Absolute Zero color
Absolute Zero is the color of the blue color spectrum. It belongs to the dark azure colour subspectrum.
Here you can see how the color Absolute Zero looks alongside its neighbors on the color wheel:
Absolute Zero in the middle
Color psychology
As it was already mentioned, Absolute Zero is a type of blue color. In its meaning, blue is associated with intelligence, calmness, logic, thoughtfulness and lack of strong emotions. Blue is a soothing color that evokes deep thoughts and encourages thinking. It is also a symbol of rationality and science. Rather than encouraging straightforward action, blue stimulates brainwork and planning before doing.
Blue is also considered to be one of the male colors
, which is why it is typically featured on goods branded for men, rather than women. Its connotations of practicality and stability make variations of blue popular with websites of business companies and legal aid firms. Blue is also a signature color of several international organizations, such as the European Union, and it might be beneficial to capitalize on that of your company wishes to accent its connection to European traditions and practices.
It is still important to remember, however, that the meaning of blue color, and thus also Absolute Zero, often depends on personal associations and preferences. It means that if used creatively, it can be employed for any marketing and branding purpose.
Web specifications
Web specifications of the Absolute Zero color include its representations in various color models. A color model is an abstract, mathematical way of describing any color via a combination of numerical parameters.
RGB
The RGB or Red, Green, Blue color model is a color model that describes any color as a mixture of red, green, and blue colors. This is an additive color model, meaning that it adds different amounts of red, green and blue to black, black being the absence of color. The Absolute Zero color consists of 0% red, 28% green and 73% blue. In absolute RGB units (where the minimum is 0 and the maximum is 255) it is 0 red, 71 green and 186 blue. In other words, the RGB code of the Absolute Zero color is rgb(0, 71, 186).
RGB charts
The RGB charts of the color Absolute Zero:
CMYK
The CMYK or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (black) color model is a color model that describes any color as a mixture of cyan, magenta, and yellow colors. This is a subtractive color model, mainly used in printing, meaning that it subtracts different amounts of cyan, magenta, yellow and black from white, where white is the natural color of paper. The Absolute Zero color consists of 100% cyan, 61% magenta, 0% yellow and 27% black. In other words, the CMYK code of the Absolute Zero color is cmyk(100%, 61%, 0%, 27%)
CMYK charts
The CMYK charts of the color Absolute Zero:
HEX
The HEX or hexadecimal color model is a color model that describes colors with a combination of six or three (shortened version when applicable) hexadecimal values, ranging from 0 to 9 and from a (representing 10) to f (representing 15). The six characters are divided into three pairs, where the first two characters represent the color red, the middle two - green, and the last two - blue. Much like the RGB color model HEX describes any color as a combination of red, green and blue with the minimum of 0 (00 in HEX) and the maximum of 255 (ff in HEX). The HEX code of the Absolute Zero color is 0048BA.
HSV
The HSV or Hue, Saturation, Value color model is a color model that describes color as belonging to a particular hue (numerical value of belonging to a certain part of the visible color spectrum), as well as having a certain degree of saturation (distance to the non-spectral colors gray and white) and lightness (Value; distance to the non-spectral color black). The HSV code of the Absolute Zero color is hsv(217, 1%, 0.73%).
HSL
The HSL or Hue, Saturation, Lightness color model is a color model that describes color as belonging to a particular hue (numerical value of belonging to a certain part of the visible color spectrum), as well as having a certain degree of saturation (distance to the non-spectral color gray) and lightness (distance to the non-spectral colors black and white). The HSL code of the Absolute Zero color is hsl(217, 100%, 37%).
Web safe colors
Web safe colors comprise 216 colors that in the past were the only colors guaranteed to be displayed properly on any operating system and any (up-to-date technology-wise) monitor. This palette comes from times when monitors could only display 256 colors, and only 216 of them were the same on all the major operating systems. Nowadays, web safe colors are rarely used exclusively, as the abovementioned limitations do not exist anymore. However, if you want to make a website in the '90s design, it is useful to know that Absolute Zero is not one of the web safe colors.
