7 Colors That Are Not Truly Colors

There are countless different colors people can perceive in the world. But, color is simply the quality of something when light is reflected on it. Meaning colors are not fixed things, but subject to doubt. As an artist I enjoy analysisinp the unique properties of colors, including what is takes to truly be a color.

1. Purple

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When looking at color in terms of spectral light reflection, purple is actually not a color. It can not be found when looking at beams of light, such as a rainbow or light reflected in a prism. There is no light wavelength that corresponds to the "color" purple. The closest true color too purple that can be found naturally is violet, which has its own properties.

2. White

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Although you can find white in a box of crayons, that does not truly make it a color. In reality, white is the product of combining all of the colors of the rainbow. White in it of itself is not a pure color. Technically in the art word white is actually considered to be a shade. White is the lightest shade on the scale of value.

3. Pink

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Think about how one would create the "color" pink. Typically one would mix white and red, creating one any of the many of shades of pink. But why does adding white to red create a new color, rather than a new shade of red. As discussed previously, white is arguably not even a color. Lighter shades of blue, green or yellow that are mixed with white are not considered their own new color. They are simply a less rich version of the original base color. Pink also does not have a wavelength, meaning in terms of spectral light it is not a real color.

4. Black

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Like white, black is considered a shade in the art world. It is the darkest shade on the value scale. In terms of spectral light, black is the opposite of white. Black is the absence of light, thus the absence of color. This means that by definition black cannot possibly be a true color.

5. Brown

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This one may be easy to argue against, but hear me out. Although brown does have its own wavelength, there are other factors that make me doubt its color status. When looking at a color wheel on an application like photoshop or pages the most common way to get brown is by darkening the color orange. Thus brown can be described as a dark shade of the color orange, rather than a separate color. Like pink, I doubt brown being its own color when it is simply an altered version of an another existing color.

6. Gray

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We already discussed white and black, and gray is not so different. Gray is the perceived "color" between black and white. A lighter version of black, or darker version of white even. There are a few shades of gray between white and black on the value scale. Like its extremes, gray is considered to be a shade rather than a true color.

7. Magenta

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Magenta is considered an important "color" by modern primary color standards. Magenta, yellow and cyan are important colors in printing. Like some of the other fake colors, magenta does not have a wavelength. Magenta is a mix between red and violet. In spectral light the colors between red and violet are orange, yellow, green and blue. Red and violet never actually mix. The human created color wheel, which fades together all colors found in spectral light, is the only instance of magenta. Magenta is not a true color, but rather the gap humans filled in between pink and purple.