Vantablack
Man-made ultimate black absorbing 99.965% light, pure void
#000100rgb(0, 1, 0)hsl(120, 100%, 0%)hsv(120, 100%, 0%)cmyk(100%, 0%, 100%, 100%)#000100FFrgba(0, 1, 0, 1)hsla(120, 100%, 0%, 1)oklch(13.7%, 0.046, 142)lch(0.4%, 19.3, 139)🎨 Color Palettes
♿ WCAG Contrast Colors
Learn More →📊 Color Scales
💡 Use Cases
Space Instruments
Telescope light baffles eliminate stray light interference, helping humanity detect faint stars against pitch-black backgrounds.
Installation Art
Gallery backdrops creating spatial optical illusions turning walls into collapsing black abysses to shock visitor senses.
Concept Car Paint
Special coating for supercar exhibition models erasing surface reflections, leaving only ghostly outlines gliding through cities at night.
Luxury Watch Dials
Concept watch faces where hands appear suspended in cosmic void, perfectly illustrating the emptiness and relentlessness of time.
📜 Origin & History
Vantablack was developed by Surrey NanoSystems UK in 2014, full name Vertically Aligned NanoTube Arrays. When light hits, photons bounce repeatedly inside nanotube forests without escaping, reaching 99.965% light absorption rate.
Originally developed for military and aerospace use such as telescope anti-reflection coating and stealth materials. It challenges human visual perception: objects coated with Vantablack lose all 3D shadow detail, appearing as endless 2D empty voids.
Artist Anish Kapoor signed an exclusive art licensing deal with the developer, sparking huge controversy. He created a series of 'Void' artworks with Vantablack; audiences feel dizzy and disoriented facing these light-devouring black voids, as if space collapses.
To oppose art monopoly, artist Stuart Semple invented 'the pinkest pink' and 'the blackest black' free for all creators. This triggered modern debates over color copyright, open sharing and monopoly in tech and art circles.
Vantablack inspires imagination of unknown universe. It acts as a color sample alien to our natural world, symbolizing human determination to push physical limits via technology, alongside nihilistic aesthetic reflection after reaching ultimate minimalism.