Magenta is a color made up of equal parts of red and bluelight. This would be the precise definition of the color as defined for computer display (the color #FF00FF shown in the color swatch above). It is a pure chroma on the RGB color wheel. In HSV color space, magenta has a hue of 300°.
In a color proximity sense, a primary color has a color range of 120° (60° on each side of the color's hue) and any color has to be within that range to be considered a variation of that color. Secondary colors have a color range of 60° (30°), tertiary colors have a color range of 30° (15°), quaternary colors have a color range of 15° (7.5°), quinary colors have a color range of 7.5° (3.75°), and so on. Because magenta is located at a hue angle of 300°, it has a tertiary color range of 285° and 315°, and any color out of this range is more related to violet or rose than magenta.
Magenta is not a spectral but an extraspectral color: it cannot be generated by light of a single wavelength. Humans, being trichromats, can only see as far as 380 nanometers into the spectrum, i.e., as far as violet.
Before printer's magenta was invented in the 1890s for CMYK printing, and electric magenta was invented in the 1980s for computer displays, these two artificially engineered colors were preceded by the color displayed at right, which is the color originally called magenta made from coal tar dyes in the year 1859.[2]
Besides being called original magenta, magenta dye color is also called rich magenta to distinguish it from the colors printer's magenta and electric magenta, shown below.
Magenta was one of the first anilinedyes, discovered shortly after the Battle of Magenta (1859), which occurred near the town of Magenta in northern Italy. The color was originally called fuchsine or roseine, but for marketing purposes in 1860 the color name was changed to magenta after the battle. Hence, the color is named indirectly after the town.
Process magenta (pigment magenta) (printer's magenta) (1890s)
In color printing, the color called process magenta or pigment magenta is one of the three primary pigment colors which, along with yellow and cyan, constitute the three subtractive primary colors of pigment. (The secondary colors of pigment are blue, green, and red.) As such, the CMYK printing process was invented in the 1890s, when newspapers began to publish color comic strips.
Process magenta is not an RGB color, and there is no fixed conversion from CMYK primaries to RGB. Different formulations are used for printer's ink, so there can be variations in the printed color that is pure magenta ink. A typical formulation of process magenta is shown in the color box at right. The source of the color shown at right is the color magenta that is shown in the diagram located at the bottom of the following website offering tintbooks for CMYK printing: Tintbooks - Get Accurate CMYK Color Results For Your Printing Projects.
Red, green and blue lights, representing the three basic additive primary colors of the RGB color system, red, green, and blue. Magenta light is composed of equal amounts of red and blue light.
Magenta, shown at the right, is one of the three secondary colors in the RGB color model, used to make all the colors on computer and television displays. It is made by a mixture of red and blue light at equal intensity. It is called magenta on X11 list of color names, and fuchsia on the HTML color list. The web colors magenta and fuchsia are exactly the same color. Sometimes the web color magenta is called electric magenta or electronic magenta.
At right is displayed the color quinacridone magenta.
Quinacridone magenta is a color made from quinacridone pigment. It is sold in tubes at art supply stores. By mixing various amounts of white with it, artists may create a wide range of light, bright, brilliant, vivid, rich, or deep tints of magenta.
Displayed at right is the color sky magenta. The color sky magenta is a representation of the color of the sky near the Sun during the brief period of civil twilight, when the pink hues after sunset transition into the blue shades of early dusk. This color was one of the colors in the set of Venus Paradise colored pencils, a popular brand of colored pencils in the 1950s.
This color is also called medium lavender pink.
A photograph of the sky displaying the color sky magenta in its natural context by photographer Dave Horne is displayed here.
This is one of the colors in the RAL color matching system, a color system widely used in Europe. The RAL color list first originated in 1927, and it reached its present form in 1961.
Amaranth (color) is a reddish-rose color that is a representation of the color of the flower of the amaranth plant. The color amaranth purple is displayed at right.
The color orchid, since it has a hue code of 302, may be classified as a rich tone of magenta. Orchid is a representation of the color of the orchid flower.
The first recorded use of orchid as a color name in English was in 1915.[14]
The color plum, since it has a hue code of 307, may be regarded as a dark tone of magenta. The color plum is a close representation of the average color of the plum fruit.
The first recorded use of plum as a color name in English was in 1805.[17]
Shocking pink (the original 1937 shocking pink) takes its name from the tone of pink used in the lettering on the box of the perfume called Shocking,[21] designed by Leonor Fini for the Surrealist fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli in 1937.
Shocking pink (Crayola)
Shocking Pink (Crayola), formerly known as Ultra Pink
This is the color called "violet" in the traditional Japanese colors group, a group of colors in use since beginning in 660 CE in the form of various dyes
that are used in designing kimono.[31][32]
The name of this color in Japanese is sumire-iro, meaning "violet color".
^Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 126 Plate 52 Color Sample K12--Magenta (Color shown is color shown above as rich magenta)
^Click on the Liquitex Heavy Body window on the indicated web page and a PDF of the Liquitex Heavy Body color chart will appear. It will have the color Quinacridone Magenta on it (color #114), possessing the color coding indicated above.
^The color in the color box above matches the color called sky magenta in Venus Paradise colored pencils, a popular brand of colored pencils sold during the 1950s.
^The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called amaranth purple in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color amaranth purple is displayed on page 129, Plate 53, Color Sample L3.
^Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 200; Color Sample of Orchid: Page 105 Plate 41 Color Sample F5
^Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 202; Color Sample of Plum: Page 117 Plate 47 Color Sample J9 Note: The color designated plum (color #8E4585) that is displayed above matches the color identified as plum in the color sample in Maerz and Paul
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