Chartreuse (color)

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Chartreuse
 
(clockwise from top-left) Cardington Airfield, Catopsilia pomona, Portrait of the Prince of Wales by Robert Peake the Elder, Fire engine in Zürich, A Shot Glass of Chartreuse liqueur
About these coordinates     Color coordinates
Hex triplet#80FF00
sRGBB (r, g, b)(128, 255, 0)
HSV (h, s, v)(90°, 100%, 100%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)(90, 123, 119°)
SourceConvertcase[1]
ISCC–NBS descriptorVivid greenish yellow
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
H: Normalized to [0–100] (hundred)
Variation
Chartreuse Yellow 

Chartreuse (US: /ʃɑːrˈtruːz, -ˈtruːs/ ⓘ, UK: /-ˈtrɜːz/,[2] French: [ʃaʁtʁøz] ⓘ), also known as yellow-green or greenish yellow, is a color between yellow and green.[3] It was named because of its resemblance to the French liqueur green chartreuse, introduced in 1764. Similarly, chartreuse yellow is a yellow color mixed with a small amount of green, named after the drink yellow chartreuse.[4] The wavelength and frequency of chartreuse is near 547.5 nm or 547.5 THz.[citation needed]

During the 2000s, yellow-green, as well as other shades of bright green like lime green, became very popular when various tech companies used it in office decor and other products, and with the popularity and success of the Shrek franchise.[5][6][7][8][9][10]

Shades

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Main article: Shades of chartreuse

History and etymology

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The name Carthusian is derived from the Chartreuse Mountains in the French Prealps: Bruno of Cologne built his first hermitage in a valley of these mountains. These names were adapted to the English charterhouse, meaning a Carthusian monastery. These monks started producing Chartreuse liqueur in 1737.

In nature

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Yellow-green algae, also called Xanthophytes, are a class of algae in the Heterokontophyta division. Most live in fresh water, but some are found in marine and soil habitats. They vary from single-celled flagellates to simple colonial and filamentous forms. Unlike other heterokonts, the plastids of yellow-green algae do not contain fucoxanthin, which is why they have a lighter color.

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The song, Chartreuse

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Introduced by rhythm and blues bandleader Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five in 1950,(You dyed your hair) Chartreuse was written by J. Leslie McFarland, Billy Moore, according to the record collector database website, Secondhand Songs, and the record collector website Discogs. It was the "B" of a Decca 45rpm release with "A" side "Lemonade." It was also recorded later the same year by Gordon MacRae with Harmony singing by The Ewing Sisters and orchestra led by Frank De Vol.[11][12]

In the tongue-in-cheek lyric, the singer threatens to tell the mother of his "freckle-faced pug-nosed cutie" about the change in hair color. "You went to far in that beauty booth, when you died your hair chartreuse," he says.

Traffic safety

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Chartreuse yellow is used on traffic safety vests to provide increased visibility for employees working near traffic. The chartreuse yellow background material, together with a retro-reflective satisfy the ANSI 107-2010 standard since 1999. High-visibility clothing ANSI Standards were adopted as an Occupational Safety and Health Act (United States) requirement in 2008.[13][full citation needed]

Film and television

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The 1960 Universal film Chartroose Caboose featured a "bright green"–colored train car.[14]

In the 2001 Blue's Clues episode "Colors Everywhere!", Blue and Joe meet a physical representation of the colour chartreuse, who takes the form of a glob of paint. Chartreuse demonstrates that her colour is made by mixing yellow and green.[15]

Firefighting

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ACT Fire and Rescue tankers in chartreuse green

Since about 1973, a sort of fluorescent chartreuse green has been adopted as the color of fire engines in parts of the United States and elsewhere. The use of chartreuse fire engines began when New York ophthalmologist Stephen Solomon produced research claiming that sparkling bright lime-green paint would boost the night-time visibility of emergency vehicles compared to those painted the traditional fire engine red.[16][17] The reason for this is the Purkinje effect, i.e., the cones do not function as efficiently in dim light, so red objects appear to be black. In Australia, this form of chartreuse yellow is also known as "ACT yellow" as this is the color of the fire engines in the Australian Capital Territory.

In 2009, the American firefighting standard NFPA 1901 was updated to specify that the rears of firefighting vehicles and ambulances were to have retroreflective chevron striping, that was an alternating pattern of red and either yellow or yellow-green stripes.[18][19]

Music

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Charli XCX's 2024 album Brat has a chartreuse-colored album cover with the text "brat".[20]

See also

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References

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Informational notes

Citations

  1. ^ "HSL color chart with names". convertcase. September 27, 2025. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
  2. ^ "Chartreuse". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Houghton Mifflin/Yahoo! Inc. Archived from the original on June 8, 2008. Retrieved January 19, 2010.
  3. ^ DuBois, Stephanie (August 7, 2020). "The Unexpected History of the Color Chartreuse". Archived from the original on November 15, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
  4. ^ "Green Chartreuse and Yellow Chartreuse". Chartreuse Liqueurs. Archived from the original on April 4, 2008. Retrieved May 5, 2008.
  5. ^ "Color forecasting: Shrek turns the world green". The Seattle Times. September 28, 2006. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  6. ^ Goldberg, Carole. "Despite what Kermit says, Shrek's cool with his color". Hartford Courant. Retrieved March 27, 2023 – via Cape Cod Times.
  7. ^ Kemp, Ella (May 18, 2021). "A Cultural Evolution of 'Shrek', from Blockbuster Hit to Historic Meme". Vice. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  8. ^ Bakshi, Pema. "The Final Frontier Of 'Ugly' Fashion Is Shrek Green". www.refinery29.com. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  9. ^ "The Unexpected History of the Color Chartreuse — Gallant Culture". November 15, 2021. Archived from the original on November 15, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  10. ^ "Yellow-Green: What is it and How To Use it in Your Designs?". Picsart Blog. March 19, 2021. Archived from the original on May 26, 2022. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  11. ^ https://secondhandsongs.com/work/304551/versions
  12. ^ https://www.discogs.com/master/2037400-Louis-Jordan-And-His-Tympany-Five-Lemonade-You-Dyed-Your-Hair-Chartreuse
  13. ^ "GovInfo". www.govinfo.gov. Archived from the original on March 2, 2023. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  14. ^ Sandra Brennan (2008). "N.Y. Times Overview of the film Chartroose Caboose". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 18, 2008. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
  15. ^ "Blue's Clues: S05E02 - Colors Everywhere!". Archived from the original on May 3, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2025.
  16. ^ Simon, Stephanie (July 7, 1995). "The Green Firetruck Heresy : Some studies say red is not a safe color. But chartreuse just doesn't excite the masses". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 13, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  17. ^ Katley99 (July 4, 2009). "East Longmeadow 4th of July Parade 2009". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  18. ^ "NFPA 1901 - Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus - 2009 Edition". nfpa.org. National Fire Protection Association. 2009. Retrieved October 11, 2025.
  19. ^ US Fire Administration (August 2009). "Emergency Vehicle Visibility and Conspicuity Study - FA-323" (PDF). usfa.fema.gov. Federal Emergency Management Agency. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 25, 2024. Retrieved October 11, 2025.
  20. ^ "How this 'off-putting' color shaded the internet and beyond". CNN. July 23, 2024. Retrieved August 24, 2025.
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  • Media related to Yellow-green at Wikimedia Commons