royal blue

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Royal blue describes both a bright shade and a dark range of blue. It is said to have been invented by millers in Rode, Somerset, a consortium of which won a competition to make a dress for Queen Charlotte.

Traditionally, dictionaries define royal blue as a deep to dark blue, often with a purple or faint reddish tinge.

Royal blue (traditional)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#002366
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(0, 35, 102)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(219°, 100%, 20%)
Source		ISCC-NBS
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

By the mid-20th century, with the availability of brighter dyes, most people began to think of royal blue as a brighter color, and it was this brighter color that was chosen as the web color. The World Wide Web Consortium has designated the keyword "royalblue" to be this much brighter color, rather than the traditional darker variant.

Royal blue (webcolor)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#4169E1
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(65, 105, 225)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(225°, 71%, 88%)
Source		X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Royal blue in culture

Religion

• Royal blue is the color of royalty to welcome the coming of a king. In Christian art, royal blue can also symbolize the night sky in which the star appeared to the Three Wise Men to announce the birth of Jesus. This shade of blue is primarily used during the season of Advent in most Anglican and Lutheran denominations.

Schools

• Royal blue is one of two colors used by Hempfield Area High School.
• Royal blue is one of three colors used by McKinley Senior High School
• Royal blue is one of two colors used by Christopher Columbus High School (Miami, Florida).
• Royal blue is the main color of Dulwich College in London, UK.
• Royal blue is the traditional school color of Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.^[1]
• Royal blue is the main color of the University of Delaware Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football team. ^[2]
• Royal blue is one of the colors of three National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations: Phi Beta Sigma,^[3] its sister sorority Zeta Phi Beta^[4] and Sigma Gamma Rho;^[5] the Asian American interest fraternity, Lambda Phi Epsilon;^[6] the Latin sorority Hermandad de Sigma Iota Alpha; and the multicultural sorority Lambda Tau Omega.^[7]
• The Royal Blues are the marching band of Rocky Hill High School in Rocky Hill, Connecticut.^[8]

Sports

• In baseball, royal blue is the dominant color for the Kansas City Royals.^[9]
• In football (soccer), royal blue is the traditional shirt color and/or main club color of Birmingham City F.C.^[10], Chelsea F.C., Everton F.C.^[11], Portsmouth F.C.^[12], Rangers F.C.^[13] Royal blue and white are the traditional colors of the North Melbourne AFL team.^[14] "Die Königsblauen" ("The Royal Blues") is the nickname of German football team Schalke 04.^[15]
• In American football, The National Football League's New York Giants have royal blue and red as their colors, while royal blue and white are the listed colors of the Indianapolis Colts.^[16]
• In hockey, royal blue is the main color of the National Hockey League's Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues; royal blue, orange and white are the team colors of the Edmonton Oilers.

Transport

• The Royal Blue was the name of a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train.^[17]
• Royal Blue was the name of a major operator of coach services in the south and west of England from 1880 to 1986.^[18]

Vexillology

• Royal blue is the official color used in the flags of the United States of America, American Samoa, Australia, Cayman Islands, Confederate, Georgia, Hawaii, Israel, New Zealand,^[19] Norway, Philippines, Texas, Tuvalu and the United Kingdom.
• The background of the flag of the European Union is a medium shade of royal blue.

See also

• List of colors
• Tyrian purple

References