Magenta (Fuchsia) | ||
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![]() — Color coordinates — |
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Hex triplet | #FF00FF | |
RGBB | (r, g, b) | (255, 0, 255) |
HSV | (h, s, v) | (300°, 100%, 100%) |
Source | X11 | |
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) |
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Magenta, a bright pinkish purple color, is a color evoked by light having less power in green wavelengths than in blue/violet and red wavelengths (complements of magenta have wavelength 500–530 nm).[1] In light experiments, magenta can be produced by removing the lime-green wavelengths from white light. It is an extra-spectral color, meaning it cannot be generated by a single wavelength of light, being a mixture of red and blue or violet wavelengths. The name magenta comes from the dye magenta, commonly called fuchsine, discovered shortly after the 1859 Battle of Magenta near Magenta, Italy.
In the Munsell color system, magenta is called red-purple. In the CMYK color model used in printing, it is one of the primary colors of ink. In the RGB color model, the secondary color created by mixing the red and blue primaries is called magenta or fuchsia, though this color differs in hue from printer's magenta.
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Magenta dye | ||
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![]() — Color coordinates — |
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Hex triplet | #CA1F7B | |
RGBB | (r, g, b) | (202, 31, 123) |
HSV | (h, s, v) | (327°, 96%, 34%) |
Source | [Unsourced] | |
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) |
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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 fuchsine made from coal tar dyes in the year 1859. This color is closer to red than to blue. The name of the color was soon changed to magenta, being named after the Battle of Magenta fought at Magenta, Lombardy-Venetia.[2]
Process magenta (subtractive primary, sRGB approximation) | ||
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![]() — Color coordinates — |
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Hex triplet | #FF0090 | |
RGBB | (r, g, b) | (255, 0, 144) |
HSV | (h, s, v) | (320°, 100%, 100%) |
Source | [1] CMYK | |
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) |
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In color printing, the color called process magenta, or pigment magenta, or printer's 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 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 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: [2]. A printer's magenta is usually out of gamut on a computer display, so the color at right is only an approximation.
Magenta (additive secondary) | ||
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![]() — Color coordinates — |
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Hex triplet | #FF00FF | |
RGBB | (r, g, b) | (255, 0, 255) |
HSV | (h, s, v) | (300°, 100%, 100%) |
Source | X11 | |
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) |
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Starting in 1935 the family of quinacridone dyes was developed. These have colors ranging from red to violet, so nowadays a quinacridone dye is often used for magenta.
Electric magenta, shown at the right, is one of the three secondary colors in the RGB color model. For computer color rendition, that specific hue of magenta composed of equal parts of red and blue light was termed the web color fuchsia and was assigned as an alias for the RGB code of magenta on a list of standardized web colors. "Electric" magenta and fuchsia are exactly the same color. Sometimes electric magenta is called electronic magenta.
The color fuchsia is named after the color of the flowers of the Fuchsia plant (named after Leonhart Fuchs), although the flowers can be red, pink or violet.
Note that while both of these colors are called magenta they are actually substantially different from one another. Process magenta (the color used for magenta printing ink—also called printer's or pigment magenta) is much less vivid than the color electric magenta achievable on a computer screen—indeed, CMYK printing technology cannot accurately reproduce pure magenta as described above as electric magenta (1/2 100% blue light + 1/2 100% red light=magenta) on paper.
When electric 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. In order to reproduce it, a small amount of cyan printer's ink must be added to printer's magenta to make fuchsia, and therefore fuchsia is not a primary color of pigment—it is the color of printer's magenta that is one of the primary colors of pigment (along with cyan and yellow).
The name fuchsia was chosen as the alias for electric magenta because that is the color name for the color that in printed reproduction is its equivalent.
Since prior to the introduction of personal computers magenta was synonymous with printer's magenta, colored pencils and crayons called "magenta" are usually colored the color of process magenta (printer's magenta) shown above.
If the visible spectrum is wrapped to form a color wheel, magenta (additive secondary) appears midway between red and violet:
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Amaranth | Amaranth pink | Apricot | Brink pink | Carmine | Carnation pink | Cerise | Coral pink | Deep carmine | Deep pink |
Fandango | French rose | Fuchsia | Hollywood cerise | Hot magenta | Hot pink | Lavender pink | Magenta | Persian Rose | |
Pink | Puce | Rose | Rose pink | Ruby | Salmon | Shocking pink | Thulian pink | Ultra pink | |
The samples shown above are only indicative. |
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Amaranth | Auburn | Burgundy | Cardinal | Carmine | Cerise | Chestnut | Crimson | Dark red | Electric crimson |
Fire brick | Flame | Folly | Fuchsia | Lust | Magenta | Raspberry | Red | Red-violet | Redwood |
Rose | Rosewood | Ruby | Rust | Scarlet | Terra cotta | Tuscan red | Vermilion | Wine | Alizarin crimson |
The samples shown above are only indicative. |
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Amethyst | Byzantium | Cerise | Eggplant | Fandango | Fuchsia | Heliotrope | Indigo | Lavender blush | Lavender (floral) |
Lavender (web) | Magenta | Orchid | Plum | Purple | Red-violet | Rose | Thistle | Violet | Violet-Blue |
Wisteria | |||||||||
The samples shown above are only indicative. |
Magenta is a color.
Magenta may also refer to:
The Rocky Horror Show is a musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. A humorous tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the late 1940s through to the early 1970s, the musical tells the story of a newly engaged couple getting caught in a storm and coming to the home of a mad transvestite scientist unveiling his new creation, a sort of Frankenstein-style monster in the form of an artificially made, fully grown, physically perfect muscle man named Rocky Horror, complete "with blond hair and a tan".
Produced and directed by Jim Sharman, the original London production of the musical premiered at the Royal Court Theatre (Upstairs) on 16 June 1973 before moving to several other locations in London and closing on 13 September 1980, running for a total of 2,960 performances and winning the 1973 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Musical. Its 1974 debut in the US in Los Angeles had a successful nine-month run but its 1975 Broadway debut at the Belasco Theatre lasted only three previews and forty five showings despite earning one Tony nomination and three Drama Desk nominations. Various international productions have since spanned across six continents as well as West End and Broadway revivals and eight UK tours.