The human eye and the brain work together to translate light into color. Isaac Newton was the first to write that color isn’t inherent in objects. A red rose, he discovered, isn’t actually red. Instead, the surface of the rose reflects some colors and absorbs the rest. What we’re seeing are the reflected colors. An object appears white when it reflects all colors, and it appears black when it absorbs all colors. Pretty trippy, right?
What Is the Opposite of Magenta? (Complementary Color)
Magenta is a beautiful color, providing a perfect balance between energetic, emotionally-charged red and calming, healing blue. Typically, artists and designers choose magenta intentionally to indicate harmony and tranquility. Since it is such a deliberate color choice, it can be helpful to know how to take full advantage of its hue. One of the best ways to do so is to incorporate or add its opposite color into your work. In this way, you may be able to create eye-catching magenta elements in paintings, photographs, fabrics, or room designs. You may also be able to change vibrant magenta to a more subdued shade or neutralize magenta altogether, in cases of color mistakes. Of course, in order to do so, you will need to know some key information such as:
- How can magenta and its opposite make a difference in designs?
- What is the opposite of magenta on different color wheels?
- What are the opposites of popular magenta shades?
- How can you find a specific opposite color to a magenta hue?
- What are the popular uses of magenta and its opposite?
How Can Magenta and Its Opposite Make a Difference in Artwork and Design?
Artists and designers use opposite colors, or complementary colors, in their work in three main ways: to bring the primary color out, to subdue the primary color’s shade, or to neutralize the color. When you are using a vibrant color like magenta, you may desire any one of these results while working on your project.
Grabbing the attention of your audience and holding their gaze is a desirable attribute in any work. You can use this technique to attract attention to a certain area, sell products or advertise services, or provoke emotions or behaviors. Although magenta is certainly eye-catching on its own, it may not be in certain contexts or in specific amounts. By incorporating its opposite color, which lacks its pigments, you create a noticeable contrast. Furthermore, using a large amount of bright magenta can often overwhelm an audience rather than attract them. When you use an appropriate amount of magenta, and strategically place its opposite colors alongside it, you can bring the eyes to it without disrupting aesthetic pleasure.
In some cases, you may make a mistake with the brightness or saturation of magenta. This is a common occurrence selecting magenta inks, paints, or dyes rather than digital media. For instance, it can be difficult to envision what a certain color will look like in particular lights or with certain undertones. In these cases, you can use magenta’s opposite color to bring down the vibrancy. Likewise, if you change your mind about magenta altogether, using the opposite can neutralize the hue and achieve a white or gray instead.
What Is the Opposite of Magenta?
The opposite of magenta is green, although there may be slight variations in the specific pigments depending on your media and your chosen color wheel. Colors show up differently on digital screens than they do with physical media like painting or printmaking. Since this is the case, you must use a color model corresponding to your specific work. Depending on if you use RGB, CMY, or RYB color models, your magenta, and its opposite hue, will be very different. Find out more about each of these common color models below and what they can tell you about magenta’s opposite color.
What Is the Opposite of Magenta in RGB?
If you are working with a digital art software program, you may already know of the RGB color model and wheel. RGB stands for Red, Green, and Blue, which are the three primary colors of this model. With red, green, and blue, artists can create hundreds of colors to be shown on device screens, such as computers or televisions. Artists can also brighten the colors by increasing the amount of light, up to a vibrancy of 255. If they combine all the colors at the vibrancy of 255, they create the color white or pure light. If they introduce all colors at a vibrancy of 0, there is no light shining through the screen (black).
When looking at the RGB color wheel, you may notice that magenta is a secondary color. It is a mix of two different colors: red and blue. More accurately, it mixes 255 red with 255 blue. Across from magenta in RGB, you will find a primary: green. As it is magenta’s opposite, green contains no red light and no blue light.
Alongside magenta, you can find violet (heading towards blue) and pink (heading towards red). For this reason, different magenta hues are found between violet and pink. Likewise, accurate magenta opposites are found in a range as well. Respectively, this range goes from chartreuse to turquoise.
