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How can I create a purple mixture?
Colors on A Computer Screen
Color from a computer monitor or a TV screen results from a different process than that due to reflection or transmission by a solid or solution. A monitor or TV screen generates three colors of light (red, green, and blue) and the different colors we see are due to different combinations and intensities of these three primary colors.
Each pixel on a computer screen is composed of three small dots of compounds called phosphors surrounded by a black mask. The phosphors emit light when struck by the electron beams produced by the electron guns at the rear of the tube. The three separate phosphors produce red, green, and blue light, respectively.
| A sketch of a pixel showing the red, green and blue color produced by the three phosphors. |
Black, White, and Gray: Nothing, All, or Some
When no electrons strike the phosphors of a computer screen the phosphors emit no light and the screen appears black. On a white section of a screen all three phosphors are excited and produce light with about the same relative intensities as in sunlight so the light appears white. Gray parts of the screen have all three phosphors producing light, but at a much lower intensity. A sample color block and a sketch of a pixel from the block is shown below for each of these three colors.
| The colors black, white, and gray with a sketch of a pixel from each. |
Red, Green and Blue: Pure Colors
Red, green, and blue colors are produced by exciting the respective phosphor.
| The colors red, green, and blue with a sketch of a pixel from each. |
Cyan, Purple, and Yellow: Combinations of Two Colors
Cyan, purple, and yellow are mixtures of two of the primary colors with equal intensities of each.
| The colors cyan (light blue), purple, and yellow with a pixel from each. |
Mixtures of Three Colors
Mixtures of two or three primary colors with different intensities give the other colors. The combinations for orange (red with a little green), neon pink (red with a little green and a little blue), and turquoise (blue and green with a little red) are shown below.
| The colors orange, neon pink, and turquoise with a pixel from each. |
What happens when violet light hits the retina?
The “red” signal path has an interesting additional property. As you can see above, it has a small bump of activation around the short-wavelength (violet) end of the visible spectrum. When violet light hits the retina, both the “blue” path and (much less) the “red” path are activated. The brain interprets this kind of input in a specific way, which we call “violet”.
It is worth noting that the pigment in the “green” cones themselves also has a small peak of absorption around violet wavelengths, but the brain seems to ignore it (it is not possible to simulate the perception of violet by a combination of green and blue light).
Purple is not a spectral colour
As we noted before, many colours we can see are not in the visible spectrum. When you see an object, typically a mixture of different wavelengths reaches your retina, which causes the cones to be activated at a ratio not achievable by a spectral colour.
Our brains are very good at interpreting this mixture (it would be silly to simply throw away a part of the incoming information and make everything look like the closest spectral colour), and, as a result, we are able to see several million different colours, most of which are not present in the spectrum.
As we noted at the beginning of the article, purple looks more “reddish” than violet, and that’s absolutely correct. Purple is formed by mixing red and blue in a ratio close to 1:1, whereas violet is perceived by your eyes as containing more blue than red.
However, as you can see from the picture above, no spectral colour activates the “blue” path and the “red” path at the ratio of 1:1 without also stimulating the “green” path. In other words purple is not a spectral colour. You can have a source of monochromatic violet light (i.e. a source producing just a single wavelength), but everything that looks purple must emit both red and blue light.
Purple and violet look similar only to humans
To us, humans, purple looks like a more saturated shade of violet, but violet objects in nature are fundamentally different from purple ones. Purple objects are “red and blue at the same time”, whereas violet objects are… just violet.
If you take a look at the distance between violet and blue in the picture of the spectrum above, it is about the same as the distance between green and orange. Purple is a mixture of red (which is at the opposite side of the spectrum than violet) and blue (which is relatively far from violet), so it is, in terms of wavelengths, a completely different colour.
The reason why purple and violet look similar to us is because they stimulate our cones in a similar way, but most other animals don’t share the same types of cones and “post-processing”. This means that to other animals, purple and violet may look completely different!
Now imagine a violet flower petal with a purple pattern on it. Depending on the particular shades, this pattern might be completely invisible to us, while many other animals could see it as clearly as we can see an orange pattern on green background. Even common consumer cameras wouldn’t help us; they are designed to capture the same red-green-blue information as our eyes do, so even taking a photo of the petal and editing it in Photoshop would not uncover the pattern. Quite fascinating, isn’t it?
By the way, I have written several educational ebooks. If you get a copy, you can learn new things and support this website at the same time—why don’t you check them out?
What 2 colours make purple?
If you mix red and blue, you are sure to get purple. But there are some other colours from which you can get the purple colour. Let me share how to get purple by mixing other colours.
Mix magenta and cyan:
Yes, it is true that by mixing cyan and magenta, you can get purple. Make sure to mix equal portions of both of these colours and get your vibrant purple instantly.
Mix red and purple:
There is another way to get a muted purple. To get this colour, you will have to mix red and purple.
You can always add white to purple for a light shade; black to purple to get a dark purple; or other colours as per your requirement.
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