What Colors Make Ivory?

In this article, we discuss what colors make ivory.

As an off-white color, there is a regality to ivory not seen in ‘vanilla’ shades of white.

You can visually distinguish ivory from base white thanks to the slightest yellow tint it bears.

Ivory is, of course, named for its resemblance to the real-life substance ivory, the hard, dentine tissue found in the teeth, and especially tusks of animals like boars, walruses, and elephants. Fortunately, the color ivory has never been a pigment that relied on the poaching of such wondrous beasts.

In the natural world, ivory (the color) also appears on plants like the orchid ivory-colored cymbidium. In addition, many species of birds bear an ivory coloration to their plumage or other features, such as the ivory-breasted pitta, the ivory gull, the ivory-billed woodpecker, the ivory-backed wood swallow, the ivory-billed woodcreeper, and the ivory-billed aracari, which is of the same taxonomic family as the more popularly known toucan.

The earliest recorded use of the term ivory as a color in the English language was in the year 1385 AD. Well over half a millennium later, in 1987, ivory would join other colors included as part of the X11 color names in the X Window computer system.

What Colors Make Ivory Digitally?

As a color shade, ivory is made up of three colors. Specifically, it combines primarily yellow, white, and some blue.

Another way to look at ivory’s composition is the formula:

White Color + Blue Color + Secondary Color Yellow= Ivory

From a graphics design point of view, there are many ways to identify and pinpoint ivory.

According to the RGB color schema, ivory occupies the hex positioned at #FFFFF0. The red and green of that particular hex are at 100%, while the blue is just slightly less at 94.1% (100, 100, 94.1). Ivory’s RGB decimal is 255, 255, 240.

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If you are using the CMYK color space structure (which is often the case for color printing), then ivory’s hex (which is also #FFFFF0) contains 0% for cyan, magenta, and black but 6% yellow (0, 0, 6, 0).

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In addition to the most popular color systems, RGB and CMYK, ivory is in a range of other systems:

• HSL- 60°, 100, 97.1

• Binary- 11111111, 11111111, 11110000

• HSV/HSB- 60°, 5.9, 100

• CIE-LCH- 99.64, 7.603, 109.606

• HunterLab- 99.535, -2.621, 6.936

• Web Safe- FFFFF

• CIELAB- 99.64, -2.551, 7.163

• XYZ- 92.726, 99.072, 96.659

• XYY- 0.321, 0.343, 99.072

• CIE-LUV- 99.64, 0.822, 11.387

What Paints Make Ivory?

Outside the digital realm, you can also mix and create ivory paint for your own use. As ivory is itself a shade of white, it can be nearly impossible to find ivory-shaded paint in stores. Thus forcing you to create your own ivory paint.

This means you will still need to go to the store, just not for ivory paint.

Instead, you will need to get blue, white, and yellow paints. You will also need a plastic or glass surface (to mix the paint on), multiple paintbrushes (both for different painting tasks and to prevent paints from mixing in your brush), an airtight container, and a permanent marker if you do not already have these things. And of course water, but not for drinking.

First, you will take a brush, dip it in white paint, then paint it onto the plastic or glass surface. Do the same with the yellow paint (you may want to use a different brush) on the same surface. Then you will mix the white and yellow thoroughly until they disappear into one hue. Afterward, add just a little of the blue paint. Mix thoroughly and add more of whichever of the three colors you feel is lacking.

Second, you should keep track of the color ratios you used, especially once you arrive at a mixture resulting in the shade of ivory you like. This way, you can have it on record for when you do it again in the future, and you will know the ratios to make ivory paint in larger batches.

Third, make sure you store what you do not use in your new ivory paint. Take the paint and place what you can into an airtight container. Label the container with a permanent marker then store it someplace cool and dry. Somewhere it will keep in good condition until you need it again. If you run out, well now you can make more.

Also, always take care of your tools. So wash your paintbrushes and the plastic or glass surface with water. Don’t let the paint settle and dry too much. Otherwise, you will at best need something stronger than water, or at worst you will shorten the lifespan of your tools.