Color blindness
Color blindess or, in medical terms, color vision deficiency is a medical condition which decreases the ability to see certain colors or differences between colors. Colorblind people may experience problems with distinguishing and/or noticing objects in certain environments or on certain backgrounds, matching colors in, for example, clothing or operating color-coded systems, e.g. buttons of a visual computer interface. Color blindness is an umbrella term, comprising a number of different conditions. Here you will find information about how the Absolute Zero color is perceived under various types of color vision deficiency.
Monochromacy
Monochromacy is the ability to only distinguish colors of a very narrow spectrum corresponding to a single light frequency. In other words, monochromats are only able to see shades, tints and tones of a single colour.
Achromatopsia
A person with achromatopsia, that is inability to perceive any colors other than black, white and shades of gray, sees the Absolute Zero color as the color rgb(64, 64, 64), which you can see beside this description. This is similar to seeing everything in grayscale, i.e. in black-and-white vision.
When ordering a web site or design that people with color vision deficiency may use, it is advisable to consult the Arteqo development team about this, as usually such a project requires color palette adaptation. One of our top priorities is to ensure that our websites are accessible to everyone, which is why the use of the color Absolute Zero may be limited.
Color theory
Color theory is a discipline that studies the use of color combinations is design and art. Here you will find the basic combinations for the Absolute Zero color, discover when to use them, how to expand and modify them, as well as what effects may be achieved by the use of these sets of colors.
Color theory is based on the use of the color wheel: a visual color model showing all the colors in a sequence according to their wavelengths. Thus, the color wheel demonstrates the relations and transitions between different hues.
The color Absolute Zero, depending on its particular hue, has the wavelength of 450 - 480 nm.
Analogous colors
Analogous colors are colors of different hues located nearby on the color wheel. Depending on a particular representation model, a set of analogous colors may or may not include colors of different saturation and lightness.
An example of four analogous colors of the Absolute Zero color:
hsl(249, 100%, 37%) hsl(233, 100%, 37%) Absolute Zero hsl(201, 100%, 37%) hsl(185, 100%, 37%)
Analogous colors are used to create a uniform, natural palette with well-matched accents. If you wish to order a website design that would be almost universally seen as natural, balanced, serious, an analogous color palette is the way to go. This, of course, also depends on the choice of colors themselves (e.g. red vs. blue), but in general an analogous palette creates a sense of order and systematic approach, which is usually the preferred choice of websites for businesses, manufacturing companies and alike.
Monochromatic colors
Monochromatic colors are a set of colors derived from one basic hue. Thus, such a pallete is just a number of darker and lighter variations of the same color. Much like analogous palettes, monochromatic color sets are cohesive, natural. Its main difference is that it does not allow persuasive accents, which may create a risk of looking boring and dull. However, it should also be noted, that monochromatic palettes are good for establishing corporate color schemes, thus providing help in branding your company.
An example of four monochromatic colors of the Absolute Zero color:
hsl(217, 84%, 21%) hsl(217, 92%, 29%) Absolute Zero hsl(217, 100%, 45%) hsl(217, 100%, 53%)
Monochromatic colors may be the top choice for websites of companies who wish to establish a brand or re-brand themselves, or to emphasize their choice of corporate colors. This palette is also a good choice for establishing a visual background on which accents are placed, in case such a background simultaneously requires to use several color and to be discreet, subtle and unnoticeable. There are also particular situations in which monochromatic palletes shine - minimalistic web design, as well as logotype and other symbol development.
Triadic colors
Triadic colors are a set of three colors with even spaces between them on the color wheel. It is one of the most basic, but versatile color combinations, as it incorporates more than two color of very different hues, which makes it a great choice for a simple but effective design.
The triadic color combination of the color Absolute Zero is:
hsl(337, 100%, 37%) Absolute Zero hsl(97, 100%, 37%)
Triadic palettes produce vibrant, contrastive combinations that are able to create very unique website designs. At the same time, the contrast is not radical, which allows for a balanced look. In general a triadic palette is one of the most universal combinations, as it provides possibilities both for accents and homogenous appearance, depending on the wishes of the client. It also yields itself well, when all the three colors, Absolute Zero and its two triadic partners, are used as accents against neutral backgrounds, i.e. grey, white and black.
