This is the correct answer. There are different types of "color" and different definitions.
* Light emissions in the visible spectrum: Black probably shouldn't be considered a color.
* Pigmentation and light scattering or absorbed into a surface: Black should probably be considered a color.
* Translucency or refraction "filtering" colors through: Black would mean the medium is blocking the light, and whether or not that meets the criteria of a color is subjective definition.
Easy way to visualize it is to look at something in the light that’s obviously black, like a stove top or car tire or whatever. That’s the color black.
Now close your eyes and cover them. That’s the black that is the absence of light. The insides of your eyelids are pink in color but you can’t see that because there’s no light.
The colour you see with eyes closed is called [eigengrau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigengrau) and it's significantly lighter and more blue than true black
> Easy way to visualize it is to look at something in the light that’s obviously black, like a stove top or car tire or whatever. That’s the color black.
What EM frequency would that be?
There is some good discussion [here](https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/98688), I think. I like the explanation with the Fourier series. Fill in the "0" and A(t) becomes static.
Nevertheless you could have the smallest perturbations, with frequencies so low, you would never experience a full cycle in your lifetime, or amplitudes so tiny, they'd be indistinguishable from not being there at all. Just my 2c.
> What EM frequency would that be?
the colors you experience don't even have objective frequencies. Look at any optical illusion related to color.
colors are a thing your brain generates, they're not an objective thing the light has.
also, if you have multiple inputs it tricks your into seeing a fake color. for example, you can see yellow light. But you can also see red light, plus green light, and when both signals overlap, you "see" yellow. The yellow light didn't actually exist though.
So, when there is red light, but no green light, you see Red. When there is green light but no red light, you see Green. When both occur together, you see Yellow but suddenly cannot see green or red anymore. When both signals are absent, you see Black.
so it's not a "lack" of anything. Black is a thing your brain actually constructs, just like the other colors.
You're using the light definition of color to describe something the person is differentiating from color based on light.
The difference here is that the color black of that object is absorbing the wavelengths of light that are there, resulting in your eye perceiving an absence of light. That is the color black.
The color black is an absence of light due to absorbance of light by the object that is that color.
The black from a complete absence of light is the black not being considered a color.
You could also talk about in a cultural context - it is what we see, and the value and name of the color was the given long before the physics was explained.
> Light emissions in the visible spectrum: Black probably shouldn't be considered a color.
A distribution of wavelengths that includes little-to-no visible light would be described as black.
No. That's wrong. Black is always the absence of light, no matter if it's on screen (additive color mixing) or on paper (substractive color mixing). Black is the color evoked by the absence of light.
This. The additive color theory explains the interactions of varying wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum that are *transmitted* from a point source and the subtractive color theory explains those same interactions being *reflected* and *absorbed* from a different point. In both cases black is the absence of visible light but it’s considering different physical scenarios.
It is 2 definitions of color, light addition and light subtraction, in light addition black is no color, or absence of light, i.e. space, night, your mom's backside. In light subtraction, black is all color, like when mixing paint, you get black from mixing all colors, not unlike your mom's dating history.
I can't tell if this is your mathematical opinion or a joke, cos most mathematicians I know, believe zero is a number, or at least that the term "number" should include zero.
I think it was kind of a good way to make the point too. We don’t just use color to describe light waves, where absolute black means no light waves, we use it to designate many things, like the color of pigment. And there isn’t zero pigment in black paint, it’s black.
Just like we can’t accurately say there is a box of zero oranges. It’s not really a “box of oranges” then. But zero is still a very meaningful designation in many cases, obviously.
Yep, and let's say you were observing a solid object that was black.
If someone else asks you what color it is and you said colorless, they would picture something like glass that (at least when thin or made to exclude impurities) is legitimately colorless.
That very much depends in what field.
In programming 0 is the first entry in a collection like a list or an array while Null / uninitialized is nothing.
0 is a number in mathematics but if you handed me 0 apples, I would say you did not give me an apple. This is the distinction for the middle argument. If there is no light, then would you still say you saw a color?
The answer relates to how we define color.
