Internet, Why So Blue?
June 27, 2014 11:14 AM Subscribe
99 Percent Invisible's "Future Screens are Mostly Blue" discusses (among other things) how blue has long been our color of choice in science fiction.
posted by Harms at 11:29 AM on June 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Harms at 11:29 AM on June 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
Look around at ancient tech companies; IBM ("Big Blue") has had a blue logo since the early '70s, HP since the early '80s. It's hard to imagine now, but these were the big cool companies founders used to want to emulate.
posted by 2bucksplus at 11:31 AM on June 27, 2014
posted by 2bucksplus at 11:31 AM on June 27, 2014
"Blue is the color of trust," my former boss said back when we were doing a web redesign about 16 years ago.
Though I think the main reason blue is a safe color for websites is because everyone else's website is blue.
posted by Foosnark at 11:36 AM on June 27, 2014
Though I think the main reason blue is a safe color for websites is because everyone else's website is blue.
posted by Foosnark at 11:36 AM on June 27, 2014
We blue it.
posted by The Whelk at 11:36 AM on June 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 11:36 AM on June 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
The internet is a professional white background, I'll have you know.
posted by gauche at 11:37 AM on June 27, 2014 [12 favorites]
posted by gauche at 11:37 AM on June 27, 2014 [12 favorites]
Some of the blues are the prettiest web-safe colors, and this has been true since there were only 16 you could use and be sure your visitors could see them. (Even when there were only 8, and hence only one blue, it was my pick as the prettiest color a monitor could display.)
posted by jfuller at 11:39 AM on June 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by jfuller at 11:39 AM on June 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
The internet is a professional white background, I'll have you know.
Outlook 2013 is so much white on white with white spaces between white boundaries and white white white.
I keep it minimized unless I need to look at it, then I break out the welding goggles so I can read the damn thing.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 11:46 AM on June 27, 2014 [7 favorites]
I was part of a site that once had a redesign about which one of the executives looked at the early comps and was like, "Hmmm ... more yellow." That was his only comment. There's just no accounting for how people are about color.
posted by Linda_Holmes at 11:51 AM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Linda_Holmes at 11:51 AM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
This is a bit of a derail (and I apologize in advance) but I'd like to give a bit of context to first sentence:
"Children ask why the sky is blue, and there usually isn't anybody around to provide a satisfying answer."
Because maybe it isn't.
And also because blue is the color it takes the longest to learn to recognize (of the "big ones") - no matter if you're looking at human history as a whole or child development specifically. The Radiolab podcast had a really fascinating episode on the matter, maybe some of you are interested: http://www.radiolab.org/story/211213-sky-isnt-blue/
posted by bigendian at 11:55 AM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
"Children ask why the sky is blue, and there usually isn't anybody around to provide a satisfying answer."
Because maybe it isn't.
And also because blue is the color it takes the longest to learn to recognize (of the "big ones") - no matter if you're looking at human history as a whole or child development specifically. The Radiolab podcast had a really fascinating episode on the matter, maybe some of you are interested: http://www.radiolab.org/story/211213-sky-isnt-blue/
posted by bigendian at 11:55 AM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
This is a bit of a derail (and I apologize in advance) but I'd like to give a bit of context to first sentence:
"Children ask why the sky is blue, and there usually isn't anybody around to provide a satisfying answer."
Because maybe it isn't.
No, the sky IS blue. It's blue for exactly the same reason why anything else has color -- the components that make it up scatter or reflect or allow to pass through light of specific wavelengths within the visible spectrum.
It's possible this holds true with the internet, too.
posted by hippybear at 12:05 PM on June 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
"Children ask why the sky is blue, and there usually isn't anybody around to provide a satisfying answer."
Because maybe it isn't.
No, the sky IS blue. It's blue for exactly the same reason why anything else has color -- the components that make it up scatter or reflect or allow to pass through light of specific wavelengths within the visible spectrum.
It's possible this holds true with the internet, too.
posted by hippybear at 12:05 PM on June 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
Because maybe it isn't.
That's not what the question is about, though. The question is "Why is the sky that color?" Whether or not that color is correctly described as "blue."
posted by Linda_Holmes at 12:06 PM on June 27, 2014
That's not what the question is about, though. The question is "Why is the sky that color?" Whether or not that color is correctly described as "blue."
posted by Linda_Holmes at 12:06 PM on June 27, 2014
The Radiolab podcast had a really fascinating episode on the matter
If only we had evolved from mantis shrimps instead of apes, our color palette would be so much richer. I want to be able to see an ultraviolet and infrared logo.
posted by tempestuoso at 12:07 PM on June 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
If only we had evolved from mantis shrimps instead of apes, our color palette would be so much richer. I want to be able to see an ultraviolet and infrared logo.
posted by tempestuoso at 12:07 PM on June 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
Blue is a very easy color to design with. It's a color, not just black and white, so it doesn't come across as too boring. But cool colors tend to recede into the background*, so it doesn't draw too much attention to itself. If you want to make one particular element pop out, you make it red or yellow or orange and it jumps out without being disharmonious.
If you make your background a strong red, you can still make it work, but it's a little more trouble to get people's eyes to go where you want them to. A blue and white color scheme makes it really easy to make something that looks okay.
