Rainbow colors make the color wheel look easy - a few shades of red, purple, blue and green and you're on your way. However, the color spectrum is actually a huge and complex beast. The human eye can only see a fraction of the colors on Earth, and not all of them are familiar to us. Scientists are also constantly developing colors for a variety of uses such as space travel and exploration.
Read the list below to discover some rare hues you may not have heard of that would make any painter green with envy.
color family:Azul
Complementary Colors:oranges
Found in nature:Sim

photo source:iColorpalette
Although absolute zero is primarily associated with temperature, it also describesa blue tone.The hue is somewhere between vivid and soft as it is not as deep as midnight blue but not as pale as baby blue either. It is a mixture of blue and green that contains no red.
Did you know
In terms of temperatureAbsolute zerodescribes the coldest possible temperature. It's minus 273.15 degrees Celsius and minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit.
color family:Blue and/or Green
Complementary Colors:rot orange
Found in nature:Sim

photo source:ColorHexa
And GaolaIt's very similar to another color on this list, bluish, and it undoubtedly rests beneath the bluish umbrella of truly blue-green hues. According to ColorHexa, Xanadu is made up of almost equal parts red, green, and blue. It comes out grayish and is slightly darker than bluish.
Did you know
The word Xanadu actually meansan idyllic or luxurious place.
color family:Orange
Complementary Colors:Blues
Found in nature:Sim

photo source:Once upon a time there was lexicon.wordpress.com
SarkolinaIt might sound strange, but the hue is probably recognizable to any makeup enthusiast or portrait artist. It resembles a pale skin tone with yellow undertones. Placing sarcholine within a color family is difficult, as its lightest tones appear yellow and beige, mid-tones are orange, and darkest tones are brown.
Did you know
Crayola published hisfirst box of skin tone pencils1992 in response to feedback from customers and educators that they wanted more variety in art, especially for children
color family:Braun
Complementary Colors:Blues
Found in nature:Sim

photo source:The Maryland Zoo
Whilefawnconsidered a shade of brown, it appears more like a dark orange. Fulvous is mostly red with some green and no blue. Lighter versions of this color definitely fall on the orange scale, while darker shades fade to a deep brown.
Did you know
ÖDuck whistles loudlyIt's a great example of color in nature. The color shows in its orange-brown feathers, which explains its name.
color family:Blue and/or Green
Complementary Colors:rot orange
Found in nature:Sim

photo source:the awl
Blue greenshows a mixture of green and blue - the kind of color that sparks debate about what it really is. The term glaucus, which is etymologically related to the word glaucoma, comes from ancient Greek. The famous philosopher Homer used the term glaucus to refer to water, leaves, honey and eyes. Rather than a single color, the original term referred to an object's ability to glow or sparkle. Over the years, as the language evolved to include specific terms for colors, Glaucos became Glaucos and began referring to the colors blue-green. Because glaucous is archaic, it is difficult to find accurate representations of the color today.
Did you know
Glaucous also refers to the protective waxy coating that fruits like apples naturally develop.
color family:Rot
Complementary Colors:green
Found in nature:Sim

photo source:Clarissa Wei via Smithsonian
Take a trip into the Swedish countryside and you'll find that most of the houses are painted the same bright red. This particular tone isroot Falun,so called because the color comes from the Falun copper mine in Sweden. It is a by-product of mining that rusts over time. Washing, drying and burning these rusty ores creates the unique pigment. The temperature to which the by-product is heated changes the hue. Higher temperatures lead to darker pigments.
Did you know
The Falun copper mine has existed since the 9th century and was one of Sweden's largest sources of income until the 17th century.
color family:Rot
Complementary Colors:green
Found in nature:NO

Fotoquelle: Stuart Semple
Stuart Semple's self-proclaimed "pinkest rose"is the result of a controversy in the art world. After creating and refining a wearable Vantablack, another color on this list, the company that invented the technology licensed it exclusively to an artist named Anish Kapoor. Other artists were upset at being denied this color, and one of them named Stuart Semple decided to respond in turn. Semple created the pinkest pink pigment and made it available to everyone except Kapoor. Kapoor got her hands on it anyway, posting a photo to Instagram with her middle finger dipped in the glowing pigment.
Did you know
MuchArt by Stuart SempleIt is decorated in bright colors and styles reminiscent of Andy Warhol's pop art works.
color family:Gelb
Complementary Colors:Lila
Found in nature:NO

photo source:Pigment Kremer
Shepherd Color Company developed theNiob-Zinn-Pyrochlor (NTP)-Gelbpigmentto bridge the gap between shine and durability. Different versions of NTP Yellow serve different purposes - one is ideal for coloring plastic while another is better suited as a coating and/or paint. This invention demonstrates Shepherd's diseaseFocus on inorganic materialsto mimic naturally occurring colors and to invent new pigments.
Did you know
physicists and chemistsinvent new colorsfor a variety of uses, studying the natural world. New colors can help with heat absorption, camouflage, and reflectivity.
color family:Orange
Complementary Colors:Azul
Found in nature:NO

