passport are only made in shade of gamy , red , green , and black .
You might assume that this is because of regulations regularize which colors passports can be , but there ’s actually no prescribed ruler dictating acceptable passport color . In fact , there are no rules about what passport should search like at all , only proffer . The International Civil Aviation Organization ( ICAO)makes recommendationsabout typeface , type sizing , and font in their guide for machine decipherable travel documents ( MRTDs ) , a class which includes passports .
Therearesome hard and fast regulation in this written document , however : Passports must be made of a stuff that bends ( no creasing ) and stay machine decipherable at temperatures ranging from 14 to 122 ° F and at proportional air humidity ramble from five to 95 percentage .
Although passports only amount in these four people of color , there ’s a lot of variant when it comes to the actual shadiness . Many countries opt for morose shades of gloomy , red , and fleeceable . The reasonableness for the limited coloration selection is pretty much what you ’d think : Countries choose these bare , benighted hues because they look official . Millennial pink would n’t look very bureaucratic . dingy colors are also less probable to show dirt and break . ( you’re able to browse the world ’s recommendation with thisnifty site . )
Anthony Philbin , ICAO ’s primary communications policeman , confirmedtoTravel + Leisurethat when it comes to recommendation , “ Nothing stipulates the cover color . ” Basically , there ’s nothing stopping the United States from making its passports lime green except a horse sense of properness . William Waldron , the frailty president of surety products at Holliston , LLC ( which makes passports for more than 60 countries ) toldTravel + Leisurethat they can manufacture “ any colour that ’s in the Pantone book . ”
There ’s oftenmeaningbehind which of the four coloration a country chooses . For example , most Islamic states use fleeceable passports because the coloration is significant in their organized religion . Though the majority of passports issued in the U.S. today are blue , that change number about in 1976 , as part of the bicentennial celebration ; prior to that , from 1941 to 1976 , American passports were green — a colouring material that made a rejoicing return between 1993 and 1994 and included a especial tribute to Benjamin Franklin .
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