*possibly due to the fact that faraway objects in real life appear bluish because of the diffraction of light - short wavelengths are more likely to be diffracted, so the haze between you and the mountain adds more blue than red.
posted by echo target at 12:09 PM on June 27, 2014
If you make your background a strong red, you can still make it work, but it's a little more trouble to get people's eyes to go where you want them to. A blue and white color scheme makes it really easy to make something that looks okay.
*possibly due to the fact that faraway objects in real life appear bluish because of the diffraction of light - short wavelengths are more likely to be diffracted, so the haze between you and the mountain adds more blue than red.
posted by echo target at 12:09 PM on June 27, 2014
I'm pretty sure, if you go back far enough in the evolutionary timeline, we probably did evolve from a common ancestor as mantis shrimps.
posted by hippybear at 12:09 PM on June 27, 2014
posted by hippybear at 12:09 PM on June 27, 2014
Why is the Blue blue? Mods?
Honestly, in late 1998/early 1999 I had half a dozen mockups and the one key feature was that they weren't just white pages. Some were brown, green, yellow, black, and mixtures of blue/gray/green (some mockups are here) and eventually I just went with a muted blue.
posted by mathowie at 12:27 PM on June 27, 2014 [18 favorites]
Honestly, in late 1998/early 1999 I had half a dozen mockups and the one key feature was that they weren't just white pages. Some were brown, green, yellow, black, and mixtures of blue/gray/green (some mockups are here) and eventually I just went with a muted blue.
posted by mathowie at 12:27 PM on June 27, 2014 [18 favorites]
Why is the internet blue?
Am I blue? am I blue?posted by Herodios at 12:36 PM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
Aint these pixels on my interface telling you
Am I blue? you'd be too!
All my plans for other Pantones® fell through
An expert witness consultant on TV long ago advised on wearing a blue item of clothing as it inspires trustworthiness. I have no idea if this is true.
posted by Renoroc at 1:02 PM on June 27, 2014
posted by Renoroc at 1:02 PM on June 27, 2014
I thought I heard somewhere that blue was easiest on the eyes?
Yes/No?
posted by BlueHorse at 1:14 PM on June 27, 2014
Yes/No?
posted by BlueHorse at 1:14 PM on June 27, 2014
Pogo_Fuzzybutt: Outlook 2013 is so much white on white with white spaces between white boundaries and white white white.
Have you tried changing the Outlook "Office theme" setting from White to Dark Gray, or Light Gray? It made a huge difference for me.
posted by Harpocrates at 1:19 PM on June 27, 2014
Have you tried changing the Outlook "Office theme" setting from White to Dark Gray, or Light Gray? It made a huge difference for me.
posted by Harpocrates at 1:19 PM on June 27, 2014
I'd imagine it has something to do with it being the only cool "primary" color.
posted by aaronetc at 1:51 PM on June 27, 2014
posted by aaronetc at 1:51 PM on June 27, 2014
Blue is the warmest colour.
posted by MartinWisse at 2:06 PM on June 27, 2014
posted by MartinWisse at 2:06 PM on June 27, 2014
"Burning Logs"?
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 2:07 PM on June 27, 2014
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 2:07 PM on June 27, 2014
If most of the light that comes through our atmosphere is blue (because that's the light wavelength that most easily makes it through our atmosphere and that's why the sky is blue) it makes sense that we would be accustomed to the color blue. Maybe its plenitude gives it a certain degree of neutrality. It's cool, calm, and unobtrusive. And these white letters are like little clouds upon it.
posted by parallax at 2:16 PM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by parallax at 2:16 PM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
Metafilter: Why so blue?
posted by Mental Wimp at 2:27 PM on June 27, 2014
posted by Mental Wimp at 2:27 PM on June 27, 2014
Metafilter: Watching the Watchers
posted by chavenet at 2:28 PM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by chavenet at 2:28 PM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
The world has a blue background, no sense confusing people by mixing that up on your website.
posted by ckape at 2:44 PM on June 27, 2014
posted by ckape at 2:44 PM on June 27, 2014
The sky above the port was the color of the internet endlessly gazing into the void of its own naval.
posted by mediocre at 3:17 PM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by mediocre at 3:17 PM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
Blue is the internet's favorite color because it's calm and neutral, yet pleasant — so you can use it for a lot of stuff and people don't get tired of looking at it. Yellow, red, green, orange, pink — all too bright and garish. Also, many colors have negative connotations — yellow is cowardice, green is money or envy, etc. Purple — too feminine and unusual for most websites. Brown — could be seen as neutral, but many people are going to find it distractingly unpleasant. Grey — too drab and not really a color. That leaves blue.
posted by John Cohen at 5:42 PM on June 27, 2014
posted by John Cohen at 5:42 PM on June 27, 2014
the void of its own naval
I see what you did there
posted by en forme de poire at 5:44 PM on June 27, 2014
I see what you did there
posted by en forme de poire at 5:44 PM on June 27, 2014
Why is the sky blue? As Judge Stone once said, it's so we know where to stop mowing.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 6:28 PM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 6:28 PM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
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posted by The Whelk at 11:21 AM on June 27, 2014 [11 favorites]