Talk:Magenta

Question about true tone

My question is based on the idea that the "color" of light is based on its frequency (and with a constant velocity also its wavelength) and that when you add two colors of light you should get a new color that is a interference pattern of the two waves. Now this idea follows when you combine red and green light and the mixture of the low frequency red and the medium frequency green combine to produce a yellow that is inbetween the low and medium frequency. The same is true for mixing a high frequency blue and medium frequency resulting in a cyan. Why then does mixing a high frequency and a low frequency result in magenta and not a medium frequency green. Is this because magenta is not a true tone? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.16.18.252 (talk) 04:53, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Definition

We discussed definition of magenta over the years, but it's not clear the lead reflects any consensus, or sourcing. And it gets changed like this edit today, without changing the cited source. Will someone work on this with me? Dicklyon (talk) 17:25, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

In design and when used in printing or painting, Magenta is almost exclusively referred to as pink or rose-like. The confusions likely stems from people not understanding subtractive color systems, people only using the additive color system, and the inherently different hues of "web magenta" vs print Magenta as a primary color. As Magenta is a primary color, describing it as a purple-red (two secondary colors) is inappropriate and inaccurate. 69.157.87.119 (talk) 16:02, 8 August 2025 (UTC)

The curent article here is very misleading. It should be substantially rewritten to focus on the CMYK ink color, common pigments used for it, and so on. –jacobolus (t) 16:45, 8 August 2025 (UTC)

Here is a proposed rewrite for the first paragraph:

Magenta (/məˈdʒɛntə/) is a purple-red color. It is considered a dark pink or tint of pink. It is a primary color in the CMY (subtractive) color model and a secondary color in the RGB (additive) color system. The hue of magenta used in printing, printer's magenta, is redder than the magenta of the RGB (additive) model, the former being closer to rose while the later is closer to fuschia.

This removes the incorrect use of 'tone' when describing subtractive magenta and swaps it with hue, combines repetitive content about the subtractive model, and drops the inappropriate focus on magenta as purple "its blue and red," and notes the difference between the two magentas that has people constantly vandalizing the article of the pink vs purple thing. MattTRevell (talk) 21:30, 9 August 2025 (UTC)

I think it would be better to say "Magenta is a color of ink used in color printing. The precise color varies from one printing process to another, but it typically an intense purplish red. The name comes from an aniline dye made and patented in 1859. The names cyan and magenta were adopted as technical jargon words for the specific colors of greenish blue and purplish red inks used in printing to avoid confusion with the common color words "blue" and "red", but sometimes are also called "blue" and "red". Much later, some authors describing television or computer displays also adopted the names cyan, magenta, and yellow to refer to pure combinations of the additive-color primaries; these colors have very little in common with their printing namesakes. ..."

Coverage of the (mis)use of the name to refer to the combination of R and B primaries in an RGB additive color display should be contextualized and de-emphasized, as it is a much less important topic. I also object to using the word "pink" as a descriptor here; it will inevitably be misinterpreted by a significant portion of the audience; the word "pink" originally just means "light red" (but has been redefined in the modern era of gender-targeted toys, lipstick, etc. to mean almost anything of vaguely red–purple hue). I also object to similar use of "rose"; roses come in a wide variety of colors and there is no agreement whatsoever about what "rose" should mean as a color name. –jacobolus (t) 22:51, 9 August 2025 (UTC)

The subtractive color gamut (colors of matter) is different than the additive color gamut (colors of light). Magenta is a different color in each color system. Printers magenta is 'process magenta' and there is very little variation. It is an intense pinkish color. The difference between process magenta and RGB magenta is where the confusion is coming from, as the magenta created by mixing light is a fuchsia rather than the intense pink of printers magenta. This has to be addressed for the article to have the highest value. 69.157.87.119 (talk) 00:20, 10 August 2025 (UTC)

References

Pink

Not pink 2.101.1.253 (talk) 23:25, 29 December 2021 (UTC)

Listen, I don’t know what has you say “not pink”, but when I look at the real color of magenta, it does look a lot like a Pinkish color and would be confusing if people call the red-purple color “magenta” in the RYB model. This is because when mixing purple and red together in paint, it looks a lot closer to purple than a pinkish color.

So I will feel confused if “Magenta” is used as the “purple-red” color name in both the RYB and RGB color systems being as they don’t look like the same color when mixed between red and purple, in “paint” versus “light”. Therefore, Magenta is a Pink color, regardless of what Wikipedia or everyone says about the color! 🙂 Craig Lungren (talk) 21:09, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

Magenta is a pinkish shade when it is used as a primary color in the CMYK system, or as a pigment in paint. This is the majority of magenta's application. "Barbie Pink" is a magenta. The RYB color system is as outdated as bloodletting, and the RGB colors system's magenta is nothing like the primary color in CMYK and is commonly called Fuchsia. 69.157.87.119 (talk) 15:56, 8 August 2025 (UTC)

CIELAB

Please correct: L*=60.3; C*=115.6; h_ab= 328.2° ZJ (talk) 14:58, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

CIE Lch(uv) ≠ CIE Lch(ab). 8-leaf clover (talk) 18:32, 10 September 2025 (UTC)

Intro needs rewrite.

I am assuming the misguided pink vs purple thing is destorying the article. The "Magenta (/məˈdʒɛntə/) is a purple-red color." needs to be removed from the article. In the subtractive CMYK colour system magenta is referred to as "Barbie Pink" and is universally known as a pink colour, in the RGB additive system Magenta is a Fuschia colour and is more a pink-purple.

A more accurate statement would be "Magenta (/məˈdʒɛntə/) is used to describe a range of hues from a fuschia to rose."

An honestly, the entire intro section needs to be brought in line with the article for red https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red and Magenta needs to be specified as a primary colour in the CMYK space and a secondary colour in the RGB space. MattTRevell (talk) 20:41, 9 August 2025 (UTC)

For this reason, the comment "it is located precisely midway between blue and red." must be removed. It has no value and was added by someone who is more concerned with the pink vs purple thing. (What is universally understood as 'purple' is a colour between magenta and blue.) It would be as if the article for red stated it was "a colour between magenta and yellow." MattTRevell (talk) 20:48, 9 August 2025 (UTC)

"In optics" & definition

The first section states

Magenta is an extra-spectral color, meaning that no color of the visible spectrum has magenta's hue

without introducing the definition of "hue". This only furthers the confusion rampant across the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:1E:AD00:A201:E4E4:4848:C744:5328 (talk) 08:22, 28 September 2025 (UTC)