Magenta () is a color that is variously defined as pinkish- purplish- red, reddish-purplish-pink or mauvish- crimson. On color wheels of the RGB (additive) and CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located exactly midway between red and

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

. It is one of the four colors of ink used in color printing by an inkjet printer, along with

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In ...

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

, and cyan, to make all other colors. The tone of magenta used in

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

is called "printer's magenta". It is also a shade of purple. Magenta took its name from an aniline dye made and patented in 1859 by the French chemist François-Emmanuel Verguin, who originally called it ''fuchsine''. It was renamed to celebrate the Italian-French victory at the Battle of Magenta fought between the French and Austrians on 4 June 1859 near the Italian town of Magenta in

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. A virtually identical color, called roseine, was created in 1860 by two British chemists, Chambers Nicolson and George Maule. The web color magenta is also called

fuchsia ''Fuchsia'' () is a genus of flowering plants that consists mostly of shrubs or small trees. The first to be scientifically described, ''Fuchsia triphylla'', was discovered on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic ...

In optics and color science

Magenta is an extra-spectral color, meaning that it is not a hue associated with monochromatic visible light. Magenta is associated with perception of

spectral power distribution In radiometry, photometry, and color science, a spectral power distribution (SPD) measurement describes the power per unit area per unit wavelength of an illumination (radiant exitance). More generally, the term ''spectral power distribution'' ...

s concentrated mostly in two bands: longer wavelength reddish components and shorter wavelength blueish components. In the RGB color system, used to create all the colors on a television or computer display, magenta is a secondary color, made by combining equal amounts of red and blue light at a high intensity. In this system, magenta is the complementary color of green, and combining green and magenta light on a black screen will create white. Retinal cell responses

In the

CMYK color model The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refer ...

, used in color printing, it is one of the three primary colors, along with cyan and yellow, used to print all the rest of the colors. If magenta, cyan, and yellow are printed on top of each other on a page, they make black. In this model, magenta is the complementary color of green, and these two colors have the highest contrast and the greatest harmony. If combined, green and magenta ink will look dark gray or black. The magenta used in color printing, sometimes called process magenta, is a darker shade than the color used on computer screens. In terms of physiology, the color is stimulated in the brain when the eye reports input from short wave blue cone cells along with a sub-sensitivity of the long wave cones which respond secondarily to that same deep blue color, but with little or no input from the middle wave cones. The brain interprets that combination as some hue of magenta or purple, depending on the relative strengths of the cone responses. In the Munsell color system, magenta is called ''red-purple''. If the spectrum is wrapped to form a color wheel, magenta (additive secondary) appears midway between red and violet. Violet and red, the two components of magenta, are at opposite ends of the visible spectrum and have very different wavelengths. The additive secondary color magenta is made by combining violet and red light at equal intensity; it is not present in the spectrum itself. File:RGB illumination.jpg, In the

RGB color model The RGB color model is an additive color model in which the red, green and blue primary colors of light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three a ...

, used to make colors on computer and television displays, magenta is created by the combination of equal amounts of blue and red light. File:RBG color wheel.svg, In the RGB color wheel of additive colors, magenta is midway between blue and red. File:SubtractiveColor.svg, In the

, used in color printing, cyan, magenta, and

combined make black. In practice, since the inks are not perfect, some black ink is added. File:Blended colour wheel.svg, Visible spectrum wrapped to join violet and red in an additive mixture of magenta. In reality, violet and red are at opposite ends of the spectrum and have very different wavelengths.

Fuchsia and magenta

The

web colors Web colors are colors used in Web design, displaying web pages on the World Wide Web, and the methods for describing and specifying those colors. Colors may be specified as an RGB color model, RGB triplet or in hexadecimal format (a ''hex triple ...

and magenta are identical, made by mixing the same proportions of blue and red light. In design and printing, there is more variation. The French version of fuchsia in the

and in printing contains a higher proportion of red than the American version of fuchsia.

Gallery

File:DoubleFuchsias wb.jpg, The flower of the

Fuchsia ''Fuchsia'' () is a genus of flowering plants that consists mostly of shrubs or small trees. The first to be scientifically described, ''Fuchsia triphylla'', was discovered on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic ...

plant was the original inspiration for the dye, which was later renamed magenta dye. File:Basic Fuchsine Crystals.JPG, Magenta took its name in 1860 from this aniline dye that was originally called " fuchsine", after the fuchsia flower. File:NIEdot367.jpg, Magenta has been used in color printing since the late nineteenth century. Images are printed in three colors; magenta, cyan, and yellow, which when combined can make all colors. This image from 1902 is using the alternative RYB color model instead. File:Refill Ink Kit Color crop.jpg, Color printers today use magenta, cyan, and yellow ink to produce the full range of colors. File:Komplementärfarben magenta auf grün.png, Magenta is the complementary color of green. The two colors combined in the RGB model form white. Side-by-side, they provide the highest possible contrast and reinforce each other's brightness. File:Marinir Indonesia.png, The Indonesian Marine Corps beret color is magenta purple.

