Purple
— Common connotations —
royalty, imperialism, nobility, Lent, Easter, Mardi Gras, episcopacy, upper class, poison, friendship, engineering, passion, sharing, wisdom, rage, homosexuality, contrition, sympathy, extreme and sophistication.
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#800080
sRGBB	(r, g, b)	(128, 0, 128)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(300°, 100%, 50%)
Source		HTML
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Purple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue.^[1] In additive light combinations it occurs by mixing the primary colors red and blue in varying proportions. It is a secondary color because two colors (blue and red) make up this color. In subtractive pigments it can be equal to the primary color magenta or be formed by mixing magenta with the colors red or blue, or by mixing just the latter two, in which case a color of low saturation will result. Low saturation will also be caused by adding a certain quantity of the third primary color (green for light or yellow for pigment).

In color theory, a "purple" is defined as any non-spectral color between violet and red (excluding violet and red themselves).^[2] The spectral colors violet and indigo are not purples according to color theory but they are purples according to common English usage since they are between red and blue.

In art, purple is the color on the color wheel between magenta and violet and its tints and shades. This color, electric purple, is shown below.^[3]

In human color psychology, purple is also associated with royalty and nobility (stemming from classical antiquity when Tyrian purple was only affordable to the elites).

Like orange and silver, purple has no common word that rhymes with it.^[4]

Etymology and definitions[link]

The word 'purple' comes from the Old English word purpul which derives from the Latin purpura, in turn from the Greek πορφύρα (porphura),^[5] name of the Tyrian purple dye manufactured in classical antiquity from a mucus secreted by the spiny dye-murex snail.^[6][7]

The first recorded use of the word 'purple' in English was in the year AD 975.^[8]

Purple versus violet[link]

Violet
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#8F00FF
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(143, 0, 255)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(274°, 100%, 100[9]%)
Source		HTML Color Chart @274
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Violet is a spectral color (approximately 380–420 nm), of a shorter wavelength than blue, while purple is a combination of red and blue or violet light.^[10] The purples are colors that are not spectral colors – purples are extra-spectral colors. In fact, purple was not present on Newton's color wheel (which went directly from violet to red), though it is on modern ones, between red and violet. There is no such thing as the "wavelength of purple light"; it only exists as a combination.^[2]

Pure violet cannot be reproduced by a Red-Green-Blue (RGB) color system, but it can be approximated by mixing blue and red. The resulting color has the same hue but a lower saturation than pure violet.

One interesting psychophysical feature of the two colors that 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 blue hue as a result of what is known as the Bezold-Brücke shift. The same increase in blueness is not noted in purples.

Properties[link]

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 near the center of the line of purples, but most people associate the term "purple" with a somewhat bluer tone, such as is displayed by the color "electric purple" (a color also directly on the line of purples), shown below. Some common confusion exists concerning the color names "purple" and "violet". Purple is a mixture of red and blue light, whereas violet is a spectral color.

The CIE xy chromaticity diagram

On the CIE xy chromaticity diagram, violet is on the curved edge in the lower left, while purples are on the straight line connecting the extreme colors red and violet; this line is known as the line of purples, or the purple line.^[11][12]

Historical development of purple[link]

Tyrian purple: Classical antiquity[link]

Byzantine Emperor Justinian I clad in Tyrian purple, 6th-century mosaic at Basilica of San Vitale

Tyrian Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#66023C
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(102, 2, 60)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(329°, 98%, 40%)
Source		Tyrian Purple
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The actual color of Tyrian purple, the original color purple from which the name purple is derived, is the color of a dye extracted from a mollusk found on the shores of the city of Tyre in ancient Phoenicia (present day Lebanon) that in classical antiquity became a symbol of royalty because only the very wealthy could afford it. Therefore, Tyrian purple was also called imperial purple.

