Lime
- HEX
- #BFFF00
- RGB
- 191 255 0
- HSL
- 75° 100% 50%
- CMYK
- 25 0 100 0
Lime or Kelly green?
A bright yellow-green, much lighter and yellower than kelly green.
Language
Lime green is recorded as a color name by 1883; the Oxford English Dictionary's first example is from a London newspaper in 1890.
Science
A 2009 US Fire Administration study found fluorescent yellow-green and orange the easiest colors to spot in daylight, and some fire departments now paint their trucks lime-yellow instead of red. It works because your eye is most sensitive to yellow-green (trichromacy).
Kin
- Red: Some fire departments swapped red trucks for lime-yellow ones
- Chartreuse: Its slightly greener twin, named after a liqueur
- Green: Yellow-green sits at the peak of the eye's sensitivity
Sources
- Wikipedia, 'Lime (color)' (OED first use 1890); Etymonline, 'lime' (by 1883)
- US Fire Administration, Emergency Vehicle Visibility and Conspicuity Study, FA-323 (August 2009)
Hex values are screen approximations. Every page lists its sources.