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Blue pigments are natural or synthetic materials, traditionally made from minerals.

Being water-insoluble by definition, blue pigments used to make the blue colors in inks and paints. Some major blue pigments are indigo, Prussian blue, and copper phthalocyanine.

The earliest use of blue pigments in Europe uncovered by archeologists were from the Final Palaeolithic (c. The discovery of Egyptian blue (CaCuSi4O10) was promoted by the Egyptian pharaohs who sponsored the creation of new pigments to be used in art. Other civilizations combined organic and mineral materials to create blue pigments ranging from azure-blue like the Maya blue to the Han blue (BaCuSi4O10), which was developed by the Chinese Han dynasty and manipulated to produce a light or dark blue color. Cobalt blue (CoAl2O4) was first described in 1777. Ultramarine (Na7Al6Si6O24S3) was made by grinding the forbiddingly expensive lapis lazuli into a powder until a cheaper synthetic form was invented in 1826 by the French industrialist Jean Baptiste Guimet and in 1828 by the German chemist Christian Gmelin. Prussian blue (Fe43) was first described by the German polymath Johann Leonhard Frisch and the president of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, in 1708. Azurite (Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2) is a soft, deep-blue copper mineral produced by weathering copper ore deposits; it was used since ancient times and was first recorded by the first century Roman writer Pliny the Elder. Phthalocyanine Blue BN was first prepared in 1927 and has wide range of applications.

Copper phthalocyanine ("phthalo blue") is a synthetic blue pigment frequently used in paints, inks, and dyes.

Prussian blue (PB) is a dark blue pigment containing iron and cyanide produced by the oxidation of ferrous ferrocyanide salts. It had an immediate impact on the pigment market, because its intense deep blue color approached the quality of ultramarine at a much lower price and superior longevity.

Ultramarine was historically a prestigious and expensive blue pigment. It was the most expensive blue used by Renaissance artists (because it was imported from Afghanistan). Synthetic ultramarine was widely appreciated by the French impressionists, and Vincent van Gogh used both French ultramarine and cobalt blue for his painting The Starry Night (1889).

Cobalt blue is a synthetic blue pigment was invented in 1803 as a rival to ultramarine. It was also used as colorant, particularly in blue glass and as the blue pigment used for centuries in Chinese blue and white porcelain, beginning in the late eighth or early ninth century. Cobalt glass, or smalt, is a variation of cobalt blue. It is made of ground blue potassium glass containing cobalt blue.

Egyptian blue was the first synthetic blue pigment. Egyptian blue is responsible for the blue colour seen very commonly in Egyptian faience.

It was mentioned in Pliny the Elder's Natural History under the Greek name kuanos (κυανός: "deep blue," root of English cyan) and the Latin name caeruleum.

Han blue (also called Chinese blue) is a synthetic barium copper silicate pigment used in ancient and imperial China from the Western Zhou period (1045–771 BC) until the end of the Han dynasty (circa 220 AD). Han blue and the chemically related Han purple were used to decorate hu vessels during the Han dynasty, and were also used for mural paintings in tombs of the same period.

Maya blue is a synthetic turquoise-blue pigment made by infusing indigo pigments (particularly those derived from the anil shrub) into palygorskite, a clay that binds and stabilises the indigo such that it becomes resistant to weathering. Maya blue continued to be used into the Spanish colonial period; though falling out of widespread use in the Maya region during the 16th century, some areas apparently continued to produce it for export, as Cuban colonial paintings of the 18th and 19th century have been found to make use of Maya blue probably imported from Campeche.

Quick Facts

• Some major blue pigments are indigo, Prussian blue, and copper phthalocyanine.
• Other civilizations combined organic and mineral materials to create blue pigments ranging from azure-blue like the Maya blue to the Han blue (BaCuSi4O10), which was developed by the Chinese Han dynasty and manipulated to produce a light or dark blue color.
• Being water-insoluble by definition, blue pigments used to make the blue colors in inks and paints.
• Egyptian blue was the first synthetic blue pigment.
• The discovery of Egyptian blue (CaCuSi4O10) was promoted by the Egyptian pharaohs who sponsored the creation of new pigments to be used in art.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Blue pigments". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.