Tyrian purple may have been discovered as early as the time of the Minoan civilization. Alexander the Great (when giving imperial audiences as the Emperor of the Macedonian Empire), the emperor of the Seleucid Empire, and the kings of Ptolemaic Egypt all wore Tyrian purple. The imperial robes of Roman emperors were Tyrian purple trimmed in metallic gold thread. The badge of office of a Roman Senator was a stripe of Tyrian purple on their white toga.^[13] Tyrian purple was continued in use by the emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire until its final collapse in 1453.

Han purple: Ancient China[link]

The graduated colors of crocus cultivars can appear as han purple in direct sunlight.

Han Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#5218FA
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(82, 24, 250)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(260°, 97%, 47%)
Source		[1]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Han purple is a type of artificial pigment found in China between 500 BC and AD 220. It was used in the decoration of the Terracotta Army.

Royal purple: 1600s[link]

Royal Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#7851A9
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(120, 81, 169)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(267°, 52%, 66[14]%)
Source		Crayola
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color royal purple is shown at right. This shade of purple is bluer than the ancient Tyrian purple.

The first recorded use of royal purple as a color name in English was in 1661.^[15]

In 1990, royal purple was formulated as one of the Crayola crayon colors.

Artists' pigment purple (red-violet): 1930s[link]

Red-Violet
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#C71585
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(199, 21, 133)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(322°, 89%, 78%)
Source		X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

'Royal purple' (shown above) or the dark violet color known as generic purple is the common layman's idea of purple, but professional artists,^{[citation needed]} following Munsell color system (introduced in 1905 and widely accepted by 1930), regard purple as being synonymous with the red-violet color shown at right, represented by the web color medium violet red, in order to clearly distinguish purple from violet and thus have access to a larger palette of colors^{[citation needed]}. This red-violet color, called artist's purple by artists, is the pigment color that would be on a pigment color color wheel between pigment violet and pigment (process) magenta. In the Munsell color system, this color at its maximum chroma of 12 is called Red-Purple, or more specifically Munsell 5RP.

Artists' pigments and colored pencils labeled as purple are typically colored the red-violet color shown at right.

Electric purple: 2000s[link]

Electric Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#BF00FF
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(191, 0, 255)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(285°, 100%, 100[16]%)
Source		[2]/[3]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

This color, electric purple, is precisely halfway between violet and magenta and thus fits the artistic definition of purple.^[17]

Using additive colors such as those on computer screens, it is possible to create a much brighter purple than with pigments where the mixing subtracts frequencies from the component primary colors. The equivalent color on a computer to the pigment color red-violet shown above would be this electric purple, i.e. the much brighter purple you can see reproduced on the screen of a computer. This color is pure purple conceived as computer artists conceive it, as the pure chroma on the computer screen color wheel halfway between color wheel violet and electric magenta. Thus, electric purple is the purest and brightest purple that it is possible to display on a computer screen.

An old name for this color, used by Robert Ridgway in his 1912 book on color nomenclature, Color Standards and Color Nomenclature, is true purple.^[18]

Computer web color purples[link]

Purple (HTML/CSS color) (patriarch)[link]

Purple (HTML/CSS color)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#800080
sRGBB	(r, g, b)	(128, 0, 128)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(300°, 100%, 50.2%)
Source		HTML/CSS[19]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

This purple used in HTML and CSS actually is deeper and has a more reddish hue (#800080) than the X11 color purple shown below as purple (X11 color) (#A020F0), which is bluer and brighter.

This color may be called HTML/CSS purple. It seems likely that this color was chosen as the web color purple because its hue is exactly halfway between red and blue and its value is exactly halfway between white and black.

A traditional name sometimes used for this tone of purple is patriarch. The first recorded use of patriarch as a color name in English was in 1925.^[20]

Purple (X11 color) (veronica)[link]

Purple (X11 color)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#A020F0
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(160, 32, 240)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(276.92°, 86.67%, 94.12%)
Source		X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the color purple, as defined in the X11 color, which is a lot brighter and bluer than the HTML purple shown above.

See the chart Color names that clash between X11 and HTML/CSS in the X11 color names article to see those colors which are different in HTML and X11.

This color can be called X11 purple.

