A color code is a system for displaying information by using different colors. Color codes are often difficult for color blind and blind people to interpret.
The earliest examples of color codes in use are for long distance communication by use of flags, as in semaphore communication. The United Kingdom adopted a color code scheme for such communication wherein red signified danger and white signified safety, with other colors having similar assignments of meaning.
As chemistry and other technologies advanced, it became expedient to use coloration as a signal for telling apart things that would otherwise be confusingly similar, such as wiring in electrical and electronic devices, and pharmaceutical pills.
The use of color codes has been extended to abstractions, such as the Homeland Security Advisory System color code in the United States. Similarly, hospital emergency codes often incorporate colors (such as the widely used "Code Blue" indicating a cardiac arrest), although they may also include numbers, and may not conform to a uniform standard.
Read more about Color Code: Examples
Famous quotes containing the words color and/or code:
“For the profit of travel: in the first place, you get rid of a few prejudices.... The prejudiced against color finds several hundred millions of people of all shades of color, and all degrees of intellect, rank, and social worth, generals, judges, priests, and kings, and learns to give up his foolish prejudice.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Wise Draco comes, deep in the midnight roll
Of black artillery; he comes, though late;
In code corroborating Calvin’s creed
And cynic tyrannies of honest kings;
He comes, nor parlies; and the Town, redeemed,
Gives thanks devout; nor, being thankful, heeds
The grimy slur on the Republic’s faith implied,
Which holds that Man is naturally good,
And—more—is Nature’s Roman, never to be
scourged.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)