photo source:Kremer pigments
Shepherd Color Company also developed theRutile-tin-zinc-pigment Laranjato make other colors appear redder. In addition to a stronger hue, RTZ Orange also gives various paints and coatings greater heat stability and better weather resistance. Like NTP Yellow, RTZ Orange is ideal for chemists and others working in scientific fields as it performs well in high pH environments.
Did you know
A Choirorangeis named after the fruit. The word comes from Sanskrit and was first used to refer to the fruit in English in the 13th century. References to the color in English did not appear until the 16th century.
color family:Azul
Complementary Colors:oranges
Found in nature:Sim

photo source:Oregon State University
YINMN-Blueis a recently discovered vivid shade of blue that occurs when composite manganese oxide is heated to 2,000 Fahrenheit (1,200 degrees Celsius). A graduate student at the University of Oregon discovered the color in this experiment and recognized it as scientifically interesting. Blue pigments tend to be unstable and dangerous, but YINMN blue is neither. The paint is made from the elements yttrium, indium and manganese.
Did you know
ancient cultures usedChromotherapie,This is the use of colors to cure certain diseases.
color family:shades of black
Complementary Colors:none
Found in nature:NO

photo source:Electronicsweekly.com
VantaschwarzIt is known as the darkest artificial pigment. Color, which absorbs almost 100% of visible light, was invented by Surrey Nanosystems for the purposes of space exploration.Vantablack's special production process and unavailability to the general public make it the rarest color of all time.It now exists as a coating used in space imaging, automotive sensors, optical systems, and art. Some of its most notable properties are extremely low reflectivity, UV absorption, and high thermal shock resistance. Vantablack's visual impact is quite impressive. Instead of a painted surface, objects coated with Vantablack appear two-dimensional.
Did you know
Vantaschwarzit absorbs so much light that no spectrometer can accurately determine the actual percentage absorbed.
FAQs
What is the world's rarest color? ›
1. Lapis Lazuli. Lapus Lazuli is a blue mineral so rare that in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance it was actually more valuable than gold.
Are there colors that we can't see? ›Red-green and yellow-blue are the so-called "forbidden colors." Composed of pairs of hues whose light frequencies automatically cancel each other out in the human eye, they're supposed to be impossible to see simultaneously.
What is a rare color name? ›Some obscure names include amaranth, a reddish-pink hue; atrovirens, a type of teal color; eburnean, which looks like ivory or off-white color; skobeloff, a form of cyan; and wenge, which is a type of brown or espresso color, just to name a few.
What is the legendary color? ›Legendary is a soft, gray, millennial beige with a silvery undertone. It is a perfect paint color for a living room or exterior home.
What is the oldest color? ›By crushing 1.1 billion-year-old rocks found beneath the Sahara Desert, scientists say they have discovered the world's oldest color: bright pink.
What is the color that never existed? ›Magenta doesn't exist because it has no wavelength; there's no place for it on the spectrum. The only reason we see it is because our brain doesn't like having green (magenta's complement) between purple and red, so it substitutes a new thing.
What color doesn't exist in nature? ›Less than one in ten plants have blue flowers, and it isn't common in animals, either. One reason is that true blue colours or pigments simply don't exist in nature, and plants and animals have to perform tricks to appear blue, according to the University of Adelaide.
What colors can dogs not see? ›So What's the Truth About Dog Color Blindness? Having yellow-blue dichromatic vision means that dogs are most similar to a red-green color blind person. They are very good at distinguishing between variations of blues and yellows (and whites and grays), but cannot really see red and green all that well.
What color is hardest to see? ›Blue is the hardest color to see as more light energy is required for a full response from blue-violet cones, compared to green or red.
What colors are females attracted to? ›The study found statistically significant gender differences in relation to yellow, white and green-yellow. All three colors were perceived as more attractive by women than by men. Results from our study show that chromatic colors have been perceived as more attractive than achromatic, with exception for black.
What is the most fancy color? ›
Google "the most expensive pigment" and you'll find that Lapis Lazuli is believed to be the most expensive pigment ever created. It was pricier than its weight in gold.
What is a unique color? ›A unique hue is defined as a color which an observer perceives as a pure, without any admixture of the other colors. Ewald Hering first defined the unique hues as red, green, yellow, and blue, and based them on the concept that these colors could not be simultaneously perceived.
What is a very unique color? ›Vermilion
On the RGB color chart, vermilion is comprised of 89 percent red, 25.9 percent green, and 20.4 percent blue. You may also know this unique color as cinnabar.
Absolutely warm and cool colors can be found at 0 (red – the warmest color) and 180 (cyan – the coolest color) degrees. Determining whether one color is warmer or cooler than another can be measured by their proximities to these poles.
