Fuchsia (color) - The Color Fuchsia

The Color Fuchsia

There are a number of colors in the fuchsia/magenta range. Some of them are indicated below and color bands displaying the various shades of magenta for comparison are appended to the variations of magenta article.

In 1949, the color names of Crayola crayons were reformed and became more scientific, more of the names of the colors of the crayons being based on the names of colors in the original 1930 edition of the Dictionary of Color and the color names of the Munsell color system. Crayola crayons set up a color naming system similar to that used in the Munsell Color Wheel, except that violet instead of purple was used as the primary color on the color wheel between red and blue. The web color fuchsia is equivalent to the pure chroma on Munsell Color Wheel of the Munsell color system that is designated as "5RP" (reddish purple) i.e., a purple that is shaded toward red (the color we can achieve today with computers is a much more saturated pure color wheel chroma hue than the original color chip shown on the Munsell color wheel diagram in the Munsell color system article). In 1972, a new Crayola crayon color was introduced called hot magenta which is the closest equivalent to the web color fuchsia in Crayola crayons. (See List of Crayola crayon colors.)

The color shown in the color box below is the color called "Fuchsia" in A Dictionary of Color. That is why the name fuchsia was chosen as the equivalent to one of the three secondary additive primary colors, electric magenta, because A Dictionary of Color was the primary reference on color names (besides the Munsell Book of Color) before the introduction of personal computers. The color shown above is somewhat brighter than most actual flowers of the fuchsia plant. The color shown as magenta in A Dictionary of Color is a somewhat different color than the color shown in that book as fuchsia—it is the original color magenta now called rich magenta or magenta (dye) (see the article on magenta for a color box displaying a sample of this original magenta).