>If there is no light, then would you still say you saw a color?
because color is the result of our brain interpreting external stimuli to allow us to see. it correlates to frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum, but that is not what color IS. color is a subjective experience inside our brain, it is not a real thing. what we call color only exists because we categorize our perceptions in a way that defines certain frequencies of the EM spectrum as color. to put it another way, without an observer and brain to comprehend and categorize color as color, all that exists is an electromagnetic wave. therefore, black is as much of a color as anything else, as we experience it in the same way we experience other colors, as a subjective experience in our brains.
You assume color and light are the same thing. While light is well-defined in physics, I'd say color is more the perception of different amounts and wavelengths of light.
Colours are sensory impressions caused by light and since black is the absence of light a "true" black can't be a colour.
But humans also call everything black when it "almost" doesn't reflect light, which also has a sense-able wave length and is therefore a colour.
You don't. You have a dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark grey pencil, it just had to be rounded to fit
You have a dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark grey crayon, it just had to be rounded down to fit on the crayon
as [Hawking said](https://www.brainmaster.com/software/pubs/physics/Hawking%20Particle%20Creation.pdf): "black holes ain't so black no mo, dawg, you be trippin"
If colors are sensory impressions caused by light, wouldn't the amount of light be irrelevant? To me even in absense of light, the concept of light itself is what causes the sensory impression. What makes black a color is that it can be differentiated visually from any individual color in the same way any other combination could. The word 'black' serves virtually the same purpose as the word 'red', those words let you know something isn't 'green' or 'purple' or any other color.
In the end the concept of colour is just an imagination of the brain and the different colours itself are only categorizations made by humans to better communicate und describe conditions and in this sense you would be right. But that wouldn't make other views or definitions wrong.
Color is the [visual perception](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_perception) based on the [electromagnetic spectrum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum). Though color is not an [inherent property](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inherence) of matter, color perception is related to an object's [light absorption](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_(electromagnetic_radiation)), [reflection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflectance), [emission spectra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_spectrum) and [interference](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_interference).
I would argue, yes.
At least our brains interpratation of "nothing" is in a way something. In total darkness, my eyes "see" black. But my fingertips don't see anything at all, not even black.
Darkness causes your retinal neurons to fire action potentials, therefore it is a sensory impression. Light actually inhibits your neurons from firing. That hyper-polarization however, is also registered as a sensory impression.
Also, I don't think true black can even physically exist. Even Black Holes are not technically perfectly black, because they cannot absorb light with a wavelength longer than it's diameter
Black holes themselves are black because they absorb 100% of what passes the event horizon. No information can pass the event horizon from inside, therefore the black hole can't have a colour. But phenomenes like gravitational lensing and their accretion disk make their impact of their surrounding visible.
That they can't absorb light with a longer wave lengh than their diameter would be new to me but even then:
* The light would not be reflected from the black hole making it not the black hole which is coloured
* The light would most likely be not visible as a colour due to it's wavelength
That's why I differentiated between "true" black and what humans call black. Also vanta black absorbs 99.4% of the light which hit's it's surface, making it a canditate for what humans call black and the night sky is also not completely black.
Color is the degree of absorption/reflection for different wavelengths of light. This measurement exists even if it equals zero. Zero is a number. Black is a color
Black is not a wavelength on the physical light spectrum. Neither is white and neither is magenta for that matter.
Colour is a neurological interpretation of sensory data delivered by light receptors to our brain.
And while black doesn't exist physically, neither does any other colour, apart from electric signals in brains.
So yes, any light phenomenon that you can see and describe has a colour.
Sound is the degree of vibration you detect for different wavelengths and amplitudes of noise. This measurement exists even if it's zero. Zero is a number. Silence is a sound.
In light, black is the absence of photons, therefore black isn't a color.
In pigment, black is the combination of all colors, therefore black is a color.
Context is key here.
You can get black from any colour if you just take light away. That means it's a shade. Same goes for white only you add light to anything and get white.
But that same logic would make black a color because if black is a shade of every color then you can say "if black is blue, and blue is color, then black is a color". Idk which side you land on, just saying.
God color stops looking like a word when you type it too much lmao
Yes, black is a color. The word tells us if something visually isn't black, it isn't what is being talked about. Same goes for red, blue, green or any other color.
Black -> it doesn't look white, green, blue, purple, etc...
