# If yellow is just as much a color as any other, why is it so hard to see against white? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 10, 2015, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-yellow-is-just-as-much-a-color-as-any-other-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-against-white/724739 "2015-07-10T07:06:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-yellow-is-just-as-much-a-color-as-any-other-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-against-white/724739/21 "2015-07-10T22:10:16Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > I thought brown was dark orange? There’s several colors which, if you darken them sufficiently, result in brown. Yellow and orange are two of them, but also peach, tan, beige, and perhaps others. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-yellow-is-just-as-much-a-color-as-any-other-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-against-white/724739/22 "2015-07-10T22:52:06Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Here is the same text in other colors at the same level of brightness as yellow is usually shown: Yellow is still way too bright. Here it is in perceptual-corrected form: Now in Color! Now in Color! Now in Color! Now in Color! Now in Color! Now in Color! Now in Color! Blue actually looks a tad too bright here (probably because my screen has its color temperature cranked up), but the other colors are pretty close to each other. If you look at the source, you’ll note that the colors are all spectrally pure–the magenta is really just dark red, for instance. It looks pretty bad because our monitors are so dim. If the middle color (gray, which of course is just low-brightness white) were much brighter, the surrounding colors would look great, and still with properly balanced luminance. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-yellow-is-just-as-much-a-color-as-any-other-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-against-white/724739/23 "2015-07-11T01:11:24Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > I think people have covered the physiological aspect but I want to return to the fact that yellow is a very light color compared to the others. > > If you take your standard kindergarten color wheel ([like this](http://kidzone.ws/science/colorwheel.htm)), yellow is far brighter than any other color. As a very quick example, when you look at RGB color tables and see what they call “Yellow” the code is FFFF00. Which is essentially 100% red, 100% green and 0% blue. In terms of total light, we’re at 66% of white. But the RGB code for “Blue” is 0000FF and Red is FF0000, only 33% of the brightness of white. If you lightened up red that much, you’d have to call it Pink. Blue would still be blue, but most people would be calling it “Sky Blue” or “Light Blue” We don’t have a word for “Dark Yellow” and most people would look at you funny for saying that. > > So it is also a linguistic phenomenon. Yellow simply refers to a brighter color than most of our other words. This. Dark yellow is often called “gold” or considered “green” or “orange.” ETA: Or “tan,” then “brown,” as **Nava** said. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-yellow-is-just-as-much-a-color-as-any-other-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-against-white/724739/24 "2015-07-11T01:14:47Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > I thought brown was dark orange? Technically, it’s a low-saturation warm color. It could be a dull orange or a dull red. It’s a moderately broad term in modern English, although the classic type is both dull and dark. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-yellow-is-just-as-much-a-color-as-any-other-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-against-white/724739/25 "2015-07-11T01:18:47Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Yellow is still way too bright. Here it is in perceptual-corrected form: > > Now in Color! > Now in Color! > Now in Color! > Now in Color! > Now in Color! > Now in Color! > Now in Color! > > Blue actually looks a tad too bright here (probably because my screen has its color temperature cranked up), but the other colors are pretty close to each other. > > If you look at the source, you’ll note that the colors are all spectrally pure–the magenta is really just dark red, for instance. It looks pretty bad because our monitors are so dim. If the middle color (gray, which of course is just low-brightness white) were much brighter, the surrounding colors would look great, and still with properly balanced luminance. Not on my laptop. I think you’re hyper-correcting. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-yellow-is-just-as-much-a-color-as-any-other-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-against-white/724739/26 "2015-07-11T01:41:49Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Not on my laptop. I think you’re hyper-correcting. It does depend very much on the screen. I used a common luminance conversion formula, but that doesn’t mean that all displays will behave the same way. Everything from color temperature to gamma settings can have an effect. Nevertheless, there is no display I know of where RGB values make an equal contribution to the final luminance. Blue would be _way_ too bright, and red not far behind. Everything would have a purple cast were that the case. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-yellow-is-just-as-much-a-color-as-any-other-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-against-white/724739/27 "2015-07-11T03:24:36Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > If you take your standard kindergarten color wheel ([like this](http://kidzone.ws/science/colorwheel.htm)), yellow is far brighter than any other color. As a very quick example, when you look at RGB color tables and see what they call “Yellow” the code is FFFF00. Which is essentially 100% red, 100% green and 0% blue. In terms of total light, we’re at 66% of white. But the RGB code for “Blue” is 0000FF and Red is FF0000, only 33% of the brightness of white. If you lightened up red that much, you’d have to call it Pink. Blue would still be blue, but most people would be calling it “Sky Blue” or “Light Blue” We don’t have a word for “Dark Yellow” and most people would look at you funny for saying that. I think this kind of analysis is misleading. After all, magenta is 100% red and 100% blue and doesn’t perceptually appear as bright as yellow FFFF00, and is much easier to read on a white background. I think there’s no need to go beyond the analysis that the difference between white and yellow is just in the amount of blue light, and blue is the colour that we’re least sensitive to, at least in terms of resolution / brightness. Many image format for example save the blue channel at a lower resolution to the others because humans can’t see the difference. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-yellow-is-just-as-much-a-color-as-any-other-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-against-white/724739/28 "2015-07-11T14:30:58Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > I think this kind of analysis is misleading. After all, magenta is 100% red and 100% blue and doesn’t perceptually appear as bright as yellow FFFF00, and is much easier to read on a white background. > > I think there’s no need to go beyond the analysis that the difference between white and yellow is just in the amount of blue light, and blue is the colour that we’re least sensitive to, at least in terms of resolution / brightness. > Many image format for example save the blue channel at a lower resolution to the others because humans can’t see the difference. That’s why Dr. Strangelove’s numbers are better. It’s closer to 21% red, 72% green, and 7% blue. Get rid of green to make magenta, and you’re at 19% brightness, compared to the 93% brightness of yellow. Magenta is nearly 5 times darker. BTW, here’s the best **yellow** I’ve found. I tried to get it as close to orange as I could without it registering as orange, as that allows me to keep it more saturated. Also, bold is your friend for harder to read colors. I also had to darken magenta, as you otherwise get something that’s a kind of a rose pink. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-yellow-is-just-as-much-a-color-as-any-other-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-against-white/724739/29 "2015-07-11T14:33:41Z")
Damn, wolves are color blind … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-yellow-is-just-as-much-a-color-as-any-other-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-against-white/724739.md?page=1)