Is magenta a color?
I keep seeing claims that magenta isn't a color because there's no real color in between red and purple on the color spectrum. Is this true? If so, when magenta is on the color wheel, there's a green across from it. How could a color have a contrasting color if it doesn't exist?
Answers ( 2 )
Colors exist on a spectrum, and we pick them out in language imperfectly. There are edge cases for any color we have a name for, where it becomes unclear where the exact border is; magenta is no different. Furthermore, just because a term picks out a narrower bandwidth than other colors, doesn't entail it is failing to pick out a color. So in the case of magenta, even if it ends up being a subset of red, purple, etc., its referent is still a color.
Short version, yes, magenta is a color.
Magenta is the name of a color. And there's plenty of versions of the color. And yes, it is a color, it is a bluish red. If you look at any color wheel, whether for the spectrum of light or for pigment, you will find the color in between blue and red, The additive mixing of red and blue will achieve magenta. So whoever says it isn't, well, they are just wrong.
The history of magenta itself is that it was derived from an organic dye, and originally called fuchsine, but was quickly renamed in 1859 to the name of a town in France following a successful battle victory at the Battle of Magenta. Magenta is and has been a color, by name, for over 162 years.
Color mixing in both additive (light), and subtractive (pigment(:
You will find magenta in this range:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magenta
https://www.britannica.com/science/color/The-visible-spectrum