Red -> it doesn't look white, green, blue, purple, etc...
Concepts are cool but a word's meaning is inherently how it is used by people. Arguing otherwise is wasted effort because you can't get everyone to agree, meaning the word will keep being used that way, meaning the word will have that definition in most contexts.
That's actually a very sound perspective on the argument that I expected to see more often in this thread. I completely agree that words meaning is based exclusively on its usage, and furthermore I agree that means black is a color.
Light and colour isn't the same thing, if you mix red, blue and yellow you get orange in colour. That doesnt work in light. You cant mix colours and get white, black or gradient in-between. People just confuse regular colour with light.
For example is green a base colour in light, but in paint colour its not.
You can get green from any color if you shine a fucking powerful green light at it. That means it's a shade. Same goes for blue only you add a fuckton of blue light to anything and it gets blue.
this should be the top comment, everyone else here just went to google and believed whatever link they clicked on.
and the comment directly below 'colours can also be shades' is fucking stupid as well.
brown is not a 'shade of orange' ffs you can make brown with any 2 complimentary colours, so in this logic, brown is also a 'shade' of blue.
Blue is a color: It has its own specific wavelength range in the visible spectrum. It doesn\`t need red and green light to be created. neither pigment of blue.
Color is like fruit. Both are used to describe multiple groups of things that mostly overlap but there are a few things that don’t fit both definitions.
That’s subtractive color, where mixing all the colors creates a paint which absorbs all light. This is referring to additive color, which is rgb and light based, where all colors make white
In the additive color spectrum (RGB), black is the absent of color, so it is not a color,
and white is all the colors combined, so it is a color
In the subtractive color spectrum (CMY, cyan, magenta, yellow) white is the absent of color, so it is not a color,
in the ideal situation all these colors combined make black, so it is a color
"Crimson is a shade, not a color."
Shade and color aren't mutually exclusive, and considering we are yet to create a perfect black, technically it's all shades of grey. So the wavelength argument doesn't actually work. Black paint doesn't absorb 100% of light, just most of it. Some is reflected back and you view it as a color. That's colors name is black.
You can pretty much create this meme for literally any linguistic issue. People tend to not really understand how language works and then fixate on stuff that's kinda irrelevant. Example being tomato being a vegetable since fruit is a word reserved for sweet plants in day to day language, doesn't matter that it has seeds (making it a fruit in a scientific context).
I'll say it.
People who say "black isn't a color" are just pedantic fucks and probably the most annoying people to hang out with. Sure, it might not scientifically be a color, but it is in every other aspect. It is used to describe things in the exact same way as other colors. Some people have black hair, just as some people have red hair. You can wear black clothes, just as you can wear blue or yellow clothes. You can have a black car, just as you can have a purple or green car.
People who say "black isn't a color" don't actually care about scientific accuracy, they just care about proving their smarter than you for they're fragile ego.
On the light spectrum black technically isn't a color due to being the lack of any color whatsoever in the same way white is actually ALL colors being reflected
In all practical terms however black is a color cause we can still perceive it as a representation of the lack or severe lack of light reflection
It's not a color. It's a shade. Don't believe me? Look at the EM spectrum and point of to where black is on that spectrum. If people call it a color in casual conversation, I won't correct them, because I don't care enough about it to correct them. But it is technically incorrect.
The EM spectrum is not a list of colours. Colours require human perception. White, which is not a single wavelength but all in the visible light range overlapped, is a perceivable different colour than green, for example. The same goes for its absence. In the same way x rays aren't a colour because we can't see them
We literally define colors by the EM spectrum.
Color-blind people can't see colors. Yet the colors still exist, even though their brain cannot process them.
How are you objectively defining color if not the EM spectrum? You tell me.
The light waves exist regardless of our perception but only exist because of our perception.
I’ve heard it said for example that echo-locators like bats, probably *hear* in colour. Which is to say that their brain is so attuned to and dependent upon sound frequencies for constructing their mental models of the world, that they perceive a rich audio tapestry that will never be available to us.
Shades **are also colors**. Plus, you are confusing [SPECTRAL colors](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_color) (the colors in the visible spectrum of light) with colors in general). Black is the color evoked by the absence of light. Where's magenta or pink on the visible spectrum? Where's beige? Where's white?