Magenta
Hex #FF00FF
RGB 255, 0, 255
CMYK 0, 100, 0, 0
Green
Hex #00FF00
RGB 0, 255, 0
CMYK 100, 0, 100, 0
What Is the Opposite of Magenta in CMY?
If you are working with physical art, there are two popular choices for color models: CMY and RYB. CMY stands for Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. It is perfect for people who are working digitally and intend to print their work with CMY or CMYK (+black) ink. It may also be ideal for any artist or designer looking to use a wide range of colors. CMY colors work differently than they do with RGB. From a white base, artists can add colors in increasing saturation. When they add more pigment or color, they effectively darken the color. As such, colors are less vibrant than they are with RGB. When they mix all colors at full saturation, they produce a dark brown or black rather than white. For this reason, many people look to CMY as the inverse of RGB. Likewise, if you look at a CMY color wheel, you may notice that the colors flip to reflect this idea.
On the CMY color wheel, magenta is a primary color. It has 100 saturation of magenta, with 0 saturation of any other color. Across from magenta in CMY, you can find green with 100 saturation of cyan and 100 saturation of yellow. Alongside magenta, you can find the tertiaries: pink and violet. Across from these colors, you can find their opposites: turquoise and chartreuse.
You may notice that these colors are the same as they are on the RGB color wheel. Yet, it is important to notice that the colors look darker and more muted when printed. Likewise, their pigmentation is completely different; their primary colors are different.
Magenta
Hex #FF00FF
RGB 255, 0, 255
CMYK 0, 100, 0, 0
Green
Hex #00FF00
RGB 0, 255, 0
CMYK 100, 0, 100, 0
What Is the Opposite of Magenta in RYB?
Another popular choice for artists with physical media is the RYB color wheel. It stands for Red, Yellow, and Blue. You may see teachers, students, painters, interior designers, fashion designers, hair colorists, makeup artists, sculptors, potters, florists, and chefs use this color wheel. It is an easier wheel to use, as it does not produce a large range of colors. Yet, it works in the exact same way as the CMY color wheel. An artist can add more and more color to achieve a darker or muted color, at 100 saturation. If they mix red, yellow, and blue together at full saturation, they will produce dark brown.
On the RYB color wheel, magenta and its opposite color change slightly. On the RGB and CMY color wheels, the opposite of magenta was pure green. On the RYB color wheel, the opposite color is chartreuse or yellow-green. Alongside magenta, you can find purple and red. Across from purple is yellow and across from red is green. Accordingly, magenta’s range goes from purple to red and its opposite range is yellow to green.
Magenta
Hex #A7194B
RGB 167, 25, 75
CMYK 0, 85, 55, 35
Chartreuse
Hex #D0EA2B
RGB 208, 234, 43
CMYK 11, 0, 82, 8
Does Magenta Exist?
While all color is processed in the brain, magenta is a little different. Magenta is special because it doesn’t have a wavelength of its own. But just because it doesn’t exist, doesn’t mean we can’t see it. Magenta is the color that our brain invented to fill in the gap between red and blue. You read that right, we invented the color magenta in our minds!
Here’s how it works: When trying to determine color, the light receptors in our brains average the colors on the spectrum and see the color in the middle. The brain has three receptors, which are sensitive to different wavelengths. Our brains add together red and green light and see yellow, or add together blue and green and see cyan. But red and violet are on the opposite ends of the color spectrum. Technically, we should just see green, but instead, our brain invents magenta. It’s fascinating when you think about it. In the words of Pablo Picasso, art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.
Magenta has enchanted artists for centuries with its bright personality, individuality, and elegance. Color psychology identifies magenta as the color of the non-conformist, the spiritually minded, and those who desire a deeper connection to life. Designers often turn to magenta for its energizing qualities, the way that it carries equanimity, energy, balance, which is often used to promote ideas of peace and kindness. The Victorians thought magenta was the color of high society, and used to drape themselves in magenta velvets. Henri Matisse, and other artists in the 20th-century modern art movement, famously preferred to use magenta in landscapes and portraits instead of more realistic colors. He knew that it would surprise the people who looked at his paintings and that they might even be moved to feel new emotions.
