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Claim offerInspiration in the color white.
Learn the history and meaning of the color white — the oldest recorded color.
Get inspired with white design templates.
White color is pure and crisp. It can also be cold or blank. Use white to refresh or subdue.
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How to use the color white.
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Keep everything clean with the color white.
White symbolizes cleanliness among other things. White is also a way to keep your projects visually clean. That means there is little that the eye has to process. Whatever colors or text are used can instantly pop out when you favor white.
Invite new beginnings with white.
Because of the link between white and purity, projects with white can symbolize new beginnings. This is the “clean slate” meaning of white. The color white can be the light of a new day. White gives you permission to leave everything behind and start with a clean canvas.
Look to idioms for clever plays on the color white.
White is used in idioms in every language. Work that touches on certain subjects can amp up symbolism with white by playing off phrases like: a white lie, white noise, a white knight, a white paper.
Look to nature for more inspiration in white.
Fresh snow scatters sunlight in a sparkling color white. Clouds can look white and fluffy on a sunny day, too. The right kind of sand can look white on a warm and inviting beach. Quartz and limestone also appear white.
Information about white color.
The white HEX code picker is #FFFFFF. This spotless white illuminates everything it touches. Light bounces right off to provide bright visual feedback to any project that uses it.
White can be achieved in a RGB space with 255 red, 255 green, and 255 blue. White can be achieved in a CMYK color space with 0% cyan, 0% magenta, 0% yellow, and 0% black.
What is the meaning of the color white?
What you see when you imagine the color white depends in part on where you live. Maybe you see freshly fallen snow. Maybe you see white light filter through your eyelids while you lie on a sandy beach. White is seen as crisp and pure, and most of the white things we imagine are just as unadulterated. Wedding gowns, an unseasoned bed of rice, and a blank sheet of paper are all examples.
The word “white” comes from a root meaning “white or bright.” Bright light is exactly what makes white color white — it is our perception of light without any hues.
The history of white color.
White is the oldest recorded color.
White was first documented in Paleolithic art when calcite and chalk were used to draw crisp, clean lines. By the time of ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures, white was seen as a symbol of purity. Priestesses wore white. Most togas were white. Temples were faced in white marble. Today, this significance is still seen in religious and government buildings around the world.
Over the centuries, white color took on more political meanings.
White was adopted in politics because of its association with purity. It also became the color of specific political movements. For over a century, American and British suffragists used white as a color of their cause. In the early 20th century, the monarchist movement that opposed the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War took white as their official color.
White has always been present in fashion and fabrics.
After the white color togas of the ancient Greek and Roman empires, white tunics were worn by knights in the Middle Ages to complement their crimson red cloaks. After the French Revolution, white became more prominent in women’s clothing. White has also been the color for bed sheets and underwear for centuries because it can easily be bleached.
The color white across different cultures.
White is often associated with purity, perfection, honesty, cleanliness, and beginnings.
Surveys in Europe and the United States repeatedly link the color white to forms of purity. The beauty of a clean slate, the perfection of a spotless surface, and even the idealized virginity of a bride in a wedding gown are all represented with the color white.
Language offers some clues of a more nuanced view of white.
Some languages have multiple words for white. The Inuit language has seven words for white, and Sanskrit has words for the white of teeth, of cow’s milk, and of stars. Japanese has six words for white. The Ancient Romans had two words for white, one of which morphed into the words candidate, candle, and candid. These languages provide clues to many meanings of the color white.
The color white around the world.
In Islam, white is worn during the pilgrimage to Mecca. In China, white is associated with bereavement and with the masculine half of the yin and yang. In parts of Asia and some Slavic cultures, white — not black — represents death. White was also used to represent death in ancient Egypt. It’s said that the color white reflected the nothingness in the white sand desserts.