Colour: A Historical Perspective

Abstract

Colour pervades all aspects of our lives, influencing our moods and emotions and generally enhancing the way in which we enjoy our environment. Our experience of colour emanates from a rich diversity of sources, both natural and synthetic. Natural colours are all around us, in the earth, the sky, the sea, animals and birds and in the vegetation. Synthetic colours often serve a purely decorative or aesthetic purpose in the clothes we wear, in paints, plastic articles, in a wide range of multicoloured printed materials. Colour is introduced into these materials and applications using substances known as dyes and pigments, or collectively as colorants. This chapter discusses the early history of dyes and pigments; the era of the synthetic dye; colour chemistry in the 20th Century; and recent and current trends in colour chemistry.