Azure

This box shows the color azure.

lapis lazuli with its azure color

Azure is a shade of blue. It looks like the color of the sky on a bright, clear day. It is a pure chroma on the color wheel halfway between blue and cyan. The complementary color of azure is orange.

Meaning of azure

• Azure is one of the national colors of Italy on its Coat of Arms. Nations which use shades of Azure in their flags include Argentina, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Guatemala, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Palau, San Marino, Somalia, Sweden, and Ukraine.

• The flag of the United Nations is a shade of azure called "United Nations Azure" or "United Nations Blue" (shown below). It is also the color of the helmets worn by the United Nations peacekeeping forces.

• In Poetry, azure is often used to represent or refer to the sky or Heaven. Azure is often used in France to describe the Mediterranean Sea.

Where the name comes from

The word azure comes from the Persian لاژورد lazhward. Lazhward was the name of a place. This place was famous for a kind of deep blue stone. Now we call this stone "lapis lazuli". This means "stone of Lazhward".

The word came to Old French by the twelfth century. The French used this word to talk about the colors of coats of arms. From the French it the word came to the English. The first recorded use of azure as a color name in English was in 1374.

Heraldry

In heraldry, the word azure simply means "blue". Azure is said to represent Jupiter and sapphires.

It belongs to the class of tinctures called "colors". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of horizontal lines or else marked with either az. or b. as an abbreviation.

In addition to the standard blue tincture called azure, there is a lighter blue sometimes found that is called bleu celeste or "sky blue". Neither azure nor bleu celeste is precisely defined as a particular shade of blue, but azure is consistently depicted in a much darker shade.

Tones of azure color comparison chart

• Azure Mist (web color "Azure") (Hex: #F0FFFF) (RGB: 240, 255, 255)
• Bubbles (Xona.com color list) (Hex: #E7FEFF) (RGB: 231, 254, 255)
• Alice Blue (web color) (Hex: #F0F8FF) (RGB: 240, 248, 255)
• Beau Blue (Hex: #BCD4E6) (RGB: 188, 212, 230)
• Baby Blue (Hex: #89CFF0) (RGB: 137, 207, 240)
• Light Cornflower Blue (Crayola Cornflower) (Hex: #93CCEA) (RGB: 147, 204, 234)
• Columbia Blue (Hex: #9BDDFF) (RGB: 155, 221, 255)
• Baby Blue Eyes (Hex: #A1CAF1) (RGB: 161, 202, 241)
• Light Sky Blue (web color) (Hex: #87CEFA) (RGB: 135, 296, 250)
• Sky Blue (web color) (Hex: #87CEEB) (RGB: 135, 206, 235)
• Medium Sky Blue (Crayola Sky Blue) (Hex: #76D7EA) (RGB: 118, 215, 234)
• Capri (web color "Deep Sky Blue") (Hex: #00BFFF) (RGB: 0, 191, 255)
• Maya Blue (Hex: #73C2FB) (RGB: 115, 194, 215)
• Ukrainian Azure (color of Ukrainian Flag) (Hex: #42ADDE) (RGB: 66, 173, 222)
• United Nations Azure (United Nations Blue) (Hex: #5B92E5) (RGB: 91, 146, 229)
• Bleu de France (Hex: #318CE7) (RGB: 49, 140, 231)
• Cornflower Blue (web color) (Hex: #6495ED) (RGB: 100, 149, 237)
• Dodger Blue (web color) (Hex: #1E90FF) (RGB: 30, 144, 255)
• AZURE (color wheel Azure) (Hex: #007FFF) (RGB: 0, 127, 255)
• Brandeis Blue (Hex: #0070FF) (RGB: 0, 112, 255)
• Deep Azure (Crayola Blue) (Hex: #0066FF) (RGB: 0, 102, 255)
• Royal Blue (web color) (Hex: #4169E1) (RGB: 65, 105, 225)
• True Blue (Hex: #0073cf) (RGB: 0, 115, 207)
• Medium Navy Blue (Crayola Navy Blue) (Hex: #0066CC) (RGB: 0, 102, 204)
• Denim (Crayola) (Hex: #1560BD) (RGB: 21, 96, 189)
• Air Force Blue (Hex: #5D8AA8) (RGB: 93, 138, 168)
• Wild Blue Yonder (Crayola) (Hex: #A2ADD0) (RGB: 162, 173, 208)
• Celestial Blue (Hex: #4997D0) (RGB: 73, 151, 208)
• Steel Blue (web color) (Hex: #4682B4) (RGB: 70, 130, 180)
• French Blue (Hex: #0072BB) (RGB: 0, 114, 187)
• Lapis Lazuli (Hex: #26619c) (RGB: 38, 97, 156)
• Swedish Azure (official color of Swedish flag) (Hex: #005B99) (RGB: 0, 91, 153)
• Royal Azure (Pantone Blue #286) (Hex: #0038A8) (RGB: 0, 56, 186)
• Royal Blue (traditional) (Hex: #002366) (RGB: 0, 35, 102)

• 
  

  
  

  Colors – List of colors
  Cyan Magenta Black Gray Silver White
  Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet
  Gold Olive Purple Navy Brown Pink

  
  

  References

  Other pages

  • List of colors