I’ve been working on BANKWAVE: Neon Networth for a few months now. It’s a game that plays a lot like Papers, Please and aims to provide social commentary on late-stage capitalism. Check out our landing page to learn more and consider joining the waitlist for our upcoming kickstarter.
But I’m not here to talk about the game. I want to talk about what Google Bard did when I handed it a list of colors.
One of the decisions our artist made early on after the game jam was to recreate the palette using a custom set of colors, which we’ve called Gorge-36 Inspired by a post on the LoSpec.com Discord server, I decided to hand these colors off to Google Bard and see how it names them.
For each of the results, I’ve provided Bard’s exact output and a brief summary of my thoughts. The only input that I provided was a string including the hexcode for the color, and the instructions “Name this color.” For the images, I’ve selected names that Bard produced.
Let’s have some fun along the way, shall we?
Red
Right away we can see that Bard thinks terracotta pots and mangos are a bit darker than what I’ve experienced. We also notice that it seems to be re-using color names in a few instances. This might be because I input each color separately – perhaps if I give Bard the entire palette to work with we might see more interesting results.
Here’s Bard’s exact output.
The color #fd5e64 is a bright, medium-saturated orange. It is similar to the color of a traffic cone or a ripe orange.
The color #d55175 is a bright, medium orange. It is similar to the color of a traffic cone or a ripe mango. It is a warm color that is often associated with energy, enthusiasm, and creativity. It can also be used to represent danger or warning.
The color #a74c79 is a medium reddish-orange. It is similar to the colors of pumpkin, terracotta, and copper.
The color #77476f is a medium dark reddish-brown. It is a warm color with a hue of 35 degrees, a saturation of 47%, and a lightness of 44%. It is similar to the colors maroon, chocolate, and terracotta.
The color #4e3e5a is called “Dark Khaki”. It is a dark brownish-green color.
And no, I haven’t checked to see if Bard is performing the RGB-to-HSV conversion correctly. Would love to learn if that’s the case or not.
Yellow
Well bard clearly seems to understand that chocolate, maroon, and terracotta all go together. I wouldn’t lump all of these colors together myself. Also, somebody needs to show this AI what a tangerine looks like. Maybe all of its colors are darker because it’s been looking directly at the sun.
By the way, Bard wrote me a short essay on #fdfe89 – where it waxed eloquent on its merits in advertising and home decor. I hope you like it.
The color #fdfe89 is a light yellow with a hint of green. It is often described as being similar to the color of a banana or a lemon. The color #fdfe89 is often used in marketing and advertising because it is a bright and cheerful color that can grab attention. It is also a popular color for home décor, as it can create a warm and inviting atmosphere. Here are some other names for the color #fdfe89:
- Banana Yellow
- Lemon Yellow
- Light Yellow Green
- Spring Yellow
- Canary Yellow
The color #ffc077 is a bright, vibrant orange. It is a warm color that is often associated with energy, happiness, and creativity. It is also the color of the sun and fire, which can make it feel exciting and stimulating.
The color #e08d7b is called “Tangerine”. It is a bright, medium orange color. It is similar to the colors of a tangerine fruit.
The color #a76979 is a light reddish-orange color. It is similar to the color of salmon or tangerine.
The color #664d63 is a dark reddish brown. It is a warm color with a low lightness and a high saturation. It is similar to the colors chocolate, maroon, and terracotta.
Green
Here’s where Bard starts to hallucinate a bit. Nothing about these colors makes me think of blue or cyan. Yet as we can see, Bard’s decided that’s the right answer. Compare this the actual cyan ramp, which we’ll see next.
The color #5efd8d is a light green color with a hue of 123 degrees, a saturation of 85%, and a lightness of 85%. It is similar to the colors chartreuse and lime green.
The color #5ad17c is called “Light Cyan”. It is a light shade of cyan with a hue of 125 degrees, a saturation of 77%, and a lightness of 76%. It is similar to the colors aqua, turquoise, and teal.
The color #54a66a is called “Light Blue-Green”. It is a light shade of blue-green with a hue of 124° (green), saturation of 56%, and lightness of 69%. It is similar to the colors aquamarine, turquoise, and teal.
The color #4d7d5b is called “Medium Sea Green”. It is a dark greenish-blue color. It is a web color and can be used in HTML, CSS, and other programming languages.
The color #42564c is called “Dark Cyan”. It is a dark blue-green color with a hue of 195° (green), saturation of 40%, and lightness of 24%. It is similar to the colors teal, turquoise, and aquamarine.
… by the way, I did a quick check, and it seems that #4d7d5b is not a web color.
