Brown

Brown (also called cowlaan) is a dark colour produced by mixing red and yellow light, or by reducing the brightness of these hues with black. In Somali, the term is used to describe the colour of soil, wood, coffee, hair, and animals.

In the physics of light, brown has no distinct wavelength separate from others. It is what is called a brightness-dependent colour: when the eye perceives a mixture of red and yellow wavelengths at low illumination levels, it interprets this as brown. For this reason, a dark screen cannot display brown in isolation; it requires comparison with surrounding colours.

Production

In practice, brown is typically made by mixing red and yellow, or by combining the three primary colours (red, blue, and yellow) in unequal proportions. In the RGB system used in computing, brown is produced from a moderate red value, lower green, and very low blue.

Natural occurrence

In nature, brown is usually produced by melanin, a pigment found in the hair, eyes, and skin of humans and animals. In plants, brown colour comes from tannins and decomposed organic matter. Brown soil indicates the presence of decayed organic material.

Cultural use

In many cultures, brown is associated with earth, shelter, and manual labour. Work clothing, wooden household furnishings, and leather typically incorporate brown. In modern manufacturing, brown dyes and pigments are used in fabric and leather processing.