What is the newest color invented? ›YInMn Blue (/jɪnmɪn/; for the chemical symbols Y for yttrium, In for indium, and Mn for manganese), also known as Oregon Blue or Mas Blue, is an inorganic blue pigment that was discovered by Mas Subramanian and his (then) graduate student, Andrew Smith, at Oregon State University in 2009.
What is mystic black color? ›Mystic Black is a soft black. Visualize this color in your own space. Use KILZ® COLOR PERFECT™ to upload and virtually paint digital photos of your painting project.
What color was the first human on Earth? ›These early humans probably had pale skin, much like humans' closest living relative, the chimpanzee, which is white under its fur. Around 1.2 million to 1.8 million years ago, early Homo sapiens evolved dark skin.
What is the most forgotten color? ›- Gamboge.
- Glaucous.
- Sarcoline.
- Skobeloff.
- Smaragdine.
- Wenge.
- Vantablack.
- Zaffre.
Young babies are indeed capable of seeing colors, but their brains may not perceive them as clearly or vividly as older children and adults do. The first primary color your baby can see is red, and this happens a few weeks into life.
What year had no color? ›CBS broadcast color specials and sometimes aired its big weekly variety shows in color, but it offered no regularly scheduled color programming until the fall of 1965.
What color attracts the human eye most? ›
Red and orange seem to be the clear winner when it comes to eye-catching colors. These colors tend to stand out and are therefore used on many warning signs or safety equipment. Yellow is another color that comes in a close second to red and orange in popularity.
What colors can dogs see? ›Human eyes have three types of cones that can identify combinations of red, blue, and green. Dogs possess only two types of cones and can only discern blue and yellow - this limited color perception is called dichromatic vision.
Can humans create new colors? ›For tens of thousands of years, humans have created colours through simple chemistry. At first we used dyes found in nature such as berries and charcoal. Later, new pigments were synthesised in the lab.
Can we invent a new color? ›Today researchers use physics to invent new colours, inspired perhaps by the iridescent shades created by structures in butterfly wings that scatter light. These new structural colours are the result of an interaction between light and nanoscale features many times thinner than human hair.
What colors do humans see the best? ›Green, the mixture of blue and yellow, can be seen everywhere and in countless shades. In fact, the human eye sees green better than any color in the spectrum.
What is the 2 rarest eye color? ›The second-rarest eye color is hazel, a mixture of brown and green with golden flecks. About 18% of Americans have hazel eyes, compared with about 5% of the world's population. And while violet eyes are a rarity, they're really just a blue hue, with light bouncing off the surroundings and turning the eyes violet.
Do violet eyes exist? ›Unbelievable as it may seem, the answer is yes—natural purple eyes do exist. Purple eyes are also commonly referred to as “violet eyes,” as they are typically a light shade. For most people, this striking eye color can only be achieved with the help of colored contacts.
What is the rarest eyes? ›Green is considered by some to be the actual rarest eye color in the world, though others would say it's been dethroned by red, violet, and grey eyes. Green eyes don't possess a lot of melanin, which creates a Rayleigh scattering effect: Light gets reflected and scattered by the eyes instead of absorbed by pigment.
Who is No 1 colour in the world? ›The most popular color in the world is blue. The second favorite colors are red and green, followed by orange, brown and purple. Yellow is the least favorite color, preferred by only five percent of people.
Does cyan exist? ›Cyan (/ˈsaɪ. ən, -æn/) is the color between green and blue on the visible spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength between 490 and 520 nm, between the wavelengths of green and blue.
Who is the most powerful color? ›
Red is the most powerful color amongst all. It has a tendency to stimulate mind and attract attention. See the red chilies and you will feel the craving to eat them all. Red is also a symbol of youthfulness which makes it a favorite for the youngsters.
Which is the most beautiful color? ›Thus, the most attractive color is blue, the second most preferred is red, followed by green, while yellow was found to be the least preferred color (Figure 1).
What is the nicest color in the world? ›It is also closely tied to national and political identity. Yet a new YouGov survey conducted in 10 countries across four continents shows that one color – blue – is the most popular across the board.
What is the most mysterious color? ›Purple is the most mysterious and elusive of them. The uncertainty of whether a purple hue is reddish or bluish, is never dispelled. In a different light, purple can appear to be completely different. Functionally: Purple is a popular color in advertising.
What is the most feared color? ›In an online survey conducted with more than 100 respondents, it was discovered that black is the color that is associated with fear the most. Black is the color of the night.
What colors don't exist in nature? ›One reason is that true blue colours or pigments simply don't exist in nature, and plants and animals have to perform tricks to appear blue, according to the University of Adelaide. Take blue jays for example, which only appear blue due to the structure of their feathers, which distort the reflection of light.