History

Fuchsine and magenta dye (1859)

The color magenta was the result of the industrial chemistry revolution of the mid-nineteenth century, which began with the invention by

William Perkin Sir William Henry Perkin (12 March 1838 – 14 July 1907) was a British chemist and entrepreneur best known for his serendipitous discovery of the first commercial synthetic organic dye, mauveine, made from aniline. Though he failed in trying ...

of mauveine in 1856, which was the first synthetic aniline dye. The enormous commercial success of the dye and the new color it produced, mauve, inspired other chemists in Europe to develop new colors made from aniline dyes. Originally referenced from French edition pp. 311–312 In France, François-Emmanuel Verguin, the director of the chemical factory of Louis Rafard near

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

, tried many different formulae before finally in late 1858 or early 1859, mixing aniline with carbon tetrachloride, producing a reddish-purple dye which he called " fuchsine", after the color of the flower of the fuchsia plant. He quit the Rafard factory and took his color to a firm of paint manufacturers, Francisque and Joseph Renard, who began to manufacture the dye in 1859. In the same year, two British chemists, Chambers Nicolson and George Maule, working at the laboratory of the paint manufacturer George Simpson, located in Walworth, south of London, made another aniline dye with a similar red-purple color, which they began to manufacture in 1860 under the name "roseine". In 1860 they changed the name of the color to "magenta", in honor of the Battle of Magenta fought by the armies of France and Sardinia against Austrians at Magenta, Lombardy the year before, and the new color became a commercial success. Starting in 1935 the family of

quinacridone Quinacridone is an organic compound used as a pigment. Numerous derivatives constitute the quinacridone pigment family, which finds extensive use in industrial colorant applications such as robust outdoor paints, inkjet printer ink, tattoo ...

dyes was developed. These have colors ranging from red to violet, so nowadays a quinacridone dye is often used for magenta. Various tones of magenta—light, bright, brilliant, vivid, rich, or deep—may be formulated by adding varying amounts of white to quinacridone artist's paints. Another dye used for magenta is Lithol Rubine BK. One of its uses is as a food coloring.

Process magenta (pigment magenta; printer's magenta) (1890s)

In color printing, the color called process magenta, pigment magenta, or printer's magenta is one of the three primary pigment colors which, along with

and cyan, constitute the three subtractive primary colors of pigment. (The secondary colors of pigment are blue, green, and red.) As such, the hue magenta is the complement of green: magenta pigments absorb green light; thus magenta and green are opposite colors. 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 may be variations in the printed color that is pure magenta ink.

Web colors magenta and fuchsia

The web color magenta is one of the three secondary colors in the

. On the RGB color wheel, magenta is the color between

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can b ...

and violet, and halfway between red and

. This color is called ''magenta'' in X11 and ''fuchsia'' in

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...

. In the RGB color model, it is created by combining equal intensities of red and blue light. The two web colors magenta and fuchsia are exactly the same color. Sometimes the web color magenta is called ''electric magenta'' or ''electronic magenta''. While the magenta used in printing and the web color have the same name, they have important differences. Process magenta (the color used for magenta printing ink—also called printer's or pigment magenta) is much less vivid than the color magenta achievable on a computer screen. CMYK printing technology cannot accurately reproduce on paper the color on the computer screen. When the web color magenta is reproduced on paper, it is called fuchsia and it is physically impossible for it to appear on paper as vivid as on a computer screen. Colored pencils and crayons called "magenta" are usually colored the color of ''process magenta'' (''printer's magenta'').

In science and culture

In art

* Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) used a shade of magenta in 1890 in his portrait of Marie Lagadu, and in some of his South Seas paintings. *

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...

and the members of the Fauvist movement used magenta and other non-traditional colors to surprise viewers, and to move their emotions through the use of bold colors. * Since the mid-1960s, water based fluorescent magenta paint has been available to paint

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...

black light paintings. (Fluorescent cerise, fluorescent

chartreuse yellow Chartreuse (, , ), also known as yellow-green, is a color between yellow and green. It was named because of its resemblance to the green color of a French liqueur called ''green chartreuse'', introduced in 1764. Similarly, ''chartreuse yellow'' is ...

, fluorescent blue, and fluorescent green.) File:Bouguereau-Psyche.jpg, Magenta, along with mauve, made with the newly discovered aniline dyes, became a popular fashion color in the second half of the nineteenth century. It appeared in art in this 1890 work, ''Psyche'', by Bouguereau. File:Paul Gauguin 099.jpg, Paul Gauguin, ''Portrait of Marie Lagadu'' (1890). File:Matissetoits.gif,

, ''Les toits de Collioure'' (1905). Henri Matisse and the other painters of the Fauvist movement were the first to make a major use of magenta to surprise and make an impact on the emotions of the viewer. File:1967 Mantra-Rock Dance Avalon poster.jpg, In the 1960s, magenta was a popular color in psychedelic art, such as this concert poster for the Avalon Ballroom in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

(1967).

In literature

* The color plays a central role in Craig Laurance Gidney's novel ''A Spectral Hue''.

