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Violet is a color term derived from the
flower of the same name. There are numerous variations of the color
violet
Violet may refer to:
Common meanings
* Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue
* One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly:
** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
Places United States
* Viol ...
, a sampling of which are shown below.
Definition
The term violet has different meanings in different languages, countries and epochs. Even among many modern speakers within the English-speaking world there is confusion about the terms purple and violet. The blue-dominated spectral color beyond blue is referred to as purple by many speakers in the United States, but this color is called violet by many speakers in the United Kingdom.
In some British authoritative texts the term purple refers to any mixture of red and blue, suggesting the color term purple covers the full range between red and blue in the United Kingdom.
In other texts it is the term violet that covers the same full range of colors.
The uncertainty about the range of meanings of the color terms violet and purple is even larger when other languages and historical texts are considered.
Variations of spectral violet
Although pure spectrum violet is outside the
color gamut
In color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut , is a certain ''complete subset'' of colors. The most common usage refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given ci ...
of the
RGB color space
An RGB color space is any additive color space based on the RGB color model. An RGB color space is defined by chromaticity coordinates of the red, green, and blue additive primaries, the white point which is usually a standard illuminant, and t ...
, the three colors displayed below are rough approximations of the range of colors of actual spectral violet, although the accuracy of the approximation can vary depending on the individual's color vision, and on the color rendition of one's computer monitor.
Color wheel violet
The
tertiary color
A tertiary color or intermediate color is a color made by mixing full saturation of one primary color with half saturation of another primary color and none of a third primary color, in a given color space such as RGB color model, RGB, CMYK color ...
on the HSV
color wheel
A color wheel or color circle is an abstract illustrative organization of color hues around a circle, which shows the relationships between primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors etc.
Some sources use the terms ''color wheel'' & ' ...
(also known as the
RGB color wheel) precisely halfway between
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 obs ...
and
magenta
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. I ...
is called color wheel violet. This tone of violet—an approximation of the color violet at about 417 nanometers as plotted on the
CIE chromaticity diagram
The CIE 1931 color spaces are the first defined quantitative links between distributions of wavelengths in the electromagnetic visible spectrum, and physiologically perceived colors in human color vision. The mathematical relationships that defin ...
—is shown at right. This tone of violet is actually somewhat toward
indigo
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
assuming indigo is accepted as a separate spectrum color, usually quoted as having a range of from about 420 to 450 nanometers.
Another name for this color is near violet.
Electric violet
The color at right, electric violet, is the closest approximation to middle ''spectrum violet'' that can be made on a computer screen, given the limitations of the
sRGB
sRGB is a standard RGB (red, green, blue) color space that HP and Microsoft created cooperatively in 1996 to use on monitors, printers, and the World Wide Web. It was subsequently standardized by the International Electrotechnical Commission ( ...
color gamut
In color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut , is a certain ''complete subset'' of colors. The most common usage refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given ci ...
. It is an approximation of the color violet at about 400 nanometers as plotted on the CIE chromaticity diagram, in the middle of the violet range of from 380 nanometers to 420 nanometers, assuming indigo as a separate spectrum color from 420 to 450 nanometers.
Other names for this color are middle violet or simply violet.
Vivid violet
Displayed at right is the color vivid violet, a color approximately equivalent to the violet seen at the extreme edge of human visual perception. When plotted on the CIE chromaticity diagram, it can be seen that this is a
hue
In color theory, hue is one of the main properties (called Color appearance model#Color appearance parameters, color appearance parameters) of a color, defined technically in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a Stimulus (physiology ...
corresponding to that of a visual stimulus of approximately 380 nm on the spectrum. Thus another name for this color is extreme violet.
Computer web color violets
Web color "violet"
The so-called
web color
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 ...