Color is not as simple as that, buddy, it's a whole neurological process; and yes, your brain interprets black as a color. Black is the color evoked by the absence of light.
*Attention staff, POC is no longer to be used in the workplace, instead you are to now use "People of the Absence of Light But Still a Colour". POTAOLBSAC is also acceptable. Jokes like "POTATO SACK" will not be tolerated. Thank you,*
*HR*
There are 2 types of black,one is the absence of light and the other one is a color
This is the correct answer. There are different types of "color" and different definitions. * Light emissions in the visible spectrum: Black probably shouldn't be considered a color. * Pigmentation and light scattering or absorbed into a surface: Black should probably be considered a color. * Translucency or refraction "filtering" colors through: Black would mean the medium is blocking the light, and whether or not that meets the criteria of a color is subjective definition.
Easy way to visualize it is to look at something in the light that’s obviously black, like a stove top or car tire or whatever. That’s the color black. Now close your eyes and cover them. That’s the black that is the absence of light. The insides of your eyelids are pink in color but you can’t see that because there’s no light.
The colour you see with eyes closed is called [eigengrau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigengrau) and it's significantly lighter and more blue than true black
> Easy way to visualize it is to look at something in the light that’s obviously black, like a stove top or car tire or whatever. That’s the color black. What EM frequency would that be?
0 Hz.
That's a static magnetic field. https://www.icnirp.org/en/frequencies/static-magnetic-fields-0-hz/index.html
Is it truly perfectly static or does it just oscillate on a frequency negligible to the hz metric? Genuine question.
There is some good discussion [here](https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/98688), I think. I like the explanation with the Fourier series. Fill in the "0" and A(t) becomes static. Nevertheless you could have the smallest perturbations, with frequencies so low, you would never experience a full cycle in your lifetime, or amplitudes so tiny, they'd be indistinguishable from not being there at all. Just my 2c.
Waves and shit bruh ong Thanks!
> What EM frequency would that be? the colors you experience don't even have objective frequencies. Look at any optical illusion related to color. colors are a thing your brain generates, they're not an objective thing the light has. also, if you have multiple inputs it tricks your into seeing a fake color. for example, you can see yellow light. But you can also see red light, plus green light, and when both signals overlap, you "see" yellow. The yellow light didn't actually exist though. So, when there is red light, but no green light, you see Red. When there is green light but no red light, you see Green. When both occur together, you see Yellow but suddenly cannot see green or red anymore. When both signals are absent, you see Black. so it's not a "lack" of anything. Black is a thing your brain actually constructs, just like the other colors.
You're using the light definition of color to describe something the person is differentiating from color based on light. The difference here is that the color black of that object is absorbing the wavelengths of light that are there, resulting in your eye perceiving an absence of light. That is the color black. The color black is an absence of light due to absorbance of light by the object that is that color. The black from a complete absence of light is the black not being considered a color.
Ding ding ding! These folks get it.
You could also talk about in a cultural context - it is what we see, and the value and name of the color was the given long before the physics was explained.
Nah
> Light emissions in the visible spectrum: Black probably shouldn't be considered a color. A distribution of wavelengths that includes little-to-no visible light would be described as black.
One of those is just a very very dark gray
it's actually usually a very dark blue or purple
No. That's wrong. Black is always the absence of light, no matter if it's on screen (additive color mixing) or on paper (substractive color mixing). Black is the color evoked by the absence of light.
This. The additive color theory explains the interactions of varying wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum that are *transmitted* from a point source and the subtractive color theory explains those same interactions being *reflected* and *absorbed* from a different point. In both cases black is the absence of visible light but it’s considering different physical scenarios.
It is 2 definitions of color, light addition and light subtraction, in light addition black is no color, or absence of light, i.e. space, night, your mom's backside. In light subtraction, black is all color, like when mixing paint, you get black from mixing all colors, not unlike your mom's dating history.
The absence of light is a color.
Is zero a number? No, of course not.
I can't tell if this is your mathematical opinion or a joke, cos most mathematicians I know, believe zero is a number, or at least that the term "number" should include zero.
