Purple

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This article is about the color purple. For other uses, see Purple (disambiguation).

An African Daisy of almost psychedelic purple

The term purple in its widest sense refers to a wide variety of shades of color occurring between blue and red.

Purple is also used in a more specialized and restricted sense by chromaticians (color scientists) to indicate those colors between violet and red which are not spectral colors but mixtures of red and blue light. These colors are those colors which are along what is called the purple boundary (a straight line between violet and red) on the CIE chromaticity diagram.

In an even more restricted sense, the term purple is used to describe the color between violet and magenta on the color wheel (this color, electric purple is shown below) and its light or dark shades .

The term purple may also be used specifically to describe one of the specific shades of purple displayed below: The color violet (an important color between blue and red); the various colors regarded as the standard for purple over historical time: imperial purple, royal purple, generic purple, artist's purple and electric purple; the computer web color purples, purple (HTML/CSS color) and purple (X11 color); or other variations on the color purple such as psychedelic purple, pansy purple, aubergine and Tokyo purple.

Etymology

The word purple comes from the Middle English word purple which originates from the Latin purpura. This in turn is derived from the (Koine Greek: πορφύρα, porphura) name of the dye manufactured in Classical antiquity from the mucus-secretion of the hypobranchial gland of a marine snail known as the Murex brandaris or the spiny dye-murex.

The first recorded use of the word purpel in English was in the year AD 975.^[1]

Purple on the CIE chromaticity diagram

On a chromaticity diagram, the straight line connecting the extreme spectral colors (red and violet) is known as the line of purples (or purple boundary); it represents one limit of human color perception. The color magenta used in the CMYK printing process is on the line of purples, but most people associate the term "purple" with a somewhat bluer shade. Some common confusion exists concerning the color names "purple" and "violet". Purple is a mixture of red and blue light, whereas violet is a spectral color. (see below section).

Purple versus violet: violet is spectral, purple is extraspectral

Violet
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#8B00FF
RGB^a	(r, g, b)	(139, 0, 255)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(273°, 100%, 100%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

#8B00FF

The color terms purple and violet cause confusion for many people: they are used interchangeably by some people in casual conversation. Technically, purple when used as a general term in its most general sense is the name of the color group of many related colors such as violet, red-violet, heliotrope, lavender, mauve, magenta, indigo and lilac. Indigo is a blue-purple; lilac is a light purple; mauve is in between the two. Crayola crayons have many shades of purple; see List of Crayola crayon colors.

Violet is a spectral color of a (approximately 420–380nm) shorter wavelength than blue, while purple is a combination of red and blue light and when regarded as electric purple (see below), it is the only color on the color wheel besides magenta and rose that is not a spectral color--purple is an extraspectral color, along with magenta and rose. In fact, purple was not present on Newton's color wheel (which went directly from violet to red), though it is present on modern ones. There is no such thing as the "wavelength of purple light"; it only exists as a combination. Also, violet light varies solely by wavelength, while purple varies by the proportion of red to blue light.

On the CIE xy chromaticity diagram, violet is on the curved edge in the lower left, while purples are the straight line connecting the extreme colors red and violet.

One interesting psychophysical feature of the two colors which can be used to separate them is their appearance with increase of light intensity. Violet, as light intensity increases, appears to take on a far more blue hue as a result of what is known as the Bezold-Brücke shift. The same increase in blueness is not noted in purples.

The shade of violet shown in the color box is exactly halfway between magenta and blue on the color wheel.

Historical development of purple

The color regarded as the standard for purple changed over the years, from Tyrian Purple in ancient times to Electric Purple today.

Imperial Purple (Tyrian Purple)--Ancient Greece and Rome

Tyrian Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#66023C
RGB^a	(r, g, b)	(102, 2, 60)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(290°, 10%, 17%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

#66023C

The actual color of Tyrian purple, the original color purple from which the name purple is derived, is the color of a dye made from a mollusk that, because of its incredible expense (many times more expensive than gold), in classical antiquity became a symbol of royalty because only the very wealthy could afford it. Therefore, Tyrian purple is also called imperial purple.

Tyrian purple may have been discovered as early as the time of the Minoan civilization. Alexander the Great (when giving imperial audiences as the emperor of the Macedonian Empire), the emperors of the Seleucid Empire, and the kings of Ptolemaic Egypt wore Tyrian purple. The imperial robes of Roman emperors were Tyrian purple trimmed in metallic gold thread. The badge of office of a Roman Senator was a stripe of Tyrian purple on their white toga. Tyrian purple was continued in use by the emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire until the final collapse of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 (the Eastern Roman Empire is customarily referred to by historians as the Byzantine Empire after 610, when the official language was changed from Latin to Greek).

"Tyrian purple" is a deep shade of medium-dark red-violet as displayed in the box at right and in the background of the website "Purple," which gives additional information about Tyrian Purple: [1]

Royal Purple--Medieval Europe

Royal Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#800080
RGB^a	(r, g, b)	(128, 0, 128)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(277°, 67%, 44%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

#800080

This shade of purple is bluer than the ancient Tyrian purple, as can be seen in the sample of the web color "Purple" to the right.

