Sepia is a rich, warm brown color, like the shade of old photographs from the 1800s and early 1900s. When you see those vintage family portraits with their soft brown tones instead of black and white, that's sepia.

The color gets its name from the dark brown ink produced by cuttlefish, sea creatures related to squid and octopus. For centuries, artists used this natural ink for drawing and painting because it created beautiful, lasting brown tones.

Early photographers discovered that treating their black-and-white prints with certain chemicals made them turn this brownish color, and the sepia tone actually helped the photographs last longer without fading. This became so common that now when we think of old-time photos, we picture them in sepia even though many were originally black and white.

Today, photographers and designers still use sepia tones to give modern pictures an antique, nostalgic feeling. You might edit a photo on a computer to add a sepia filter, making your birthday party look like it happened a hundred years ago. The warm brown tones of sepia create a sense of history and timelessness that pure black and white can't quite capture.