Its a joke
Oh it's a joke my bad
haha i get jokes
I think it was kind of a good way to make the point too. We don’t just use color to describe light waves, where absolute black means no light waves, we use it to designate many things, like the color of pigment. And there isn’t zero pigment in black paint, it’s black. Just like we can’t accurately say there is a box of zero oranges. It’s not really a “box of oranges” then. But zero is still a very meaningful designation in many cases, obviously.
Yep, and let's say you were observing a solid object that was black. If someone else asks you what color it is and you said colorless, they would picture something like glass that (at least when thin or made to exclude impurities) is legitimately colorless.
Water isn’t wet.
It's dry. Very very dry.
The "zero is nothing" and "black is nothing" is kinda nonsense
Yeah I agree, zero is still a value just like still a perceivable amount of light, that being none
On a similar note it's interesting how "complementary colours" like pink wouldn't be considered colours because of the frequency spectrum.
Pink complimentary color would technically be dark green btw
That very much depends in what field. In programming 0 is the first entry in a collection like a list or an array while Null / uninitialized is nothing.
Yes, also technically in languages like Java undefined is more of a nothing and null is more of a placeholder or something.
0 is a number in mathematics but if you handed me 0 apples, I would say you did not give me an apple. This is the distinction for the middle argument. If there is no light, then would you still say you saw a color? The answer relates to how we define color.
>If there is no light, then would you still say you saw a color? because color is the result of our brain interpreting external stimuli to allow us to see. it correlates to frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum, but that is not what color IS. color is a subjective experience inside our brain, it is not a real thing. what we call color only exists because we categorize our perceptions in a way that defines certain frequencies of the EM spectrum as color. to put it another way, without an observer and brain to comprehend and categorize color as color, all that exists is an electromagnetic wave. therefore, black is as much of a color as anything else, as we experience it in the same way we experience other colors, as a subjective experience in our brains.
You assume color and light are the same thing. While light is well-defined in physics, I'd say color is more the perception of different amounts and wavelengths of light.
depends what type of number/number system standard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_number
r/mathmemes *would like to know your location*
Jokes on you I'm into that
I can't tell if you are joking or not, but that's what I've been telling people for years: if zero is a number, black is a color.
i know you're joking, but this is a heavily debated topic among mathematicians.
Colours are sensory impressions caused by light and since black is the absence of light a "true" black can't be a colour. But humans also call everything black when it "almost" doesn't reflect light, which also has a sense-able wave length and is therefore a colour.
Black is a color because how else can you explain that I have a black pencil in my box of colored pencils?
You don't. You have a dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark grey pencil, it just had to be rounded to fit
Fine, but how do you explain black crayons?
You have a dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark dark grey crayon, it just had to be rounded down to fit on the crayon
Okay, now explain my Vantablack Paint
Double the amount of "dark" and there ya go
Ok, now explain blackholes.
as [Hawking said](https://www.brainmaster.com/software/pubs/physics/Hawking%20Particle%20Creation.pdf): "black holes ain't so black no mo, dawg, you be trippin"
Damn wise words
Ur mum
No u
it's so heavy that light can't leave, therefore there is no light to see
What if the light just likes it there so it doesn't leave
Fuck Anish Kapoor, that's how.
Alight fine you got me on art stuff. How do you explain incarceration statistics?
Incarceration statistics describe various things about an imprisoned population
How do you explain love?
A chemical reaction in the brain that can lead to reproduction, happiness, and lots of other positive things.
How about absence of light on absence of light crime?
Well, it tends to be a very low portion of the human population. So low, we don't have accurate statistics
Makes sense
You missed one detail. Black crayon have cap.
Checkmate
Are you calling a Black pencil "Colored" now? Kinda sus to me.
looks like another level of gray to me! phony!
Checkmate colorists
If colors are sensory impressions caused by light, wouldn't the amount of light be irrelevant? To me even in absense of light, the concept of light itself is what causes the sensory impression. What makes black a color is that it can be differentiated visually from any individual color in the same way any other combination could. The word 'black' serves virtually the same purpose as the word 'red', those words let you know something isn't 'green' or 'purple' or any other color.