The traditional name for this tone of purple is veronica. The first recorded use of veronica as a color name in English was in 1919.^[21]

Medium purple (X11)[link]

Medium Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#9370DB
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(147, 112, 219)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(270°, 68%, 72%)
Source		X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Displayed at right is the web color medium purple.

This color is a medium shade of the bright X11 purple shown above.

Additional definition of purple[link]

Purple (Munsell)[link]

Purple (Munsell)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#9F00C5
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(159, 0, 197)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(288°, 100%, 77[22]%)
Source		Munsell Color Wheel
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The hues of the Munsell color system, at varying values, and maximum chroma to stay in the sRGB gamut.

The color defined as purple in the Munsell color system (Munsell 5P) is shown at right. The Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on three color dimensions: hue, value (lightness), and chroma (color purity), spaced uniformly in three dimensions in the elongated oval at an angle shaped Munsell color solid according to the logarithmic scale which governs human perception. In order for all the colors to be spaced uniformly, it was found necessary to use a color wheel with five primary colors—red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

The Munsell colors displayed are only approximate as they have been adjusted to fit into the sRGB gamut.

Additional variations[link]

Thistle[link]

Milk thistle flowerhead

Thistle
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#D8BFD8
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(216, 191, 216)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(300°, 12%, 85%)
Source		X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Thistle is a pale purplish color resembling the thistle plant.

The first recorded use of Thistle as a color name in English was in 1892.^[23]

The color thistle is associated with Scotland because the thistle is the national flower of Scotland and Scotland's highest state decoration is the Order of the Thistle.

Orchid[link]

Cattleya labiata

Orchid
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#DA70D6
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(218, 112, 214)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(302°, 49%, 85%)
Source		X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color orchid is a light tone of purple. The name 'orchid' originates from the flowers of some species of the vast orchid flower family, such as Laelia furfuracea and Ascocentrum pusillum, which have petals of this color.

The first recorded use of orchid as a color name in English was in 1915.^[24]

Heliotrope[link]

Heliotropium arborescens

Heliotrope
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#DF73FF
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(223, 115, 255)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(286°, 55%, 100%)
Source		Maerz and Paul [25]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color heliotrope is a brilliant tone of purple; it is a pink-purple tint that is a representation of the color of the heliotrope flower.

The first recorded use of heliotrope as a color name in English was in 1882.^[26]

Psychedelic purple (phlox)[link]

Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata)

Phlox
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#DF00FF
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(223, 0, 255)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(292°, 100%, 100[27]%)
Source		= Maerz and Paul [28]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The pure essence of purple was approximated in pigment in the late 1960s by mixing fluorescent magenta and fluorescent blue pigments together to make fluorescent purple to use in psychedelic black light paintings. This tone of purple was very popular among hippies and was the favorite color of Jimi Hendrix. Thus it is called psychedelic purple. Psychedelic purple is the color halfway between electric purple and magenta.

In the 1980s there was a Jimi Hendrix Museum in a Victorian house on the east side of Central Ave. one half block south of Haight Street in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco which was painted this color.

Another name for this color is phlox, as it is the color of the phlox flower. The first recorded use of phlox as a color name in English was in 1918.^[29]

Mulberry[link]

Mulberry
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#C54B8C
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(197, 75, 140)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(285°, 67%, 70%)
Source		Crayola
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color mulberry is displayed at right. This color is a representation of the color of mulberry jam or pie. This was a Crayola crayon color from 1958 to 2003.

The first recorded use of mulberry as a color name in English was in 1776.^[30]

Pearly purple[link]

Pearly Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#B768A2
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(183, 104, 162)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(316°, 43%, 72[31]%)
Source		Crayola
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the color pearly purple.

Pearly purple is one of the colors in the special set of metallic colored Crayola crayons called Silver Swirls, the colors of which were formulated by Crayola in 1990.

Mardi Gras[link]

Mardi Gras
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#880085
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(136, 0, 137)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(301°, 100%, 53[32]%)
Source		Xona.com Color List[33]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color Mardi Gras is displayed at right.

The color name Mardi Gras has been in use since 2001 when the Xona.com Color List was first promulgated.

