Indigo Colour and Its Place in the Rainbow
ROYGBIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) is an excellent acronym that helps you remember the colours in the rainbow. Without its use, certain shades are forgotten. More time often than not, it is indigo: a colour that is not quite blue and not quite purple. In today’s blog, we’ll talk about this penultimate arc on the rainbow and its place in the colour spectrum.
What Is Indigo?
Coming from the Latin for Indian, this colour has a blue-ish purple hue. Named not because of the shade but because of the dye, the colour was exported originally from India. The dye is created naturally. By crushing the leaves of the indigofera plant, the colour is then fermented in water. Mixing these leaves with lye is the next step in the process. Then, pressing the leaves into cakes, drying, and finally powdering.
Isaac Newton named the hue as one of the prismatic colours of light and it still has a place in the optical spectrum today. However, modern day research has gathered that what Newton thought of as blue was a more aqua colour. It is believed that they colour he called indigo is what we might describe as blue.
Different Tones
Distinguishing between different shades is often a difficult task especially between blue, indigo, and violet. What’s more, there are five major tones of this illusive colour:
- Electric – the brightest pigment.
- Deep – a brightness in between electric and pigment.
- Web colour – reproducible by artist’s paint.
- Tropical – detailed in color dictionary Guía de coloraciones (guide to colorations).
- Dye – a greenish dark blue obtained from the leaves of the indigo plant.
In Nature and Culture
Naturally, the colour presents in:
- Bird such as the blue grosbeak.
- Fungi such as the blue-toned lactarius indigo.
- Snakes such as the eastern indigo snake which is a dark blue/black.
Appears in fashion and videogames:
- Mixing well with white, its great for computer graphics lighting.
- Originating as a dye for denim, it can be see in your favourite dark wash jeans.
Spiritually, the colour is positioned between blue and violet on the spectrum:
- Symbolising the sixth chakra, it presents itself in New Age philosophy as a representation of intuition and knowledge.
- Associated with those who have supernatural traits and abilities, indigo auras favour those who work as computer analysts, animal caretakers, and counsellors.
- Used to spiritually heal, Paganism uses the hue to symbolise emotion, fluidity, insight, and expressiveness.
Its Place in the Rainbow
Today, many colour theorist argue that indigo should be removed from the rainbow. Like mentioned earlier, distinguishing between blue, violet, and indigo is rather difficult for the human eye. In fact, Newton only had seven colours in his spectrum because he thought the number had cosmic significance. Also, sticking to the belief that you needed seven colours in order from them to combine and create white.
Regardless, of its place in the rainbow, one can’t deny the culture importance of indigo. Naturally occurring in nature and being the iconic colour of dark wash jeans it has played an important role in our cultural zeitgeist. This colour is mysterious, serious, elegant, and globally appealing.
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