Purple

For other uses, see Purple (disambiguation).

Purple is any of a group of colors intermediate between deep blue and red.

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. There is some common confusion between the color names purple and violet.

In the 19th century William Perkin invented mauve, a shade of purple, from coal oil. It quickly became popular among all classes, and sparked major industrial development in the German chemical industry.

Chromaticity diagram.
The straight part of boundary of the colored region is the line of purples.

Symbolism

• Purple sometimes symbolizes royalty, dating back to Roman times, when clothing dyed with Tyrian purple was limited to the upper classes. The color, which was closer to crimson than our 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. Thus being named Porphyrogenitus ("born to the purple") marked a dynastic emperor as opposed to a general who won the throne by his effort. Oddly, 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.
• 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).
• As a result of its association with the Roman Empire, imperial is often used to mean purple, such as "imperial dye".
• In the United States and United Kingdom militaries, purple refers to programs or assignments that are "joint", i.e. 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).
• Purple as one of the liturgical colors in Christian symbolism can express sorrow and mourning.
• Purple is also a symbol of womandom, feminism, or lesbianism. In one such use, members of the Red Hat Society (women over 50) wear purple dresses with red hats.
• In politics in the Netherlands, purple 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 1994–2002 there have been two purple cabinets—see also Politics of the Netherlands and Paars (the Dutch word for "purple").
• Purple is symbolic for courage.
• Purple is symbolic for wisdom, because in middle-eastern cultures the "wise men" wore robes that were coloured by expensive purple dye created from the "purper snail".
• Purple, especially in a light form known as lavender, is representative of the gay rights movement. The color combines blue, usually ascribed to masculinity in European tradition, and pink, usually ascribed to femininity.
• Since the 2000 election in the United States, followers of the Republican faction have been identified with the color red and Democrats with blue. Thus, purple has arisen as a compromise color representing moderation between the two.
• In some U.S. states, including Missouri, purple paint on fenceposts and trees lining a landowner's property indicate “No Trespassing”.[1]
• In the fictional Star Wars universe, lavender was chosen for the color of the Senate interior because it was the only hue that had never been associated with war, anger, or mourning in any culture of the Republic. ^[1]
• Purple is the color of insanity.
• Purple is the color of equality.
• Purple is generally used to denote a Digital Video Signal in Broadcast Engineering.
• Purple is the color of the ball in Snooker Plus with a 10-point value.
• Purple as a color of uniforms for sports teams is not as prevalent as red, blue, or black, but several professional and collegiate teams are well known for the color, including
  • The Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (In the 1970s, their stout defense was called the "Purple People Eaters.")
  • The Baltimore Ravens of the NFL.
  • The Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors, Sacramento Kings, New Orleans Hornets, and Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association.
  • The Los Angeles Kings and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim of the National Hockey League.
  • The Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball.
  • Teams representing Louisiana State University, Clemson University, Northwestern University, Kansas State University, University of Scranton, and the University of Washington.

Purple versus violet

The color terms purple and violet cause confusion for many people: they are used interchangeably in some casual conversation. But technically purple is the name of the colour group of many such as violet, mauve, magenta, indigo and lilac. Indigo is a blue-purple, lilac is a light purple and mauve is in between.

Technically, violet is a spectral color (of approximately 420-380nm), shorter wavelength than blue, while purple is a combination of red and blue and is the only color on the color wheel that is not a spectral color (there is no such thing as the "wavelength of purple light": it only exists as a combination). Purple was not present on Newton's color wheel (which went directly from violet to red), but is present on modern ones.

Violet light just varies by wavelength, while purple varies in the proportion of red and blue.

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.

Informally, and by some in art, violet is used to mean a bluer purple, while purple means a redder purple.

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 bluey hue as a result of what is known as the Bezold-Brücke shift. The same increase in blueness is not noted in purples.

References

1. ^[1] Source:Star Wars visual dictionaries

• "The perception of color", from Schiffman, H.R. (1990) Sensation and perception: An integrated approach (3rd edition). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

See also

• List of colors
• Purpure

The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple under GFDL