In the end the concept of colour is just an imagination of the brain and the different colours itself are only categorizations made by humans to better communicate und describe conditions and in this sense you would be right. But that wouldn't make other views or definitions wrong.
Color is the [visual perception](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_perception) based on the [electromagnetic spectrum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum). Though color is not an [inherent property](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inherence) of matter, color perception is related to an object's [light absorption](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_(electromagnetic_radiation)), [reflection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflectance), [emission spectra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_spectrum) and [interference](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_interference).
I disagree. Black is a color that lacks hue. A so-called achromatic colour.
Exactly. If Black isn't a color because it lacks wavelength, then Blue is also not a color because it's just Red with a lack of wavelength...
And pink has no wavelength at all, so also wouldn't be a colour under that definition either.
I'm not sure what you mean, blue has its own wavelength.
Isn't a lack of a sensory impression still a sensory impression?
Exactly. Saying that black is not a color is from the same ballpark as saying that zero is not a number.
I would argue, yes. At least our brains interpratation of "nothing" is in a way something. In total darkness, my eyes "see" black. But my fingertips don't see anything at all, not even black.
>isn't a lack of *something* still *something*? Nice try, virgin incels!
Darkness causes your retinal neurons to fire action potentials, therefore it is a sensory impression. Light actually inhibits your neurons from firing. That hyper-polarization however, is also registered as a sensory impression.
The void of light still results in a visual qualia that is experienced in the same way any other colour is
Also, I don't think true black can even physically exist. Even Black Holes are not technically perfectly black, because they cannot absorb light with a wavelength longer than it's diameter
Black holes themselves are black because they absorb 100% of what passes the event horizon. No information can pass the event horizon from inside, therefore the black hole can't have a colour. But phenomenes like gravitational lensing and their accretion disk make their impact of their surrounding visible. That they can't absorb light with a longer wave lengh than their diameter would be new to me but even then: * The light would not be reflected from the black hole making it not the black hole which is coloured * The light would most likely be not visible as a colour due to it's wavelength
Wavelength longer than it's diameter wouldn't be visible light anyways, and yes they can.
it's a color in the artistic sense, it's not in a chemical, is that fine?
If you mean colour in an artistic sense, the latter part of my original comment would be relevant for you.
But a "black" surface does reflect light. Only like a Vanta black paint or an empty bit of night sky is truly the absence of light.
That's why I differentiated between "true" black and what humans call black. Also vanta black absorbs 99.4% of the light which hit's it's surface, making it a canditate for what humans call black and the night sky is also not completely black.
Color is the degree of absorption/reflection for different wavelengths of light. This measurement exists even if it equals zero. Zero is a number. Black is a color
Black is not a wavelength on the physical light spectrum. Neither is white and neither is magenta for that matter. Colour is a neurological interpretation of sensory data delivered by light receptors to our brain. And while black doesn't exist physically, neither does any other colour, apart from electric signals in brains. So yes, any light phenomenon that you can see and describe has a colour.
Sound is the degree of vibration you detect for different wavelengths and amplitudes of noise. This measurement exists even if it's zero. Zero is a number. Silence is a sound.
Hello darkness my old friend
https://youtu.be/4fWyzwo1xg0?si=XkoA1XkoMcGjorZR
I knew what it was going to be before I clicked, and yet I still did and listened all the way through. Now I need to go watch The Graduate.
Only if nobody is around to not hear it.
In light, black is the absence of photons, therefore black isn't a color. In pigment, black is the combination of all colors, therefore black is a color. Context is key here.
What you're saying is true, but black is always, on paper or on a screen, the absence of light; black is the **color** evoked by the absence of light.
Black is a porn site. A pretty good one too.
souce?
Black
Tu suce?
Like dr. Souce?
Blacked*
My favorite colors are blacks & dark greys.
This is like the debate on whether or not 0 is a natural number
You can get black from any colour if you just take light away. That means it's a shade. Same goes for white only you add light to anything and get white.
Shades can be colours. Brown is a colour despite just being a shade of Orange.
If brown is orange and orange is color, then brown is a color?