Of course, every person perceives color differently. That’s because every person has a different sensitivity and appreciation for color. About 8% of men and 1% of women have some sort of color impairment, and many don’t realize that they perceive color a little differently than others. It’s part of what makes us unique, and what makes colors so magical.
How to Use Magenta
In the RGB color wheel, which is made from three colored lights for red, green, and blue, hex code #FF00FF is made of 100% red, 0% green and 100% blue. Remember, the brain goes around the color wheel to make magenta, so magenta is made when you take the maximum amount of blue and red and mix them together, without any green in it. In color printing or the CMYK color space, magenta is one of the four primary colors: magenta, cyan, yellow, and black. It’s also possible to create any color by changing the intensity of the colors.
Graphic designers know to design on screen in RGB, even though their final printed piece will be in CMYK. Digital files should be converted to CMYK before sending them to commercial printers unless the print shop requests something else.
RGB and CMYK colors are close, but not perfectly identical. Therefore, use swatches when you’re designing if exact color matching is important. For example, a company’s logo and branding material may use a very specific color. If it is recognizable enough, color and the most subtle of shifts in it will be recognizable, even to the average consumer.
In color printing, the color called process magenta, or pigment magenta, is one of the three primary pigment colors which constitute the three subtractive primary colors of pigment. The secondary colors of pigment are blue, green, and red, so the hue magenta is the complement of green. Therefore, magenta and green are opposite colors.
There’s one other thing that’s special about magenta: It appears different electronically as it does on paper. Web magenta, or magenta on a screen, is much more vivid and bright than process magenta, or the magenta that would get printed from a CMYK printer. So when making designs on photo editing apps, like Picsart , feel free to use as much magenta as you like.
Complementary colors, or the opposite color on the color wheel, are a great way to achieve harmony in design. Scientists who have studied throughout history found that the arrangement of colors by their complement is one of the most pleasing things to experience, and could be used while creating anything, from textiles to gardens. These studies were read by some of the world’s most famous artists, like Vincent Van Gogh, who began implementing these principles in their work.
via Picsart
A simple way to create a cohesive aesthetic for your photography or creative design is to pull the colors from an image by using a color palette generator , like the one you can find on Picsart . There are endless possibilities when it comes to creating a palette from your favorite colors and using them to inspire your editing.
Magenta’s complementary color is green, and the two look great together, but that isn’t the only color that goes with magenta:
- Magenta with a range of pinks will bring to mind florals and feminine feelings.
- For a romantic feel, like if you’re designing a card on Valentine’s Day , combine magenta with pink and orange hues.
- Similar to the floral arrangement, try mixing magenta with different shades of green, brown, and even black to help balance magenta with earth tones and pastel colors.
- For a modern feel, try mixing magenta with blue, white, or a bright sunny yellow.
- To combine with like or similar colors, violet, purple, and red are the closest colors to magenta.
- Magenta used with white and black is a classic graphic design choice, perfect for designing bold posters, covers, and fliers.
With so many colors, how do you choose which ones to use? You can start by imagining a bold design, or by taking inspiration from your favorite images, paintings, or scenes in nature, all while knowing that magenta looks good with just about any color you can imagine.
Create Your Own Fantastic Magenta Designs
Want a little more inspiration? Here are some ideas on how to create your own masterpieces using magic magenta.
Magenta-Inspired Makeup
Magenta can serve as a pop of color on your artist’s palette and on your makeup palette. There’s a reason why the color pops up as a favorite choice for makeup artists who work with celebrities, and why top fashion brands and magazines predicted bold-toned makeup looks would be the next hottest trend. If the usual lip colors aren’t doing it for you, magenta is a color that brightens and appears flattering on any skin tone. You can create a flattering magenta lip with makeup or with the Retouch tools on the Picsart app. In this Replay tutorial , bold magenta-hued makeup looks are enhanced with Objects, a popular editing tool.