Pansy purple[link]

Pansy Purple
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#78184A
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(120, 24, 74)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(287°, 36%, 27%)
Source		ISCC-NBS
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Purple Pansy

The pansy flower has varieties that exhibit three different colors: pansy (a color between indigo and violet), pansy pink, and pansy purple.

The first recorded use of pansy purple as a color name in English was in 1814.^[34]

In nature[link]

Bacteria[link]

• Purple bacteria are proteobacteria that are phototrophic, that is, capable of producing energy through photosynthesis.^[35]

Plants[link]

• Purple needlegrass is the state grass of California.

• Eggplant, also called "aubergine", is a plant of the family Solanaceae and genus Solanum Eggplant, aubergine which has a dark purple colored fruit which is widely eaten, especially in Italian cuisine.

Animals[link]

• The purple frog is a species of amphibian discovered in India in 2003.
• Purple Honeycreeper

In culture[link]

Academic dress[link]

• In the French academic dress system, the five traditional fields of study (Arts, Science, Medicine, Law and Divinity) are each symbolized by a distinctive color, which appears in the academic dress of the people who graduated in this field. Purple (usually a hue close to Royal Purple) is the distinctive color for Divinity. It is also worn by high academic officials (University President, Head of Faculty, Rector, etc.) regardless of the field in which they graduated.

Anti-apartheid movement[link]

• The Purple Rain Protest was a protest against apartheid that took place in Cape Town, South Africa on September 2, 1989, in which a police water cannon with purple dye sprayed thousands of demonstrators. This led to the slogan The purple shall govern.

Astronomy[link]

• One of the stars in the Pleiades, called Pleione, is sometimes called Purple Pleione because, being a fast spinning star, it has a purple hue caused by its blue-white color being obscured by a spinning ring of electrically excited red hydrogen gas.^[36]
• The Purple Forbidden enclosure is a name used in traditional Chinese astronomy for those Chinese constellations that surround the North Celestial Pole.

Billiard games[link]

• Purple is the color of the ball in Snooker Plus with a 10-point value.
• In the game of pool, purple is the color of the 4-solid and the 12-striped balls.

Browser-based role playing games[link]

• In the browser-based role playing games DragonFable and AdventureQuest Worlds, the crystal wielded by the Mysterious Necromancer (and the player in AQW, if bought) is purple.

Calendars[link]

• Purple is associated with Saturday on the Thai solar calendar. Anyone may wear purple on Saturdays and anyone born on a Saturday may adopt purple as their color.

Computer games[link]

• Strange Adventures in Infinite Space (SAIS) is a hybrid strategy/adventure computer game in which players explore a "plausibly implausible" (fictional) region of the Milky Way galaxy called The Purple Void.

Cultural associations[link]

• In parts of East Asian countries such as Japan, purple is known as the color of death.

Geography[link]

• Purple Mountain is located on the eastern side of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China. Its peaks are often found enveloped in mysterious purple clouds at dawn and dusk, hence comes its name "Purple Mountain". The Purple Mountain Observatory is located there.

Heraldry[link]

Coat of arms of the Kingdom of León.

• Porpora, or purpure, was not one of the usual tinctures in European heraldry, being added at a late date to bring the number of colors plus metals to seven, so that they could be given planetary associations. The classic early example of purpure is in the coat of arms of the Kingdom of León: argent, a lion purpure, as early as 1245.

History[link]

• Byzantine empresses gave birth in the Purple Chamber of the palace of the Byzantine Emperors. Therefore, being named Porphyrogenitus ("born to the purple") marked a dynastic emperor as opposed to a general who won the throne by his effort.
• In China, the Chinese name of the Forbidden City literally means "purple forbidden city".

Holocaust[link]

• The purple triangle was a Nazi concentration camp badge used by the Nazis to identify several un-orthodox non-conformist religious groups known as Bibelforscher, mostly Jehovah's Witnesses.^[37]

Literature[link]

• Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, said, "Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender."
• 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).

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games[link]

• In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, items of an "Epic" quality (extremely rare items) are the color purple, and are often referred to as "Purples".