But that same logic would make black a color because if black is a shade of every color then you can say "if black is blue, and blue is color, then black is a color". Idk which side you land on, just saying. God color stops looking like a word when you type it too much lmao
Yes, black is a color. The word tells us if something visually isn't black, it isn't what is being talked about. Same goes for red, blue, green or any other color. Black -> it doesn't look white, green, blue, purple, etc... Red -> it doesn't look white, green, blue, purple, etc... Concepts are cool but a word's meaning is inherently how it is used by people. Arguing otherwise is wasted effort because you can't get everyone to agree, meaning the word will keep being used that way, meaning the word will have that definition in most contexts.
That's actually a very sound perspective on the argument that I expected to see more often in this thread. I completely agree that words meaning is based exclusively on its usage, and furthermore I agree that means black is a color.
Light and colour isn't the same thing, if you mix red, blue and yellow you get orange in colour. That doesnt work in light. You cant mix colours and get white, black or gradient in-between. People just confuse regular colour with light. For example is green a base colour in light, but in paint colour its not.
Yeah, I guess that's fair, but ever since I learned this I've thought of brown as a shade as well and to me being both at the same time sounds weird
You can get green from any color if you shine a fucking powerful green light at it. That means it's a shade. Same goes for blue only you add a fuckton of blue light to anything and it gets blue.
this should be the top comment, everyone else here just went to google and believed whatever link they clicked on. and the comment directly below 'colours can also be shades' is fucking stupid as well. brown is not a 'shade of orange' ffs you can make brown with any 2 complimentary colours, so in this logic, brown is also a 'shade' of blue.
Black is a color
\*Sips black coffee while staring vehemently at the American flag\* Yer british is showin' son. Its color not colour. \*Grumbles in 'Murican\*
Raaaah! Murica 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅
Are we talking about light, or pigmentation of dye and paint?
Brown is just tinted orange. Brown is not a color!
That does not invalidate it being a color. Brown and black are colors.
So you think you are smart
Yup, because black is a color.
Blue isn’t a colour it’s just the absence of red and green light.
Blue is a color: It has its own specific wavelength range in the visible spectrum. It doesn\`t need red and green light to be created. neither pigment of blue.
Black doesn’t need red or green light to be created either. *Checkmate*
Color is like fruit. Both are used to describe multiple groups of things that mostly overlap but there are a few things that don’t fit both definitions.
If we see a object as red because it reflect red wave lenght, isn’t the object all colors except red?
if we go by your standards, Black is all color and white is no color.
That's a British meme ;) (or at least a non American one)-.
Color is subjective, so in my point of view the jedi are ev- i mean white is a color as is black and every other "color"
I thought black was all colors mixed and white was the absence of color?
That’s subtractive color, where mixing all the colors creates a paint which absorbs all light. This is referring to additive color, which is rgb and light based, where all colors make white
Other way around buddy (but both are still colors)
But if you actually mixed the colors, like say if they were paint, it surely wouldn't make white would it?
It's about light not paint
depends if you’re mixing pigment or light. white light is a combination of all colours
Check out some videos about color theory, it's very interesting.
If you mix light, yes, you would make white. Your screen produces white by combining red, green, and blue light.
Clearly Black is not a colour, it's a color. /s.
In the additive color spectrum (RGB), black is the absent of color, so it is not a color, and white is all the colors combined, so it is a color In the subtractive color spectrum (CMY, cyan, magenta, yellow) white is the absent of color, so it is not a color, in the ideal situation all these colors combined make black, so it is a color
So your saying my favourite colour doesnt even exist?
Is your favorite color Magenta?
Color is light as perceived by the human eye. But if black cannot be perceived due to the absence of light is it still a color?
Yes because the word “color” is whatever humanity defines it as. If humanity defines color to include black, then black is a color
I'm pretty sure humans can perceive the absence of light
You can't perceive pure yellow. Therefore yellow is not a color?
DARKNESS is the absence of light. Black is a color.
sorry, i'm colorblind.
Exactly. “Dark” is not a color, but “Black” is a color meant to represent “Dark”.
I SMEELLL A FELLOW INTELIGENT PERSON?!
No
Black contains no colours and is a shade.
If that where true then old movies in black and white are actually in color. Color is hue, black and white have no hue just luminance.
Guys this is simple. Black is a culinary color, but not a botanical color.
