Passport colors
 

I've always wondered why most passports come in just a few colors: navy blue, maroon and Islamic green. I can't recall seeing any other colors. What other colors are used by various countries around the world?

My grandmother's early postwar Polish passport has a black cover. The government of the People's Republic generously gave it a validity of — ninety days. She had to go to the consulate in Paris and later Montreal four times a year, no doubt fearful that they wouldn't extend it.

I'll have to find it again. I think the Polish government eventually gave her a more reasonable expiration date.

Navy blue: USA, Canada, Argentina, India, Iceland
Maroon: EU, UK (will be changed), People's Republic of China
Red: Singapore
slightly dark red: Japan
slightly bright blue: Brazil, Ukraine
light blue: Indonesia
green but slight blue tinge: Republic of China (Taiwan)
black: New Zealand

Navy blue does seem to be a common color for ordinary, non-diplomatic passports.

U.S. passports, until around the early 80s (not sure exactly) were not blue. They were gray.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...a6dafc7384.jpg

Come to think of it, you're right. Indonesia is green. I was thinking of another country.

Ordinary Japanese passports can be red (good for 10 years) or blue (good for 5 years).

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4ad272c119.jpg

Google claims they were red from 1926-1941, green from 1941-1976, switching to blue for the bicentennial. They went to green for one year in '93, then back to blue. I had one of the '93-94 greens (Googling, it doesn't appear to be Islamic Green)

EDIT: fwiw, passportinfo.com agrees.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bdbdf38d1c.jpg

That is the Benjamin Franklin passport, issued during 1993 only.

passportinfo.com says

Dark Blue for Ukraine

Passport Color Map (all the accents/variations are not super accurate)

Dark cyan, actually (same color as the flag). US has dark blue.

I didn't know before that Arab countries use green for religious purposes. Apparently green is considered the prophet's favorite color? You learn something new everyday.

Also read that British passports will become blue once Brexit is finalized. I wonder why I always thought they were blue...