The Color Indigo

To achieve the color indigo, a small amount of red is blended with a much larger amount of blue. Indigo is considered to be the color between blue and violet in a natural rainbow spectrum. The shades of indigo generally range from a bright indigo that is more purple and a deep indigo which is closer to a dark blue.

Indigo, Oranges and Violets

The origin of the color name indigo has a special trait shared with only a few other colors such as orange and violet by appearing in nature. The color indigo gets its namesake from the indigo plants which were once used for dying fabrics. The actual dye that can be extracted from an indigo plant is a very dark indigo. Denim is a fabric that was frequently subject to indigo dye because the strong fabric held the deep color well and it also made it harder to see the dirt on denim work clothes.

The Origin and Evolution of Indigo

India is thought to be the origin of the earliest indigo plants. As with many colors, it was brought to Europe where it began to evolve and take on the many shades and variations that we can see today. The color indigo is rarely given credit as the actual color being presented as many people tend to call the color blue or purple because it is lodged so tightly between the two colors on the natural spectrum and it can be difficult to discern the difference.

— Color coordinates —

RGB:  (75, 0, 130)

HSV:  (275°, 100%, 51%)

Hex triplet:  #4B0082