Magenta Graphic Design
There’s a reason magenta is such a popular feature in graphic design. Magenta offset by purples, pinks, black and white, along with the collage features, represent a unique mix of history and archeology with new media.
Shapes can be used in creative and unconventional ways in graphic design. The shapes in an image can be contained within lines, or implied by changes in color and value. For example, the magenta shapes in this background image have the natural contour of hills, clouds, or a night sky, when really, they’re just created digitally and arranged on a canvas. Either way, it’s a cool background for your newest work of digital art.
Magenta in Nature
Just because magenta doesn’t appear on the color spectrum, doesn’t mean it can’t be found in the natural world. We see magenta in flowers, in the colors of twilight and sunset, and in between the two parts of a rainbow. Photographers often spend so much time trying to focus, that they can lose sight of the softness of images. It’s possible to shoot through flowers to create a dreamlike effect . You can also experiment with nature photography by drawing the eye of your audience to different parts of the photograph. For example, playing with depth of field can help you highlight the colorful or interesting details of your art.
Neon Magenta Digital Art
Neon hues and lights are a fast-growing trend in art and digital media. The word “neon” broadly applies to a wide range of ultra-bright colors that you might recognize for their fun, frivolous feeling. With the revival of 1980s design styles, artificial-inspired magenta is often used by creatives to attract a viewer’s attention, and give designs a summery or nightlife-inspired mood.
In addition to finding ways to depict neon in your photography and design, you can add electrifying and fluorescent neon colors into your designs by surrounding yourself in neon lights . Want to create a poster or advertisement that uses edgy neon colors? You can use the Text Tool on Picsart to create a glowing neon text effect .
Magenta Digital Collage
Digital collage is a fun way to add some magenta-inspired chaos to a familiar or recognizable image by combining objects of a similar mood, color, or theme to create new meaning. It’s a great way to bring your zaniest and most creative ideas to life.
Fan art collages, for example, enable you to take the familiar face of an influencer and use magenta stickers and effects to create something totally new.
“Chaos” is just as valid as a design principle as “balance” or “harmony.” This belief has inspired makers of collage forever. In the digital age, collage represents a way for artists and creators immersed in the decentralized mindset of social media to share and discover as independent thinkers.
Magenta Sunsets
Who hasn’t marveled at the colors of sunset and twilight? When artists Matisse and Van Gogh decided to use magenta in their brilliant landscapes, they inspired generations of artists to try to capture the bold hues in the skies and clouds.
Now you can take a beautiful photograph of a magenta sunset and remix it to make it your own edit, and share it with the world. F inding ways to grow your following online can be a challenge. To make it easier, Picsart has Replays and C hallenges that you can participate in, inspiring you to create your own fresh content.
Create at the Speed of Culture
Picsart is a full ecosystem of free-to-use content, powerful tools, and creator inspiration. With a billion downloads and more than 150 million monthly active creators, Picsart isn’t just the world’s largest creative platform; we’re also the fastest growing. Picsart has collaborated with major artists and brands like BLACKPINK, the Jonas Brothers, Lizzo, Sanrio: Hello Kitty, I am a Voter, Bebe Rexha, Maroon 5, One Direction, Warner Bros. Entertainment, iHeartMedia, Condé Nast, and more. Download the app or start editing on web today to enhance your photos and videos with thousands of quick and easy editing tools, trendy filters, fun stickers, and brilliant backgrounds. Unleash your creativity and upgrade to Gold for premium perks!
Creating Magenta
Color Mixing Techniques
- Start with equal parts of red and blue pigments.
- Add a small amount of either pigment until you get to the desired value or hue.
- Use small amounts of pigments with high tinting strength, like quinacridone violet or ultramarine blue.