Microbiology[link]

• In April 2007 it was suggested that early archaea may have used retinal, a purple pigment, instead of chlorophyll, to extract energy from the sun. If so, large areas of the ocean and shoreline would have been colored purple; this is called the Purple Earth hypothesis.^[38]

Military[link]

• In the US and United Kingdom militaries, purple refers to programs or assignments that are "joint", i. e., that are not confined to a single service such as the army or navy, but apply to the entire defense establishment. In the Canadian Forces they are known as purple trades. 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. armed forces, UK armed forces or Canadian Forces.)
• During and before World War II, the Japanese used a code known as PURPLE or the Purple Code. The Allies' military successes in the Pacific theater depended on the fact that the Japanese did not know that Allied cryptographers had broken the code.
• The Purple Heart is a US military decoration awarded in the name of the President of the USA to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military.

Mourning[link]

• In 16th century England, purple was the color for the final stage of mourning, according to Mark Twain in his first attempt at historical fiction, "The Prince and the Pauper".^[39]

• More recently especially during Victorian times and even to some extent today, for the first year following a death ('deep mourning') black is worn by close relatives and this is gradually replaced by other dark colors (during 'half mourning'or 'Secondary Mourning'), often by purple or dark green trimmed with black Oxford University Museum – Funeral Clothing

Music[link]

• Deep Purple is a popular rock band.
• "Deep Purple" (song) is also the name of a popular song that was the favorite of Babe Ruth.
• "Purple People Eater" was one of the biggest rock and roll hits of 1958.^[40]
• "Purple Haze" is a song by Jimi Hendrix.
• "Purple Rain" is Prince's iconic signature song, featured in his Purple Rain album, which was the soundtrack for the Purple Rain film, starred by him.
• "Start Wearing Purple" is a song by Gogol Bordello.
• Purple Ribbon Records is a hip-hop record label owned by rapper Big Boi of the rap duo Outkast. 2005 saw the release of the mixtape Got Purp? Vol 2 featuring the Purple Ribbon All-Stars and other artists on the label. In this case, purple refers to a particular quality of marijuana.
• Purple is a 1994 album by the band Stone Temple Pilots.
• Purple is athe name of a track by rap artist Nas.
• Purple Music, Inc is a company in Switzerland that produces house music.^[41]
• The New Riders of the Purple Sage is an American country rock band. The group emerged from the psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco in 1969, and its original lineup included members of the Grateful Dead.
• "The Purple Bottle" is a song by Animal Collective.

Parapsychology[link]

• People with purple auras are said to have a love of ritual and ceremony.^[42]

People[link]

• Barbara Meislin of Tiburon, California is referred to as The Purple Lady.^[43]
• Singer Prince appeared in a feature film called Purple Rain and released a single entitled Purple Rain from the eponymous album.

Phobias[link]

• Porphyrophobia is fear of the color purple.^[44]

Politics[link]

• In Italy, since the global demonstration of 5th December 2009, purple has been used by a large civic movement protesting against Berlusconi's government, accused to be a media-dictatorship heavily connected with the Mafia. This color was chosen as a non-partisan emblem because it isn't associated with any current Italian party symbol. The movement, operating mainly through the web, thus defines itself Popolo Viola (Purple People).
• In British politics, purple is used to represent the United Kingdom Independence Party, a right-wing Eurosceptic party.
• In the politics of the Netherlands, Purple (Dutch: paars) means a coalition government consisting of liberals and social democrats (symbolized by the colors blue and red, respectively), as opposed to the more common coalitions of the Christian Democrats with one of the other two. Between 1994 and 2002 there were two Purple cabinets, both lead by Prime Minister Wim Kok.
• In the Politics of Belgium, as with the Netherlands, a purple government includes liberal and social-democratic parties in coalition. Belgium was governed by Purple governments from 1999 to 2007 under the leadership of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.
• In United States politics, a purple state is a state equally balanced between Republicans (currently symbolized by red) and Democrats (currently symbolised as blue).