Tetradic colors
Tetradic color palette is a combination of four colors that form two complementary (see below) pairs. On a color wheel they appear to be arranged in either a wider rectangle, more narrow rectangle (with two adjascent pairs) or a square, hence the names of the three variations of this palette. Tetradic combinations offer a wide variety of choices, allowing for any kind of design to be produced.
Square
The tetradic square color combination of the color Absolute Zero is:
Absolute Zero hsl(397, 100%, 37%) hsl(307, 100%, 37%) hsl(127, 100%, 37%)
The square pallete is the most coherent out of the three tetradic varieties, as all the colors are evenly spaced out on a color wheel. This means that the transition between the hues happens at an equal pace - there are no sudden jumps
from more similar colors to a less similar color.
Rectangular
There are two possible ways to build a tetradic rectangular color palette for the color Absolute Zero. The first one looks like this:
Absolute Zero hsl(397, 100%, 37%) hsl(337, 100%, 37%) hsl(157, 100%, 37%)
And the second one looks like this:
Absolute Zero hsl(397, 100%, 37%) hsl(97, 100%, 37%) hsl(277, 100%, 37%)
The rectangulal combination has an intermediate amount of contrast out of the three tetradic palettes. This is why it is usually chosen to produce color-rich, varied designs that still need to have some sort of coherence in them. They can also be extensively used in color-coding, as the difference between the hues of these color is big, and at the same times they can be easily adjusted to look harmonic, so as not to stand out too much from the overall design.
Adjacent
There are two possible ways to build a tetradic adjacent color palette for the color Absolute Zero. The first one looks like this:
Absolute Zero hsl(397, 100%, 37%) hsl(247, 100%, 37%) hsl(67, 100%, 37%)
And the second one looks like this:
Absolute Zero hsl(397, 100%, 37%) hsl(187, 100%, 37%) hsl(367, 100%, 37%)
The adjacent palette creates two pairs of colors, where the colors in each pair are quite similar to each other, but highly contrastive to colors from the other pair. This combination allows creating very unique website designs with highly unusual visual solutions.
Complementary colors
Complementary colors are colors that are directly opposite to each other on a color wheel, and thus have maximum contrast between them.
The complementary color combination for Absolute Zero is:
Absolute Zero hsl(397, 100%, 37%)
Complementary colors, by their very nature, are the accents to each other, meaning that if they are to be used as a base for a website design, one of them should be the background color and the other - its contrastive accent. If used equally, they must either color-code two distinct parts of the site, or be supplemented with other colors. In this case both can be used as accents and/or parts of the background. In general, though, it is rare to see only a pair of complementary colors to be used in a website - such a pair is a very specific tool and is usually not suited for most of the websites to be used exclusively.
Compound colors
The compound or spilt-complementary color combination is three colors, one of which is a base (Absolute Zero in this case) and the other two - its approximate complementaries (contrasts). This creates a pair of similar colors along with a distinctively different color, that can be used as a background.
The compound (split-complementary) color combination of the color Absolute Zero is:
hsl(367, 100%, 37%) Absolute Zero hsl(67, 100%, 37%)
The compound color palette is similar to complementary schemes - it creates just as contrastive combination of colors. Nevertheless, as here complementaries are approximate, not precise, it creates less tension. As such, this color palette is a bit similar to the triadic pallete, having the same versatility, but it also allows for stronger accents.
Variations
Variations are the different versions of the color Absolute Zero. Variations include categories more specific than a range of monochromatic colors. One could also say that a monochromatic palette is a combination of different variations of Absolute Zero. These versions are divided into three groups:
- shades
- tints
- tones
Shades
A shade is a mixture of a certain color with black. This means, that shades of the color Absolute Zero are the darker versions of it.
Tints
A tint is a mixture of a certain color with white. This means, that shades of the color Absolute Zero are the lighter versions of it.
Tones
A tone is a mixture of a certain color with grey. This means, that shades of the color Absolute Zero are the duller versions of it.