energy loss in the process causing the photons to be re-emitted at a slightly longer wavelength, which is in the visible range. The radiation absorption and emission could take place a number of times until the desired color and brightness is achieved. Two different fluorescent colors can be mixed to interact by a mechanism called cascading. The emission of visible light by this process involves one dye absorbing ultraviolet radiation to emit a band of radiation that makes a second dye glow. Since the human eye is the most commonly used sensing device, most penetrants are designed to fluoresce as close as possible to the eyes peak response.”
The reason fluorescent colors are so bright is that they are fluorescent. In other words they absorb light from one part of the spectrum and emit it at a higher wavelength. Many fluorescent dyes absorb ultraviolet light and emit visible light. This makes them appear brighter than a nonfluorescent dye of the same (visible) color. The original fluorescent dyes were invented in the 1930’s by Bob and Joe Switzer. They founded the DayGlo corporation as described in KneadToKnow’s link.
Link
Color and Fluorescent Brightness
This page above also links to "Why Things Fluoresce" below.
http://www.cnde.iastate.edu/ncce/PT_CC/Sec.4.1.4/Sec.4.1.4.1.htmlThen would it be possible to make a flourescent brown?
-Kris