"violet" is in actuality not really a tint of violet, a spectral color, but is a
non-spectral color. The web color violet is actually a rather pale
tint
In color theory, a tint is a mixture of a color with white, which increases lightness, while a shade is a mixture with black, which increases darkness. Both processes affect the resulting color mixture's relative saturation. A tone is produc ...
of
magenta
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. I ...
because it has equal amounts of red and blue (the definition of magenta for computer display), and some of the green primary mixed in, unlike most other variants of violet that are closer to blue. This same color appears as "violet" in the
X11 color names
In computing, on the X Window System, X11 color names are represented in a simple text file, which maps certain strings to RGB color values. It was traditionally shipped with every X11 installation, hence the name, and is usually located in ''<X ...
.
Pigment violet (web color dark violet)
The color box at right displays the web color dark violet which is equivalent to pigment violet, i.e., the color violet as it would typically be reproduced by artist's paints, colored pencils, or crayons as opposed to the brighter "electric" violet above that it is possible to reproduce on a computer screen.
Compare the subtractive colors to the additive colors in the two primary color charts in the article on
primary colors
A set of primary colors or primary colours (see spelling differences) consists of colorants or colored lights that can be mixed in varying amounts to produce a gamut of colors. This is the essential method used to create the perception of a br ...
to see the distinction between electric colors as reproducible from light on a computer screen (additive colors) and the pigment colors reproducible with pigments (subtractive colors); the additive colors are a lot brighter because they are produced from light instead of pigment.
Pigment violet (web color dark violet) represents the way the color violet was always reproduced in pigments, paints, or colored pencils in the 1950s.
By the 1970s, because of the advent of
psychedelic art
Psychedelic art (also known as psychedelia) is art, graphics or visual displays related to or inspired by psychedelic experiences and hallucinations known to follow the ingestion of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and DMT. The word "p ...
, artists became used to brighter pigments, and pigments called "Violet" that are the pigment equivalent of the electric violet reproduced in the section above became available in artists pigments and colored pencils. (When approximating electric violet in artists pigments, a bit of
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
pigment is added to pigment violet.)
Other variations of the color violet
Ultra Violet (Pantone)
The color Ultra Violet is displayed at right.
The source of this color is the "
Pantone
Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphic ...
Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #18-3838 TPX—Ultra Violet.
Ultra Violet was named as Pantone's Color of the Year for 2018.
It should not be confused with
ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...
.
African violet
The color African violet is displayed at right.
The source of this color is the "
Pantone
Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphic ...
Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #16-3250 TPX—African Violet.
Chinese violet
The color Chinese violet is displayed at right.
The first recorded use of ''Chinese violet'' as a color name in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
was in 1912.
The source of this color is the "
Pantone
Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphic ...
Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #18-3418 TPX—Chinese Violet.
English violet
The color English violet is displayed at right.
The first recorded use of ''English violet'' as a color name in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
was in 1928.
French violet
At right is displayed the color French violet, which is the tone of violet that is called ''violet'' in the Pourpre.com color list, a color list widely popular in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
Japanese violet
The color Japanese violet or Sumire is shown at right.
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
dye
A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution an ...
s
that are used in designing
kimono
The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono ...
.
The name of this color in
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
is , meaning "violet color".
Spanish violet
Spanish violet is the color that is called ''Violeta'' (the
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
word for "violet") in the ''Guía de coloraciones'' (''Guide to colorations'') by Rosa Gallego and
Juan Carlos Sanz, a color dictionary published in 2005 that is widely popular in the
Hispanophone
Hispanophone and Hispanic refers to anything relating to the Spanish language (the Hispanosphere).
In a cultural, rather than merely linguistic sense, the notion of "Hispanophone" goes further than the above definition. The Hispanic culture is th ...
realm.
Russian violet
The color Russian violet is displayed at right.
The first recorded use of ''Russian violet'' as a color name in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
was in 1926.
Grape
Grape is a color that is a representation of the color of grapes.
It is currently unknown when ''grape'' was first used as a color name in English, but in 1994, "grape" was made into one of the Crayola Magic Scent crayon colors.
Lavender
At right is displayed the color lavender. This color may also be called lavender (floral) or floral lavender to distinguish it from the
web color
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 ...
lavender. It is the color of the central part of the
lavender
''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and from Europe across to northern and easte ...
flower.
The first recorded use of the word ''lavender'' as a color term in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
was in 1705.
