Talk:Amber (color)

ECE Amber (desaturated approximation)
ECE Amber (desaturated approximation)
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#F5D700
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(245, 215, 0)
HSV (h, s, v)	(53°, 100%, 96%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(86, 96, 73°)
Source	[Unsourced]
	B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte);

This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Symbolism?[edit]

Why is there an entire section in here devoted to "Symbolism" that says that amber is "symbolic" of "energy"? It makes no sense whatsoever. --Dreadpiratetif 22:47, 4 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In literature, colors are usually symbolic, or more accurately, representive of certain traits, etc. For example, purple is symbolic for royalty, green for spring or life, black/white for death/life, yellow for cowardice, and so on. If you see someone wearing yellow (in literature), he's a coward. A peasant wearing purple might have a tendancy to act like royalty. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.57.140.157 (talk) 01:14, 10 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

According to...whom, exactly? Please cite it or drop it. Also, please remember to sign your comments on talk pages. —Scheinwerfermann (talk) 02:07, 10 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Visual representation[edit]

As in the Selective yellow article, the described approximation technique has yielded a color that is visually too red and insufficiently yellow. Here's a set of specs for a visual impression that seems more closely to match the colour of light produced by ECE-amber lighting devices:

Repeating my comment from the discussion page for Selective yellow, I think it is more appropriate to approximate the colour of the light (as it would appear when projected on e.g. a white surface) rather than trying to describe the colour of whatever filter is used to attain that colour (e.g. headlamp lens or filter balloon, reflector coating, etc.), for the appearance of such optical elements is very widely variable depending on the filtration technique used and the filter's placement within the optical system.

There should probably be reference to old ECE Amber being supplanted by new ECE Yellow, a change which was made primarily to accommodate and facilitate the transition to LED signalling devices. Scheinwerfermann 00:05, 17 December 2005 (EST)

As per my comment there, the colour specification is for the colour of the light. By my reading of the UNECE specs, the definition of amber was expanded in the last couple of years – the article shows the current one & you'll see the old one in the history. I assumed that this change was made to accommodate LEDs. Is there a separate "ECE Yellow" rather than just the new amber definition? That swatch just looks yellow to me, btw - the one on the article looks far more like an indicator on my display. I'd suggest a photo, like selective yellow. --KJBracey 11:08, 17 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, you're right regarding ECE "Amber" vs. "Yellow". The English-language ECE Regulations still refer to "Amber" despite that colour's recent expansion to accommodate LED and other non-filament light sources. What I was thinking of was France's objection a couple of years ago to the use of "Ambre" in the French-language ECE Regulations. They wanted it changed to "Jaune Auto" ("Automotive Yellow") and while I haven't checked lately, I think they probably got their wish. There is an ECE "Fog Lamp Yellow" which is a somewhat more permissive variant of ECE Selective Yellow. Scheinwerfermann 12:34, 11 January 2006 (EST)

Whoops, looks like I was right about the colour specs being changed under ECE Regs; I just garburated the description of what happened. Old ECE Amber was defined as:

limit towards red: y ≥ 0.398

limit towards green: y ≤ 0.429

limit towards white: z ≤ 0.007

But, as of Rev3 Am1 & Am2 of Reg 6, and Rev4 of Reg 37, Amber has been redefined thus:

limit towards green: y ≤ x - 0.120

limit towards red: y ≥ 0.390

limit towards white: y ≥ 0.790 - 0.670 x

This is identical to the SAE "Yellow" spec. I am not too pleased at this loosening of the specification, but they didn't ask for my vote. Scheinwerfermann 17:56, 5 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Where on the color wheel?[edit]

The first sentence of the lede of this article states that amber is located on the color wheel midway between yellow, orange and red. That's wrong in one way or another; it's not possible for a thing to be between more than two other things. Images of color wheels here on Wikipedia and elsewhere don't seem to call out amber per se, so somebody please point at a color wheel that does, or fix the first sentence so it makes sense and reflects reality. —Scheinwerfermann ^T·_C08:08, 29 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Irish flag[edit]

The references to "amber" in the Irish flag (in connection with the colours sported by various Gaelic games sides) would seem to be out of place, given that the flag of Ireland is constitutionally defined as being green, white, and orange. -- Picapica (talk) 07:19, 25 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Color coordinate attributes[edit]

The color coordinates template lists CIE_1931_color_space as the source but I see nothing in that article to support the color coordinate attributes for amber.

I'm satisfied that the values are okay, as they are supported by this site, which I hope qualifies as a reliable source. Would it make sense to replace the source with this URL?--S Philbrick (Talk) 18:33, 23 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure I agree that the values are okay. Note that site specifically says "#FFBF00 (or 0xFFBF00) is unknown color: approx Amber." in the description. And says the same for say FEBF03. Only way we can typical associate an exact color coordinate to something is in the relation to some standard. For example while there are many yellows, there is only one "yellow" in CSS level 3 list #FFFF00 in sRGB color space. In general usage most color terms are fairly loose. PaleAqua (talk) 06:22, 24 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Possible removal from list[edit]

An entry in List of colors: N–Z contained a link to this page.

The entry is :

Vivid amber

I don't see any evidence that this color is discussed in this article and plan to delete it from the list per this discussion: Talk:List_of_colors#New_approach_to_review_of_entries

If someone decides that this color should have a section in this article and it is added, I would appreciate a ping.--S Philbrick (Talk) 18:18, 11 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

LEDs[edit]

Isn't "amber" the usual designation for the old yellowish LEDs? For years I've sometimes been casually searching for definitive specs of the LEDs that were common in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I find it frustratingly hard to find webpages talking about anything else than recent blue LEDs. As far as I know the only colours affordable to hobbyists at that time were red, amber and lime green. Might be worth a mention in the article, that for many years amber LEDs were all you could buy near the yellow part of the spectrum. My current guess is, that they must have been something near 690 nm. --BjKa (talk) 17:25, 7 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Agree -- Editor-1 (talk) 15:24, 15 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]