Magenta

This article is about the dye color magenta. For other uses of the word, see Magenta (disambiguation).

Magenta
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#FF00ff
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(255, 0, 255)
HSV (h, s, v)	(300°, 100%, 100%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(60, 137, 308°)
Source	[Unsourced]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Magenta is a color made up of red and blue light. A common precise definition for the color does not exist--however, in printing, the color is made up of equal parts of red and blue. As such, this shade magenta is the complement of green: magenta pigments absorb green light. In any case, it is not a spectral color, however: the hue cannot be generated by light of a single wavelength.

Along with yellow and cyan, a magenta of equal amounts red and blue constitutes the three subtractive primary colors.

File:Magenta1.png

spectral reflectance curve

History

Magenta was one of the first aniline dyes, discovered shortly after the Battle of Magenta (1859), which occurred near the town of Magenta in northern Italy. The color is named after the battle, and hence indirectly after the town.

Magenta, properly speaking, is a variant of purple. In general use, magenta itself can vary from a dark pink to the purple color #FF00FF. This specific variant of magenta is also called Fuchsia after the color of the flowers of the same name, named after Leonhart Fuchs.

If the visible spectrum is wrapped to form a color wheel, magenta appears between red and blue:

See also

• List of colors