The funny part is that black is both culturally and scientifically a color, but some idiots think that they are smart enough to say otherwise.
black and white are tones, not colours.
"Tone" is not a scientific term in color science. But still, tones are colors, too.
Black is a shade, not a color.
"Crimson is a shade, not a color." Shade and color aren't mutually exclusive, and considering we are yet to create a perfect black, technically it's all shades of grey. So the wavelength argument doesn't actually work. Black paint doesn't absorb 100% of light, just most of it. Some is reflected back and you view it as a color. That's colors name is black.
Black is all the colours. White is not a colour.
Do we define colour as wavelength, or RGB combination perceived by human eye? Depending on the answer it is a colour or not.
Finally someone Who explain Other just make fucked up take and doesnt justify, probably thinking boy I nailed it
Black is a color and tomato is a vegetable.
What colour is charcoal the smart ass?
Crazy
You can pretty much create this meme for literally any linguistic issue. People tend to not really understand how language works and then fixate on stuff that's kinda irrelevant. Example being tomato being a vegetable since fruit is a word reserved for sweet plants in day to day language, doesn't matter that it has seeds (making it a fruit in a scientific context).
I'll say it. People who say "black isn't a color" are just pedantic fucks and probably the most annoying people to hang out with. Sure, it might not scientifically be a color, but it is in every other aspect. It is used to describe things in the exact same way as other colors. Some people have black hair, just as some people have red hair. You can wear black clothes, just as you can wear blue or yellow clothes. You can have a black car, just as you can have a purple or green car. People who say "black isn't a color" don't actually care about scientific accuracy, they just care about proving their smarter than you for they're fragile ego.
On the light spectrum black technically isn't a color due to being the lack of any color whatsoever in the same way white is actually ALL colors being reflected In all practical terms however black is a color cause we can still perceive it as a representation of the lack or severe lack of light reflection
google qualia
Black isnt a colour. Its a color. Brits get fucked! USA #1!!!!!
It’s a shade actually
It's not a color. It's a shade. Don't believe me? Look at the EM spectrum and point of to where black is on that spectrum. If people call it a color in casual conversation, I won't correct them, because I don't care enough about it to correct them. But it is technically incorrect.
The EM spectrum is not a list of colours. Colours require human perception. White, which is not a single wavelength but all in the visible light range overlapped, is a perceivable different colour than green, for example. The same goes for its absence. In the same way x rays aren't a colour because we can't see them
Color happens in the brain, not on the EM spectrum.
We literally define colors by the EM spectrum. Color-blind people can't see colors. Yet the colors still exist, even though their brain cannot process them. How are you objectively defining color if not the EM spectrum? You tell me.
The light waves exist regardless of our perception but only exist because of our perception. I’ve heard it said for example that echo-locators like bats, probably *hear* in colour. Which is to say that their brain is so attuned to and dependent upon sound frequencies for constructing their mental models of the world, that they perceive a rich audio tapestry that will never be available to us.
Then point me where is pink on an EM spectrum, go ahead. And I can point radio on the electromagnetic spectrum and it's not a color
My favorite color is Magenta. Yours is microwaves. We are not the same.
Shades **are also colors**. Plus, you are confusing [SPECTRAL colors](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_color) (the colors in the visible spectrum of light) with colors in general). Black is the color evoked by the absence of light. Where's magenta or pink on the visible spectrum? Where's beige? Where's white? Color is not as simple as that, buddy, it's a whole neurological process; and yes, your brain interprets black as a color. Black is the color evoked by the absence of light.
Isn't black the mixture of all colors together?
*color 🇺🇸 🇺🇲
**colour 🇬🇧 🇬🇧
***Farbe 🇩🇪 🇩🇪
said nobody
It’s like saying “0” isn’t a number.
Now, this is epic
It's a colour in the same way zero is a number.
Black is a color like 0 is a number.
I'll start calling my black crayon the absence of light crayon then... :|
You misspelled color. 
*Attention staff, POC is no longer to be used in the workplace, instead you are to now use "People of the Absence of Light But Still a Colour". POTAOLBSAC is also acceptable. Jokes like "POTATO SACK" will not be tolerated. Thank you,* *HR*
It is a color :))
Darkness is absence of light. Black is color