Talks to Watch

I can't show you how pink this pink is.

9.7M views · Jul 18, 2017 · 3:52 · 0 HN recommenders · 7 mentions · discussed 2018–2026

Tom Scott explains why a vivid pink pigment by artist Stuart Semple cannot be fully shown on a screen, and touches on the dispute over exclusive rights to the blackest black pigment. It is a short explainer on color gamuts and pigment politics.

Why Hacker News points people here: Cited as an example of colors too vibrant for monitors and pigments outside the sRGB gamut.

“these colors are so vibrant, they cannot be accurately displayed on monitors”HN comment, 2018

What Hacker News said 7

Cites itgondolgamesApr 2018

Example of an extreme pink.

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Is there a museum for these extreme colors? (Like the blue in the article or the pink in this video - this video )

in “The Quest for the Next Billion-Dollar Color” · view on HN
Cites itlaniusApr 2018

“these colors are so vibrant, they cannot be accurately displayed on monitors”

Colors too vibrant for monitors.

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Where can I view these brilliant colors in person? Apparently these colors are so vibrant, they cannot be accurately displayed on monitors: this video

in “The Quest for the Next Billion-Dollar Color” · view on HN
Cites itCaliforniaKarlJun 2019

Recommends Tom Scott color videos.

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For a small set of other color-related videos, have a look at two from Tom Scott: • "The Library of Rare Colors": link • "I Can't Show You How Pink This Pink Is": this video The latter video makes me wonder: Is there a good way of finding out if a monitor, or even an entire color space, can contain this color? This may be a pigment where you really can't tell exactly what it looks like on-screen, because either the screen cannot display the color or the color space being used can not encode the color (or because the camera sensor can't properly capture the color).

Cites itdan_pixelflowJul 2021

Tom Scott video about another product and the Kapoor message.

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There's a Tom Scott video about another one of Stuart's products, and an explanation for the Anish Kapoor message: this video

in “Black 3.0 – The blackest black acrylic paint” · view on HN
Cites itevanbAug 2021

“Relevant”

Relevant Tom Scott video.

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Relevant: "I can't show you how pink this pink is." by Tom Scott this video Also relevant, his piece on "The Library of Rare Colors" link

in “A man preserving endangered colours” · view on HN
Cites itIntralexicalMar 2026

Cited as example of a pigment showing new colors.

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> It is sometimes associated with our inability to think of new colors, but I think this is a completely different problem. As an aside, thinking of a new color is relatively easy. You can sorta actually see new colors just by making a really good pigment[0], or shooting cone cells with lasers[1]. But there's also the possibility of having a new photoreceptor . In which case, you don't just gain 1 new color. You gain 3 new secondary colors, plus an entire new type of 4 "tertiary colors", each of which is as visually distinct as cyan, magenta, and yellow are. And the colorspace itself becomes a 4-dimensional volume, with every existing color able to blend into smooth graduations of the new cone cell signal. [0] this video [1] link

in “You gotta think outside the hypercube” · view on HN
Cites itMachaJun 2026

Dyes outside sRGB gamut.

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There's a few dyes (mostly pinks and cyans) that are outside sRGB space (though once you apply them to a material, that combination of material and dye might be fine), Tom Scott had a video a few years ago, though I don't know if that particular dye/seller is still going: this video There's also Vantablack and similar ultra-black dyes which are a somewhat adjacent phenomena but in the same category of "colors your screen can't display". The most black a pixel can be is "off" (and that's only achievable if the display is on if your screen is an OLED), and the back coating of your screen is probably not as black as those dyes.

in “Where to Find the Colors Your Screen Can't Show You” · view on HN