| Violet | ||
|---|---|---|
| — Spectral coordinates — | ||
| Wavelength | 380–450 nm | |
| Frequency | 800–715 THz | |
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— Color coordinates — |
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| Source | [Unsourced] | |
As the name of a color, violet is synonymous with a bluish purple, when the word "purple" is used in the common English language sense of any color between blue and red, not including either blue or red. Since Isaac Newton listed violet as his name for the color of the short-wavelength end of the visible spectrum (approximately 380–450 nm),[1] when both of the names purple and violet are used within the same system, violet represents colors nearer to blue, while purple is used for colors more nearly between violet and red on what is called in color theory the line of purples. Objects reflecting only light wavelengths in the aforementioned “violet range” would appear very dark, because human vision is relatively insensitive to those wavelengths, but the color of a monochromatic light source emitting only those wavelengths can be roughly approximated by the color shown below as electric violet. A pale tint of violet is lavender.
The first recorded use of violet as a color name in English was in 1370.[2]
Contents |
| Violet (web color) | ||
|---|---|---|
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— Color coordinates — |
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| Hex triplet | #EE82EE | |
| RGBB | (r, g, b) | (238, 130, 238) |
| HSV | (h, s, v) | (300°, 45%, 93[3]%) |
| Source | X11[4] X11 color names[5] |
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| B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) |
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The so-called web color "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 of magenta 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.
| Dark Violet | ||
|---|---|---|
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— Color coordinates — |
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| Hex triplet | #9400D3 | |
| RGBB | (r, g, b) | (148, 0, 211) |
| HSV | (h, s, v) | (282°, 100%, 83[6]%) |
| Source | X11 | |
| B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) |
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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 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, 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 pigment is added to pigment violet.)
| Shades of violet | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amethyst | Byzantium | Cerise | Eggplant | Fandango | Fuchsia | Heliotrope | Indigo | Lavender blush | Lavender (floral) |
| Lavender (web) | Magenta | Orchid | Plum | Purple | Red-violet | Rose | Thistle | Violet | Wisteria |
| The samples shown above are only indicative. | |||||||||
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