History Main / StockObjectColors

In fiction, coconuts will usually be brown due to the brown and hairy coconut shell being more familiar. When immature coconuts ''do'' appear, however, they will always be green.

In RealLife, grapes can be blackened dark blue, yellow-green, red violet, and red, but in fiction, they're purple because purple is the color grapes are associated with (as well as being the color of) Cabernet Sauvignon, the stereotypical red wine people always imagine. Green might be used, but it would give the impression the grapes are underripe.

In RealLife, water comes in a wide range of colors, including clear, turquoise, cyan, light blue, blue-green, dark green, dark blue, and the stereotypical bright shade of blue.[[note]] In real life, water has a very faint blue tint. However, when watching small amounts (such as a glass of it), it will appear completely transparent. Only when watching large enough bodies of water does the blue tint show to the human eye. If water reflects light from a blue object (such as the sky), or is in front of a blue object, it will appear bluer than it "should". [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_of_water The other wiki has a more in-depth explanation]].[[/note]]

Green and yellow green are the colors associated with nuclear waste, radiation, and anything nuclear even though this is seldom the case in RealLife. Cherenkov radiation in the pools of nuclear reactors is ''[[http://www4.nau.edu/meteorite/Meteorite/Images/Cherenkov.jpg blue]]'', radioactive cesium chloride fluoresces faintly blue, and hot radioactives are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plutonium_pellet.jpg orange]].

In fiction, coconuts will usually be brown due to the brown and hairy coconut shell being more familiar.

In fiction, they will usually be brown due to people being more familiar with the brown and hairy coconut shell.

In fiction, coconuts will usually be brown even when they are still hanging from the palm.

In RealLife, coconuts come in either green or yellow, though they do turn brown as they ripen.

The night sky is almost always depicted as solid black in cartoons and comics, while in reality it's usually a really dark blue, due to the stars and moon (if it's out) providing at least some light. The term "midnight blue" exists for a reason..

In fiction, coconuts will usually be brown like a mature coconut.

In RealLife, coconuts are either green or yellow at their immature state, turning brown as they ripen.

'''[[AC:Cattle]]'''
* Cows tend to be black-and-white or brown-and-white, while bulls tend to be black or brown.

Subtrope of RealityIsUnrealistic. The color version of TheCoconutEffect.

Building or invention blueprints are always shown in actual [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueprint blue printing]], despite that reprographic process being obsoleted ''in the forties'' and its replacement being ''also'' obsoleted by modern photocopy. Sometimes, the blueprint is implied to be ''original'' instead of copied, another reason it shouldn't be blue-printed in the first place! It's like the architect actually used a white pencil on blue paper to draw it. [[note]]Some cartoons acturally have characters drawing with white pencils on blue paper.[[/note]]

Subtrope of RealityIsUnrealistic. The color version of TheCoconutEffect. Supertrope to TypicalCartoonAnimalColors.

Building or invention blueprints are always shown in actual [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueprint blue printing]], despite that reprographic process being obsoleted ''in the forties'' and its replacement being ''also'' obsoleted by modern photocopy. Sometimes, the blueprint is implied to be ''original'' instead of copied, another reason it shouldn't be blue-printed in the first place! It's like the architect actually used a white pencil on blue paper to draw it.

Asians run the whole color spectrum, from very light-skinned Manchu-Tungus peoples of the far north to dark-orange or light-to-dark-brown Austronesians in South/Southeast Asia (Indonesians, Filipinos, etc.), to say nothing of [[UpToEleven Afro-Asians]] who are commonly dark-skinned and frequently, as the name suggests, [[MistakenNationality mistaken for black Africans.]] East Asians have often been stereotyped as yellow.

Bright orange cheeses, especially cheddar, are usually that color because [[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1284/why-is-cheddar-cheese-orange it's been colored]].

Subtrope of RealityIsUnrealistic. The color version of TheCoconutEffect.

Asians run the whole color spectrum, from very light-skinned Manchu-Tungus peoples of the far north to dark-orange or light-to-dark-brown Austronesians in South/Southeast Asia (Indonesians, Filipinos, etc.), to say nothing of [[UpToEleven Afro-Asians]] who are commonly dark-skinned and frequently, as the name suggests, [[MistakenNationality mistaken for black Africans.]] But most Westerners expect to see the kind of maize-yellow (like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'') complexion that no human being would have in real life unless suffering from jaundice.

Black people in fiction are always milk-chocolate brown, or even mahogany red. In real life, people who self-identify as "black" can vary in color from pale (beige) to very dark (seal-brown) due to natural morphological variation in ethnicities, but this range is rarely depicted (the fact that seal-brown skin was a common feature of {{blackface}} and all the racist overtones that came with it certainly doesn't help). Aboriginals of Australia and East Indians have skin tones with a similar shade variety but they are also exemplified by a middle shade of brown or reddish Brown. Giving a character a top square [[StarbucksSkinScale "Starbucks"]] complexion, meanwhile, may make their ethicity ambiguous (light black, dark white, or beige Asian).

Similarly, fire engines/fire trucks are almost always red in most media to the point where some shades of bright red are informally referred to as "fire engine red". While red is still the most popular color for fire-fighting vehicles in real life, some cities and departments have painted their trucks yellow, white, or fluorescent chartreus for higher visibility.

In RealLife, the sun is white or yellowish white, but in fiction its yellowness is played up because yellow is the color associated with the sun. Part of the confusion is likely because the sun ''is'' classified as a yellow dwarf star. That said, stars have very weak colors in general. "Red" dwarf stars, for example. are more of a dark orange.

* Diamonds in fiction are almost always depicted as the standard white/clear color. In reality, they come in a wide variety of colors, and the colored kinds are often ''more'' valuable than the clear kind. Part of this may be RuleOfPerception: people might mistake the diamond for something else if its a different color.