Sepia (color) - Wikipedia

Shade of brown derived from the common cuttlefish This article is about the color. For other uses, see Sepia.

Sepia
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#704214
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(112, 66, 20)
HSV (h, s, v)	(30°, 82%, 44%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(33, 45, 38°)
Source	Maerz and Paul[1]
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Strong brown
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Sepia is a reddish-brown color, named after the rich brown pigment derived from the ink sac of the common cuttlefish Sepia.[2] The word sepia is the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek word σηπία (sēpía), meaning cuttlefish.[3]

In the visual arts

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Sepia ink was commonly used for writing in Greco-Roman civilization. It remained in common use as an artist's drawing material until the 19th century.[2] In the last quarter of the 18th century, Professor Jakob Seydelmann of Dresden developed a process to extract and produce a concentrated form of sepia for use in watercolors and oil paints.[4]

Sepia toning is a chemical process used in photography which changes the appearance of black-and-white prints to brown.[2][5] The color is now often associated with antique photographs. Most photo graphics software programs and many digital cameras include a sepia tone filter to mimic the appearance of sepia-toned prints.[2][6]

Other uses

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In the 1940s in the United States, music intended for African American audiences was generally called race music or sepia music until the development of the expression rhythm and blues (R&B).[7][8][9] There was a magazine for African-Americans called Sepia, which existed from 1947 to 1983 (although the name Sepia was only applied after a change of ownership in 1953).[10]

Acclaimed Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky used a sepia tone in his 1979 science-fiction film Stalker to visually distinguish scenes set in the ordinary world from the world of the forbidden Zone, which is portrayed in color.[11]

See also

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• Cephalopod ink

References

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1. ^ The color displayed in the color box above matches the colour called sepia in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Colour New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color sepia is displayed on page 39, Plate 8, Colour Sample A10.
2. ^ a b c d St. Clair, Kassia (2016). The Secret Lives of Colour. London: John Murray. pp. 248–249. ISBN 978-1-4736-3081-9. OCLC 936144129.
3. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Colour New York:1930 McGraw Hill. Discussion of the colour Sepia, Page 179
4. ^ Gettens, R. J.; Stout, G. L. (2012-09-26). Painting Materials: A Short Encyclopedia. Courier Corporation. ISBN 978-0-486-14242-5.
5. ^ Präkel, David (2018-05-03). Photography FAQs: Black and White. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-350-09045-3.
6. ^ Long, Ben (2011). Complete Digital Photography. Course Technology. ISBN 978-1-4354-5921-2.
7. ^ Jaynes, Gerald David (2005). Encyclopedia of African American Society. SAGE. ISBN 978-0-7619-2764-8.
8. ^ Gillett, Charlie (2011-05-01). The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll. Souvenir Press. ISBN 978-0-285-64024-5.
9. ^ Kurlansky, Mark (2013-07-11). Ready For a Brand New Beat: How "Dancing in the Street" Became the Anthem for a Changing America. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-101-61626-0.
10. ^ Mia Chandra Long, Seeking a Place in the Sun: Sepia Magazine's Endeavor for Quality Journalism and Place in the Negro Market, 1951–1982, PhD dissertation, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama, 2011, p. 5, footnote 16
11. ^ Green, Peter (1993-06-18). Andrei Tarkovsky: The Winding Quest. Springer. ISBN 978-1-349-11996-7.

External links

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• Media related to Sepia (color) at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Shades of brown
Auburn Almond Beaver Beige Bistre Black bean Black olive Bole Bone Bronze                     Brown Brown sugar Buff Burgundy Burnt sienna Burnt umber Camel Caput mortuum Caramel Chamoisee                     Chestnut Chocolate Citron Cocoa Brown Coffee Copper Cordovan Coyote Desert sand Drab dark brown                     Dun Earth yellow Ecru Fallow Falun red Fawn Field drab Fulvous Golden brown Goldenrod                     Harvest gold Khaki Kobe Kobicha Lion Liver Mahogany Maroon Milk chocolate Ochre                     Raw umber Red-brown Redwood Rufous Russet Rust Sand Sandy brown Satin sheen gold Seal brown                     Sepia Sienna Sinopia Tan Taupe Tawny Titian Red Tuscan red Umber Van Dyke                     Walnut brown Wenge Wheat Wine red
A typical sample is shown for each name; a range of color-variations is commonly associated with each color-name.