In medieval Europe, blue dyes were rare and expensive, so only the aristocracy could afford to wear them. (The working class wore mainly green and brown.) Because of this (and also because Tyrian purple had gone out of use in western Europe after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476), Europeans' idea of purple shifted towards this more bluish purple known as royal purple because of its similarity to the royal blue worn by the aristocracy. This was the shade of purple worn by kings in medieval Europe.

In contemporary times, this shade of purple has been popularized by the rock celebrity Prince. His fans call him "His Purple Majesty" and "His Royal Badness" ("bad" being used ironically to mean that Prince is the greatest of all).

Generic Purple (Vulgar Purple)--1920s

Generic Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#660099
RGB^a	(r, g, b)	(102, 0, 153)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(280°, 60%, 60%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

#660099

In 1923, the Welch's company began manufacturing Concord grape jelly. Since for both children and the working class a common food was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, many people began to think of the dark violet color of grape jelly as purple because that was the most likely way they would encounter the color purple. This shade of purple is known as generic purple. Sometimes it is called vulgar purple.

Artists Pigment Purple (Red-Violet)--1930s

Red-violet
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#C71585
RGB^a	(r, g, b)	(199, 21, 133)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(322°, 89%, 78%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

#C71585

Royal purple or generic purple is the common layman's idea of purple, but professional artists, following Munsell color system (introduced in 1905 and widely accepted by 1930), regard purple as being synonymous with the red-violet color shown at right, in order to clearly distinguish purple from violet and thus have access to a larger palette of colors. This red-violet color, called artist's purple by artists, is the pigment color that would be on a pigment color color wheel between pigment violet and pigment magenta.

Artists pigments and colored pencils labeled as purple are colored the red-violet color shown at right.

It seems appropriate that this color should be called "purple" by artists, since it is the closest of all the purples to the original Tyrian purple.

Electric Purple--2000s

Electric Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#BF00FF
RGB^a	(r, g, b)	(191, 0, 255)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(285°, 100%, 65%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

#BF00FF

The color electric purple is displayed in the box at right.

Using additive color, such as on a television or computer monitor, it is possible to create a much brighter purple than with pigment, the equivalent color on a computer to the pigment color red-violet shown above would be electric purple, i.e. the much brighter purple you can see reproduced on the screen of an electronic computer.

Computer web color purples

Purple (HTML/CSS color)

Purple (HTML/CSS color)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#800080
RGB^a	(r, g, b)	(128, 0, 128)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(277°, 67%, 44%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

#800080

This purple used in HTML and CSS actually is deeper and has a more reddish hue (#800080) than the X11 color purple shown below as purple (X11 color) (#A020F0), which is bluer and brighter. (Note that the color values of this HTML/CSS purpleare the same as those chosen for the royal purple swatch above.)

Purple (X11 color)

Purple (X11 color)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#A020F0
RGB^a	(r, g, b)	(160, 92, 240)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(285°, 97%, 77%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

#A020F0

At right is displayed the color purple, as defined in the X11 color, which is a lot brighter and bluer than the HTML purple shown above.

See the chart Color names that clash between X11 and HTML/CSS in the X11 color names article to see those colors which are different in HTML and X11.

This color can be called X11 purple.

Additional variations of purple

Psychedelic Purple

Psychedelic Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#DD00FF
RGB^a	(r, g, b)	(221, 0, 255)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(290°, 100%, 67%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

#DD00FF

The pure essence of purple was approximated in pigment in the late 1960s by mixing fluorescent magenta and fluorescent blue pigments together to paint psychedelic black light paintings. This shade of purple was very popular among the hippies and it was the favorite color of Jimi Hendrix and therefore it is called psychedelic purple. It is shaded somewhat more toward the magenta than electric purple and it is displayed in the color box at right.

In the 1980s there was a Jimi Hendrix Museum in a Victorian house on the east side of Central Ave. one half block south of Haight Street in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco which was painted this color.

Pansy Purple

Pansy Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#B12166
RGB^a	(r, g, b)	(177, 33, 102)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(283°, 42%, 30%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

#B12166

The pansy flower has varities that exhibit three different colors: pansy (a deep shade of violet), pansy pink, and pansy purple.

The color pansy purple is displayed at right.

The source of this color is the picture of a purple pansy in the Wikipedia article on the pansy flower.

The first recorded use of Pansy Purple as a color name in English was in 1814. ^[2]

Aubergine

Aubergine
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#990066
RGB^a	(r, g, b)	(153, 0, 102)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(283°, 37%, 25%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

#990066

The color Aubergine is shown at right. This is a color popular among graphic designers in Europe^{[citation needed]}.

This color is identical to the color Red-violet eggplant (the web color eggplant). "Aubergine" and "eggplant" are the names used in the UK and US respectively for the same vegetable.

It is interesting to note that the red and blue values of this color are an opposite mirror to those of the color generic purple shown above.

Tokyo Purple

Tokyo Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#5A004A
RGB^a	(r, g, b)	(90, 0, 70)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(283°, 37%, 25%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

#5A004A

Tokyo purple is the color of the flag of the prefecture of Tokyo in the Chubu region of Japan. The color purple has been associated with Tokyo (formerly called Edo) since ancient times.