Religious text[link]

• In the Byzantine Empire, Gospel manuscripts were written in gold lettering on parchment that was colored Tyrian purple.^[45]

Rhyme[link]

• Few, if any words used in modern English rhyme with the word "purple." However, some have tried as indicated below:
  • Robert Burns rhymes purple with "curple" in his Epistle to Mrs. Scott. Burns is, as far as we can tell, the only writer to have used the word. A curple refers to 1) the small of the waist before the flare of the hips or 2) a derriere, rump or behind.
  • In the song Grace Kelly by Mika the word purple is rhymed with "hurtful".
  • In his hit song "Dang Me," Roger Miller sings these lines:

Roses are red, violets are purple

Sugar is sweet and so is maple surple [sic]

Science fiction[link]

• In the Star Trek universe, Klingons have purple blood.^[46]
• In Star Wars the character Mace Windu is the only character with a purple lightsaber.

Sexuality[link]

• In early October 2010, Canadian teenager Brittany McMillan promulgated the observance of a new commemoration called Spirit Day, the first observance of which took place on October 20, 2010, in which people wear the color purple to show support for LGBT young people who are victims of bullying. Many Hollywood celebrities wore purple on this day to show their support of this cause.^[47][48][49]
• At the 24 June 2007 San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, Yahoo passed out 3 7/16" in diameter round plastic stickers with a picture of a gay man or woman imaged as one of the Yahoo Gay Pride avatars against an HTML/CSS Purple background that said Out, Proud, and Purple.^[50]
• The purple hand is an LGBT symbol that derives from an incident which occurred on Halloween night (31 October), 1969, when sixty members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Society for Individual Rights (SIR) staged a protest at the San Francisco Examiner in response to a series of news articles disparaging LGBT people in San Francisco's gay bars and clubs.

Television[link]

• Marie Schrader, a character on Breaking Bad, is strongly associated with purple. Vince Gilligan, the show's creator, has confirmed that this was a conscious choice.^[51]

Transpersonal psychology[link]

• In 1976, a chart by Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson called The Periodic Table of Energy outlining the philosophy of Dr. Timothy Leary (The Eight Circuit Model of Consciousness)^[52] was given out by the Starflight Network, a group in Berkeley, California that was founded by Robert Anton Wilson to promulgate Dr. Timothy Leary's philosophy. The Eighth or Psycho-Atomic Circuit was represented on the chart by the color psychedelic purple.^[53]

Transportation planning[link]

• The MBTA Commuter Rail in Boston is designated with purple markings, and thus is sometimes called the Purple Line.
• The LACMTA Purple Line is a subway that goes down part of Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles that it has been proposed be extended all the way down Wilshire Boulevard to the Pacific Ocean.
• The Chicago Transit Authority's "L" line from Linden Street in Wilmette to Howard Street or the Loop (depending on time of day) is known as the Purple Line.
• The Flushing Local/Express (often called the 7 train) of the New York City Subway is designated by a purple circle behind the train number. It is the only numbered train in the New York City subway system that does not share its color with any other train line.
• San Francisco’s light rail service, the Muni Metro, designates the L Taraval light rail line, which travels to the Parkside neighborhood, with a solid purple disc on which is inscribed the train letter in white.
• The Tokyo Metro Hanz_mon Line is color-coded purple on maps, signage and rolling stock.
• The Philippine Light Rail Transit system in Metro Manila designate Line 2 as the Purple Line. Line 2 runs from Santolan in Pasig-Marikina area up to Recto in Manila. Other light transit systems in Metro were designated as the Blue Line (MRT-3, running along EDSA) and Yellow Line (running from Baclaran to Roosevelt Ave.).

Vexillology[link]

• While in the rest of the world, red represents communism or socialism and purple (or white; yellow in China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand) represents monarchism, in Spain it is just the opposite—red represents monarchism and purple represents the common people. That is why the lower band of the flag of the second Spanish republic is colored a tone of purple.^[54]

See also[link]

• List of colors
• Purpure

References[link]

Further reading[link]

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Purple

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