Can black be my favorite color even though it isn't a color?

You could say it’s your favorite shade?

My husband’s favorite color is black followed by navy blue. No one has ever given him crap. I think you could risk it. :)

But..but…black is the combination of all colors. It’s white that is the absence of any. I’d call black a color.

@lilikoi: It depends if you’re talking about light or something like paint. In terms of light, black is the absence of color.

Sure, why not…. It is perceived to be a color even though it is lacking in color.
If someone gives you lip about it, go ahead and ask what color is something (then pointing to a black object)

Of course you can. By saying black is your favorite color, you can say that you are simply calling the combination of every color your favorite and yet the absence of all color and thus, you are the most interesting one of the bunch.

Why worry about semantics? The color police are not going to come knocking on your door if you say that black is your favorite color.

Ladies and gentlemen, please, lets make sure we know the difference of shades of light and color.

As far as the concept of color goes, black is the combination of all hues and thus is a color, as is white, which though, may not have any hues, is still recognized by our eyes as a hue-less color, the only one that exists.

As far as light refraction goes, darkness (what most people see as the color black) is simply the absence of light to recognize and identify the hues in colors. Darkness is not actually black, it simply means that there is not enough light to properly understand what one is looking at.

So yes, aside from the long scientific explanation, black and white are both colors.

Nope. Black isn’t a color. Black is the absence of all color. And white is an equal mixture of all colors.

sure…...or darkest grey…..black is good.

Not my fave, but whatever floats your boat.

According to Wikipedia, black is considered a color “in practice”. So, I think you’re fine…

@ChaosCross Well said.

yeah of course, I like black. Even my hair is black.
so its fine

I sure hope so, cause its my favorite color too. :)

@lilikoi Thank you, it is important to keep the line thick and visible when it comes to “the absence of light in an area” and “the absence of hues in a color”. But then again, it is not surprising that people are rather uneducated about this kind of thing nowadays, media barely ever talks about the nature of hues (the visible parts of light seeable to the human eye), and instead combines hues and color into just color.

On clothing, it is a color. In space, it is the absence of light.

Give them a black eye and tell them it isn’t there—snickers—

The only place black is popular is in New York or with the clergy. I admit that I like women in their “little black dresses” but otherwise I find it depressing and appropriate only for funerals and men’s tuxedos.

Like you said, it isn’t a color, it is the absence of color and denotes depression or that you follow convention. I guess you could say that you favor no color or you don’t like any color in the visable spectrum.

@lilikoi I am afraid that you have that exactly wrong. Black is the absence of color, white is all colors combined.

@Ron_C I thought that the pigments in black material absorbed all wave-lengths of visible light and that pigments in white ones reflected them. Is that wrong, too?

@Fred931 color is a reflection of light. Something that appears red reflects red much more than anyother color. Black reflect nothing (non-reflecting surface). White reflects all colors equally (at least as far as we can see).

Gas content in stars is determined the color they show in a spectrum analysis because they emit at different wave lengths. The only way to get white is for an object to be so hot that all gases and matter is burned. That is also a way compare the heat of the sun to the heat of other stars. Stars that burn in the blue-white spectrum are the hottest because they emit light waves approaching the limit of our visible spectrum towards the ultra violet.

Black is #000000
I consider every RGB triplet and many things that aren’t representable (“Silver” for example) to be colors. Makes sense to computer people.

You are entitled to prefer black regardless of whether it can be properly called a colour.
In this instance the technical argument is moot. The issue is your preference.

@Dr_Lawrence I can prefer black but saying it is my favorite color is a logical quandary.

If anyone gives you any lip, you can give them the back of your hand. :) I hate a smartass.

@Ron_C ‘I want it painted black’. Yeah, good old songs, doesn’t take much thinking to understand he was talking about sad. @Ltryptophan I don’t think you’d get this discussion telling a bunch of friends at the pub that you liked black!!

@Ron_C I was going to respond by how pigments that absorb all colors usually have to reflect a certain amount of light to be visible, i.e. a piece of black card stock held outside, but posting this would create a discussion about dark matter, which makes my head hurt.

@Fred931 actually, dark matter isn’t necessarily black it is just not luminescent like stars and is also a way to account for the apparent missing mass in the universe.

A black card, outside really define the lack of light being reflected. Notice that shiny black cars are not as black as flat black detailing around the windscreen. You should also notice that solar water heaters are flat black to absorb as much sunlight as possible. A white solar heater is much less effective because it only absorbs the infrared part of the spectrum.

There is no reason not to see black as a color for example when talking about leather jacket. Think of it as a value of an attribute in a database of a clothes shop.

Yes, it can be your favorite color. But if you drive a motorcycle a bright color makes more sense. Same for being a pedestrian at night in a poorly lit area.

Tell them “IT’S A FREE COUNTRY AND I CAN LIKE WHATEVER THE HECK COLOR I LIKE!!” and then tip over their glass of iced tea for emphasis.

and artistically speaking, black is the presence of all colors combined at once

Yes it can be your favorite color. I know a bunch of people that say black is their favorite color. Doesn’t matter if black isn’t technically a color or not. Its better than saying its yellow or orange or something that is a lie. Just be you :)

Black is, and always will be, the new black.
Heck, you’ll even look cool in a Smartcar provided its black.

@meagan… You hate a smart ass? I always say its better then a dumb ass.

Black is the possibility of all. Green is a mix of blue and yellow, it is a color. Orange is a mix of red and yellow, it is a color. Sooo if you choose black then it is your favorite color.

Even though black isn’t a color technically, I still refer to it as a “color”, because the word “color” makes it easy for us to objectify and label black. Besides, it’s my favorite color too, because it matches my hair and eye color! Woo-hoo. :D

Go for it! You are free to like what color you want to like, whether it be a “real” color or not. If black is your favorite color, don’t lie just to be technically correct. Enjoy your color choices!

Who says black can’t be a color?
What color are you painting your room? Black.
What color is your shirt? Black

Black can be a color