Cyan
After the first color I had hoped Bard might start to be a bit consistent with its inconsistent mislabeling but alas… The green is cyan and the cyan is green, but also darker cyan is cyan, except for the dark cyan, which is actually forest green. What a strange world that generative AI seems to inhabit.
The color #5efdf7 is a light shade of green with a hue of 130 degrees, a saturation of 85%, and a lightness of 87%. It is similar to the colors mint green, seafoam green, and turquoise.
The color #4ad0e2 is called “Light Sky Blue”. It is a light blue color with a hue of 210 degrees, a saturation of 55%, and a lightness of 82%. It is similar to the colors sky blue, light cyan, and baby blue.
The color #4da3c1 is called “Light Cyan”. It is a light shade of cyan with a hue of 180 degrees, saturation of 80%, and lightness of 71%. It is similar to the colors sky blue, turquoise, and aqua.
The color #507997 is called “Medium Aquamarine”. It is a light blue-green color with a hue of 120 degrees, saturation of 50%, and lightness of 57%. It is similar to the colors teal, turquoise, and aquamarine.
The color #475268 is called “Medium Teal”. It is a dark greenish-blue color.
Blue
I don’t see a lot of gray in these colors. Also this is the royal blue-est shade of aquamarine I’ve ever come across. Like the other examples, Bard seems to still think colors are much darker than they actually are – calling “Medium Blue” what I see as a deep ocean shade.
The color #5e64fd is a light blue color with an RGB value of (94, 96, 253). It has a hue of 193 degrees, a saturation of 100%, and a lightness of 80%. It is similar to the colors light sky blue, baby blue, and powder blue.
The color #565ad4 is called “Light Blue-Gray”. It is a light shade of blue with a grayish tint. It is often used in websites and applications to represent water or the sky.
The color #4f50ab is called “Medium Aquamarine”. It is a light blue-green color with a hue of 145° (green), saturation of 60%, and lightness of 50%. It is similar to the colors teal and turquoise.
The color #464684 is called “Medium Blue”. It is a dark blue color with a hue of 216 degrees, a saturation of 50%, and a lightness of 40%. It is similar to the colors navy blue, midnight blue, and royal blue.
The color #3d3b5f is called “Dark Slate Gray”. It is a dark gray color with a slight blue undertone.
Pink
Never serve me salmon cooked by an AI – I’m worried it might be flavored with bubblegum. There’s actually very little blue that I’m picking up from these colors, but Bard seems to see them differently, I suppose.
The color #f75edf is called “Light Salmon Pink”. It is a light shade of salmon pink with a hue of 355 degrees, saturation of 85%, and lightness of 86%.
The color #c15ec7 is called “Light Salmon Pink”. It is a light shade of pink with a hue of 340 degrees, a saturation of 67%, and a lightness of 82%. It is similar to the colors salmon pink, coral, and light coral.
The color #9258aa is called “Medium Blue-Violet”. It is a dark, muted blue-purple color. It is similar to the colors of blueberries and eggplants.
The color #694e87 is a medium blue-green color. It is a light shade of teal, and is similar to the color of the ocean.
The color #494062 is a dark blue color. It is a very dark shade of blue, almost black. It is sometimes referred to as navy blue or midnight blue.
Finally, we come to the gray ramp.
Gray
To be fair to Bard, naming grays sounds hard – and it had no knowledge of the fact that I was asking it to name multiple shades here. Still – the “Dark Gray” is nearly black. Some more redemption for the AI: I do think “Iron Blue” sounds like a fun color – I just wish it was on screen.
The color #d2d2d4 is a light gray color with an RGB value of (210, 210, 216). It is a very light and airy color that can be used in a variety of ways. It can be used as a background color, a text color, or even as a highlight color. It is a versatile color that can be used in a variety of settings.
The color #a7a6ab is a light grayish blue color. It is similar to the color of the sky on a cloudy day. It is also similar to the color of light blue denim.
The color #7d7c83 is a light grayish-blue color. It is similar to the color of the sky on a cloudy day.
The color #56555e is a dark grayish-blue color. It is also known as “Gunmetal” or “Iron Blue”.
The color #32313b is dark gray. It has a red-green-blue (RGB) value of 32, 31, and 31, respectively. It also has a hue of 230 degrees, a saturation of 35%, and a lightness of 20%.
You may have noticed that nothing about the colors above can be said to be similar to light blue denim… oh well.
Conclusion
It would seem that AI has a long way to go when it comes to capturing the subjective human experience of color. That said, there were some good choices that I think it made, particularly with the lighter shades in the warmer portion of the spectrum.
That said, the only color which I think Bard unambiguously identified correctly was #ffffff:
The color #ffffff is white.
Yes, bard. Yes it is. Good bot.