Since the color ''lavender'' has a hue code of 275, it may be regarded as a light tone of violet.
Mauve
Mauve (from the French form of ''Malva'' "
mallow") is a color that is named after the
mallow flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...
. Another name for the color is mallow with the first recorded use of ''mallow'' as a color name in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
in 1611.
[Maerz and Paul ''A Dictionary of Color'' New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 198; Color Sample of Mallow: Page 125 Plate 51 Color Sample I3]
Since the color ''mauve'' has a hue code of 276, it may be regarded as a pale tone of violet.
Wisteria
Displayed at right is the color wisteria.
It represents the color of
wisteria
''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae), that includes ten species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north o ...
blooms. A crayon of this color and name was formulated by
Crayola
Crayola LLC, formerly the Binney & Smith Company, is an American manufacturing company specializing in art supplies. It is known for its brand ''Crayola'' and best known for its crayons. The company is headquartered in Forks Township, Pennsylva ...
in 1993.
Pixie Powder
Displayed at right is the color Pixie Powder.
See also
*
Carmine (color)
Carmine color is the general term for some deep red colors that are ''very slightly'' purplish but are generally ''slightly'' closer to red than the color crimson is. Some rubies are colored the color shown below as ''rich carmine''. The deep ...
*
Cerise (color)
Cerise ( or ; ) is a deep to vivid reddish pink.
Etymology
The colour or name comes from the French word , meaning "cherry".
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of ''cerise'' as a colour name in English was in ...
*
Crimson
Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple.
It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, ''Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red colo ...
*
Indigo
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
*
Lavender (color)
Lavender is a light shade of purple or violet. It applies particularly to the color of the flower of the same name. The web color called lavender is displayed at right—it matches the color of the very palest part of the lavender flower; how ...
*
Lists of colors
These are the lists of colors;
* List of colors: A–F
* List of colors: G–M
* List of colors: N–Z
* List of colors (compact)
* List of colors by shade
* List of color palettes
* List of Crayola crayon colors
* List of RAL colors
* List ...
*
Magenta
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. I ...
*
Mauve
Mauve (, ; , ) is a pale purple color named after the mallow flower (French: ''mauve''). The first use of the word ''mauve'' as a color was in 1796–98 according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', but its use seems to have been rare befo ...
*
Periwinkle (color)
Periwinkle is a color in the blue and violet family. Its name is derived from the lesser periwinkle or myrtle herb (''Vinca minor'') which bears flowers of the same color.
The color periwinkle is also called lavender blue and light blue viole ...
*
Purple
Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, pu ...
*
Raspberry (color)
Raspberry is a color that resembles the color of raspberries.
The first recorded use of ''raspberry'' as a color name in English was in 1892.
Variations
French raspberry
At right is displayed the color French raspberry, which is the deep ...
*
Red-violet
Red-violet refers to a rich color of high medium saturation about 3/4 of the way between red and magenta, closer to magenta than to red. In American English, this color term is sometimes used in color theory as one of the purple colors—a non ...
*
Rose (color)
Rose is the color halfway between red and magenta on the HSV color wheel, also known as the RGB color wheel, on which it is at hue angle of 330 degrees.
Rose is one of the tertiary colors on the HSV (RGB) color wheel. The complementary color ...
*
Ruby (color)
Ruby is a color that is a representation of the color of the cut and polished ruby gemstone and is a shade of red or pink.
Origins
The first recorded use of ''ruby'' as a color name in English was in 1572.
Variations
Rubine red
Displayed ...
*
Shades of purple
There are numerous variations of the color purple, a sampling of which are shown below.
In common English usage, ''purple'' is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue.
However, the meaning of the term purple is not well define ...
*
Ultramarine
Ultramarine is a deep blue color pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder. The name comes from the Latin ''ultramarinus'', literally 'beyond the sea', because the pigment was imported into Europe from mines in Afgh ...
*
Shades of magenta
The color magenta has notable tints and shades. These various colors are shown below.
Definition of magenta
Magenta is a color made up of equal parts of red and blue light. This would be the precise definition of the color as defined for compu ...
References
External links
{{EMSpectrum
simple:Violet