To see the flag of Tokyo prefecture, go to: [2]

Some people can see electric purple on the spectrum

Ophthalmologists report that those who, for medical reasons, have had their retinal lenses removed and replaced with clear plastic can see into the ultraviolet and view electric purple on the spectrum beyond violet because it has been shown that the retina has some ultraviolet sensitivity which is normally blocked by the retinal lens. [3] ^[3]

Purple in human culture

Astronomy

One of the stars in the Pleiades, called Pleione, is sometimes called Purple Pleione' because, being a fast spinning star, it has a purple hue caused by its blue-white color being obscured by a spinning ring of electrically excited red hydrogen gas.

Broadcasting

Purple is generally used to denote a digital video signal in broadcast engineering.

Games

Purple is the color of the ball in Snooker Plus with a 10-point value.
In the game of pool, purple is the color of the 4-solid and the 12-striped balls.

Heraldry

porpora or purpure was not one of the usual tinctures in European heraldry, being added at a late date to bring the number of tinctures plus metals to seven, so that they could be given planetary associations. The classic early example of purpure is in the coat of the Kingdom of León: argent, a lion purpure as early as 1245.

History

Purple has oftentimes symbolized royalty, dating back to Roman times, when clothing dyed with Tyrian purple was limited to the upper classes due to the rarity (and thus price) of the dye. The color, which was closer to a deep crimson/red-violet color (shown above) than to the modern idea of purple, was the favored color of many kings and queens.
Byzantine empresses gave birth in the Purple Chamber of the palace of the Byzantine Emperors. Therefore, being named Porphyrogenitus ("born to the purple") marked a dynastic emperor as opposed to a general who won the throne by his effort.
In China, the Chinese name of the Forbidden City literally means "purple forbidden city" 紫禁城 with first character 紫 meaning purple(even though the Chinese Emperor himself wore yellow, which was considered in China to be the imperial color).

Literature

Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, said, "Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender."
As a result of its association with royalty and luxury, the term purple is often used to describe pretentious or overly embellished literature. For example, a paragraph containing an excessive number of long and unusual words is called a purple passage (see Purple prose).

The Military

In the United States and United Kingdom militaries, purple refers to programs or assignments that are "joint", i. e., that are not confined to a single service such as the Army or Navy, but apply to the entire defense establishment. Assignment to one or more joint billets is required for promotion to flag rank (Rear Admiral and higher) in the U.S. Navy. Officers in joint billets are sometimes referred to as "wearing purple" (the phrase is purely metaphorical as there are no purple uniforms in the U.S. or UK armed forces).

Music

Deep Purple is a popular rock band.
"Purple People Eater" was one of the biggest rock and roll hits of 1958.[4]
"Purple Haze" is one of the most popular songs by Jimi Hendrix.
Purple is the favorite color of the pop celebrity Prince. His 1984 film and album Purple Rain is one of his best known works. The title track is Prince's signature song and is nearly always played in concert to this day. Prince encourages his fans to wear purple to his concerts.
"Start Wearing Purple" is a song by Gogol Bordello.

Politics

In politics in the Netherlands, purple (Paars in Dutch) means a government coalition of right-liberals and socialists (symbolized by blue and red, respectively), as opposed to the more common coalitions of the Christian center-party with one of the other two. From 1994 to 2002 there have been two purple cabinets.
In United States politics, a purple state is a state equally balanced between Republicans (normally symbolized by red) and Democrats (normally symbolized as blue).

Psychology

The term porphyrophobia means an irrational fear of the color purple.

Religion

Purple is also one of the liturgical colors in Christian symbolism, although the liturgical color is more properly called violet. It generally represents sorrow and mourning, as it is often associated with the season of Lent (the forty or so days before Easter and the death of Jesus). Purple vestments are also worn by priests during the sacrament of reconciliation; it is therefore associated with penance and forgiveness. Also, it represents of the kingship of Christ, since it marks preparation for the coming of Christ, as in Advent (the four weeks leading up to Christmas).

Sexuality

Purple may signify homosexuality (especially female homosexuality), like pink and lavender.

References

^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 202
^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 131 Color Sample of Pansy Purple: Page 25 Plate 54 Color Sample L8
^ Amato "Bird's-eye view. Ultraviolet vision is commonplace in the animal world. A very few people, it turns out, have this ability too.". "Fortune", Apr 4, 2005; 151(7): 34-36

External links

Web colors	black	silver	gray	white	red	maroon	purple	fuchsia	green	lime	olive	yellow	orange	blue	navy	teal	aqua
Web colors

					Shades of violet
Amethyst	Cerise	Eggplant	Fuchsia	Heliotrope	Indigo	Lavender	Lavender blush	Lilac	Magenta	Mauve	Mountbatten pink

Orchid	Persian indigo	Purple	Red-violet	Sangria	Thistle	Violet	Violet-eggplant	Wisteria	Rose	Lavender rose	Lavender gray

Shades of violet without swatches
Iris	Palatinate	Purpure

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