- For the drug referred to as "pigment," see black tar heroin.
Welcome to CWAnswers
CWAnswers is your guide to the sprawling world wide web. The directory aims to provide a useful guide made by users. You can share your knowledge as well - simply sign up and edit your first entry. For questions just contact the team at support - at - cwanswers.com.
Weblinks for Pigmentation
Top 10 for Pigmentation
Things about Pigmentation you find nowhere else.
Select content modules
IFPCS blog
IFPCS blog. International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies BLOG. IPCC 2011 WEB site ... of loci involved in pigmentation, including some that do not ...www.ifpcs.org/blog/IFPCS blog " Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research
IFPCS blog. International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies BLOG ... This blog is protected by Dave's Spam Karma 2: 4 Spams eaten and counting...www.ifpcs.org/blog/?cat=29Skin Deep - A Dermatology Blog: Hyper pigmentation in neonate
A Site For Dermatologists And Bioinformaticians ... [Hair Raising Blog! ... a temporary relief with mild topical steroids but the pigmentation was persistent. ...www.gulfdoctor.net/blog/2006/12/hyper-pigmentation-in-neonat...Racial Reality Blog
Original Pigmentation of Hominids. What skin color was primitive for the hominid lineage? ... areas listed above are pigmented to greater or lesser extents ...racialreality.blogspot.com/2006/01/original-pigmentation-of-...A Challenging Disorder: Pigmentation
... hair and nail problems. By far the most common problem that I see is that of pigmentation disorders which includes ... The Official Blog of Rx for Brown Skin ...www.rxforbrownskin.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=90- For the drug referred to as "pigment," see black tar heroin.


A pigment is a material that changes the color of light it reflects as the result of selective color absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which the material itself emits light.
Many materials selectively absorb certain wavelengths of light. Materials that humans have chosen and developed for use as pigments usually have special properties that make them ideal for coloring other materials. A pigment must have a high tinting strength relative to the materials it colors. It must be stable in solid form at ambient temperatures.
For industrial applications, as well as in the arts, permanence and stability are desirable properties. Pigments that are not permanent are called fugitive. Fugitive pigments fade over time, or with exposure to light, while some eventually blacken.
Pigments are used for coloring paint, ink, plastic, fabric, cosmetics, food and other materials. Most pigments used in manufacturing and the visual arts are dry colourants, usually ground into a fine powder. This powder is added to a vehicle (or matrix), a relatively neutral or colorless material that acts as a binder.
A distinction is usually made between a pigment, which is insoluble in the vehicle (resulting in a suspension), and a dye, which either is itself a liquid or is soluble in its vehicle (resulting in a solution). A colorant can be both a pigment and a dye depending on the vehicle it is used in. In some cases, a pigment can be manufactured from a dye by precipitating a soluble dye with a metallic salt. The resulting pigment is called a lake pigment.
Physical basis
Pigments appear the colors they are because they selectively reflect and absorb certain wavelengths of light. White light is a roughly equal mixture of the entire visible spectrum of light. When this light encounters a pigment, some wavelengths are absorbed by the chemical bonds and substituents of the pigment, and others are reflected. This new reflected light spectrum creates the appearance of a color. Ultramarine reflects blue light, and absorbs other colors. Pigments, unlike fluorescent or phosphorescent substances, can only subtract wavelengths from the source light, never add new ones.
The appearance of pigments is intimately connected to the color of the source light. Sunlight has a high color temperature, and a fairly uniform spectrum, and is considered a standard for white light. Artificial light sources tend to have great peaks in some parts of their spectrum, and deep valleys in others. Viewed under these conditions, pigments will appear different colors.
























