Dyes and Pigments

Organic and inorganic colorants can be produced synthetically. Synthetic organic and inorganic colorants are copies of vegetable, animal, and mineral-based colorants, and are made in a laboratory. Until the nineteenth century, all colorants were of natural origin. The first synthetically made commercial colorant, mauve, was developed from aniline, a coal tar derivative, by William Henry Perkins in 1856. Today, chemists arrange and manipulate complex organic compounds to make dyes of all colors. Synthetic dyes, made in a controlled atmosphere, are without impurities and the colors are more consistent from batch to batch. Natural dyes still have some commercial value to craftspeople, but synthetic colorants dominate the manufacturing industry.