Pigments and Dyes Used to Make Magenta
Various shades of red and blue pigments combine to make magenta. Cadmium red and cobalt blue make a magenta-red color. Other paint colors also make a hue close to magenta:
- Ultramarine blue and crimson lake
- Quinacridone violet and crimson lake
Achieving Different Shades and Tones of Magenta
White pigment, like titanium white, brightens the magenta color. Yellow can lighten magenta but also changes the hue and adds warm undertones. Black or dark green pigments lower the color’s saturation, creating a deep magenta shade.
Magenta in Color Schemes and Combinations
1. Complementary Colors to Magenta
Complementary colors form the highest contrast when placed next to each other. Electric green is magenta’s complementary color. It’s composed of 0% red, 100% green, and 0% blue. They sit on opposite sides of the color wheel.
| Shade | Hex Code | CMYK Color Code (%) | RGB Color Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magenta | #FF00FF | 0, 100, 0, 0 | 255, 0, 255 |
| Electric Green | #00FF00 | 100, 0, 100, 0 | 0, 255, 0 |
2. Analogous Colors to Magenta
Analogous colors sit on either side of magenta on the color wheel. Since the colors are almost similar, they pair well and create cohesive designs.
| Shade | Hex Code | CMYK Color Code (%) | RGB Color Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violet | #7F00FF | 50, 100, 0, 0 | 127, 0, 255 |
| Magenta | #FF00FF | 0, 100, 0, 0 | 255, 0, 255 |
| Deep Pink | #FF0080 | 0, 100, 50, 0 | 255, 0, 128 |
3. Triadic Colors With Magenta
Triadic color schemes combine three equally spaced colors on the color wheel. The combination is usually more vibrant and intriguing than the analogous palette. Magenta’s triadic pair includes shades of yellow and cyan.
| Shade | Hex Code | CMYK Color Code (%) | RGB Color Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magenta | #FF00FF | 0, 100, 0, 0 | 255, 0, 255 |
| Yellow | #FFFF00 | 0, 0, 100, 0 | 255, 255, 0 |
| Cyan | #00FFFF | 100, 0, 0, 0 | 0, 255, 255 |
4. Monochromatic Variations of Magenta
Monochromatic color schemes combine different shades, tints, and tones of a single color. For instance, magenta’s monochromatic palettes comprise deep, vivid magenta and fuchsia.
| Shade | Hex Code | CMYK Color Code (%) | RGB Color Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vivid Magenta | #FF33FF | 0, 80, 0, 0 | 255, 51, 255 |
| Magenta | #FF00FF | 0, 100, 0, 0 | 255, 0, 255 |
| Deep Magenta | #CC00CC | 0, 100, 0, 20 | 204, 0, 204 |
5. Tetradic Color Schemes With Magenta
A tetradic color scheme comprises four evenly distributed colors on the color wheel. Since it contains two pairs of complementary colors, a tetradic color scheme is also called a double-complementary color scheme.
| Shade | Hex Code | CMYK Color Code (%) | RGB Color Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magenta | #FF00FF | 0, 100, 0, 0 | 255, 0, 255 |
| Dark Orange | #FF8000 | 0, 50, 100, 0 | 255, 128, 0 |
| Electric Green | #00FF00 | 100, 0, 100, 0 | 0, 255, 0 |
| Dark Blue | #0080FF | 100, 50, 0, 0 | 0, 128, 255 |
Applications and Uses of Magenta
Magenta is a versatile color used in various artistic and design applications.
Art and Design
Magenta creates bold, expressive drawings. Artists use color to depict flowers, sunsets, and other vibrant elements. Photographers and cinematographers use magenta filters to create a dreamy or surreal atmosphere.
Fashion and Beauty
Luxury brands incorporate magenta due to its vibrancy, uniqueness, and exclusivity. Designers use magenta on high-end clothing, handbags, shoes, jewelry, and other luxury items. As Pantone’s Color of the Year 2023, Viva Magenta is a global trend often seen on fashion runways.
Interior Design and Home Decor
Magenta adds a splash of color and creates a lively atmosphere in a home. Apply it on walls, furniture, upholstery, or decorative elements to add personality to the space. Magenta curtains, rugs, and cushions create a focal point or add a touch of drama to an interior setting.