In film

* The titular alien entity in the 2019 horror film '' Color Out of Space'', an adaptation of the 1927 H. P. Lovecraft short story '' The Colour Out of Space'', is depicted as being magenta due to the color’s extra-spectral status.

In astronomy

* Astronomers have reported that spectral class T brown dwarfs (the ones with the coolest temperatures except for the recently discovered Y brown dwarfs) are colored magenta because of absorption by sodium and

potassium Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin '' kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosp ...

atom Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas ...

s of light in the green portion of the spectrum. File:T-dwarf-nasa-hurt.png, Artist's vision of a spectral class T brown dwarf

In biology: magenta insects, birds, fish, and mammals

File:Reef0484.jpg,

Coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secre ...

from the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bo ...

File:Andean Flamingo Adult, Phoenicopterus andinus.jpg, An Andean flamingo, (''

Phoenicopterus andinus The Andean flamingo (''Phoenicoparrus andinus'') is a species of flamingo native to the Andes mountains of South America. Until 2014, it was classified in genus ''Phoenicopterus''. It is closely related to James's flamingo, and the two make up th ...

'') File:Anisoptera Ana Cotta 2830198213.jpg, A dragonfly, or Anisoptera Ana Cotta File:Pseudanthias tuka.jpg, '' Pseudanthias'' tuka, a reef fish from the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

In botany

Magenta is a common color for flowers, particularly in the tropics and sub-tropics. Because magenta is the complementary color of green, magenta flowers have the highest contrast with the green foliage, and therefore are more visible to the animals needed for their pollination. File:Orchid Phalaenopsis hybrid.jpg, Orchid Phalaenopsis File:Rhododendron sp. 016.JPG,

Rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

File:Clematis patens sunset 02.JPG, Clematis "Sunset" File:Geraniaceae - Geranium sanguineum-1.JPG, ''

Geranium sanguineum ''Geranium sanguineum'', common names bloody crane's-bill or bloody geranium, is a species of hardy flowering herbaceous perennial plant in the cranesbill family Geraniaceae. It is also the county flower of Northumberland. Geranium sanguin ...

'' File:Dahlia - "Hillcrest Royal" cultivar.jpg,

Dahlia Dahlia (, ) is a genus of bushy, tuberous, herbaceous perennial plants native to Mexico and Central America. A member of the Asteraceae (former name: Compositae) family of dicotyledonous plants, its garden relatives thus include the sunflower ...

"Hillcrest Royal" File:Rambler Roses Cape Cod.jpg, Rambler

File:Syringa 'Paul Deschanel' 02.jpg, Syringa "Paul Deschanel" File:Lilium 'Malinoviy Zvon' 03.JPG, Lily "Malinoviy Zvon" File:Blüte Sommerphlox, Kategorie-Polemoniaceae.JPG, Polemoniaceae, or phlox File:Cactus plant petailed.jpg, A

cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gre ...

flower File:Achillea 'Staroe Burgundskoe' 02.jpg, Achillea "Staroe Burgundskoe" File:2006-10-18Mirabilis jalapa02.jpg, '' Mirabilis jalapa'' "Four O'Clock Flower"

In business

The German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom uses a magenta logo. It has sought to prevent use of any similar color by other businesses, even those in unrelated fields, such as the insurance company Lemonade.

In public transport

Magenta was the English name of Tokyo's Oedo subway line color. It was later changed to '' ruby''. It is also the color of the

Metropolitan line The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the l ...

of the London Underground.

In transportation

In aircraft

autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...

systems, the path that pilot or plane should follow to its destination is usually indicated in cockpit displays using the color magenta.

In numismatics

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a Magenta colored banknote of ₹2000 denomination on 8 November 2016 under Mahatma Gandhi New Series. This is the highest currency note printed by RBI that is in active circulation in

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. Image:India_new_2000_INR,_MG_series,_2016,_obverse.jpg, Indian 2000 rupee note, obverse Image:India_new_2000_INR,_MG_series,_2016,_reverse.jpg, Indian 2000 rupee note, reverse

In vexillology and heraldry

Magenta is an extremely rare color to find on heraldic flags and coats of arms, since its adoption dates back to relatively recent times. However, there are some examples of its use: File:Cantabrian_Lábaru_Flag.svg, Cantabrian Labarum,

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the ea ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. File:Blason ville fr Magenta (Marne).svg, Canting arms of the commune of Magenta,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. File:Flag of Cartago (Valle del Cauca).svg, Flag of the municipality of Cartago, Colombia.

In politics

* The color magenta is used to symbolize anti-racism by the

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

-based anti-racism Magenta Foundation.Magenta Foundation
Organization website
. * In Danish politics the magenta is the color of Det Radikale Venstre, the Danish social-liberal party.

References

External links

Pictures of actual aniline dye samples in various shades of magenta.

Magenta is a product of the brain rather than a spectral frequency

Color Mixing and the Mystery of Magenta
,

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

video {{Color topics Primary colors Secondary colors Tertiary colors Optical spectrum Web colors