What Colors Make Purple? Paint, RGB and CMYK Recipes

Red and blue make purple in traditional paint mixing, but magenta and cyan, or a cool red with ultramarine blue, produce a cleaner, more saturated purple. The exact result depends on the pigments, proportions, and whether either starting color contains a yellow bias.

Mixing purple with paint

Paint uses subtractive pigment mixing. Each pigment absorbs parts of the visible spectrum, so combining pigments produces a darker result than mixing light.

A basic red and blue mixture produces purple, but many reds and blues create a dull or brownish purple. A warm red contains a yellow bias, which mutes the mixture because all three primaries end up in the mix.

For a cleaner purple, try magenta plus cyan, or mix a cool red (such as quinacridone or alizarin) with ultramarine blue.

Start around 1:1, then adjust the ratio. More red or magenta moves the mixture toward red-purple. More blue moves it toward blue-violet.

Purple in RGB light

RGB screens use additive light, so the mixing rules are different from paint.

Full red plus full blue produces magenta: rgb(255, 0, 0) + rgb(0, 0, 255) = rgb(255, 0, 255), which is #FF00FF.

Reducing the red channel below the blue channel produces the purples and violets most people picture, such as #7E22CE.

Purple in CMYK printing

In CMYK process printing, cyan and magenta create violet-blue colors.

A starting reference is about C50 M100 Y0 K0.

Increasing cyan pushes the result toward blue-violet. Reducing cyan moves it toward magenta.

Actual printed color depends on the press, paper, ink, and ICC profile, so treat CMYK percentages as reference values. See RGB vs CMYK for why.

Purple HEX examples

• Light purple #D8B4FE
• Medium purple #9333EA
• Dark purple #581C87
• Muted purple #75617D

These represent different lightness and saturation levels within the broader purple family.

How to adjust purple

Add white paint to create a lighter purple or lavender. Add black carefully to make a deeper purple, since too much quickly overpowers the mixture.

To mute a vivid purple, add a very small amount of its complement, which is in the yellow range. Add it gradually because complementary pigments turn a mixture brown or gray quickly.

Experiment digitally with the color mixer, which supports paint, RGB, CMYK, and OKLCH mixing modes, then use color name lookup to find a name for the result.

FAQ

Do red and blue always make purple?

They make a purple-family mixture in traditional paint, but the result can be dull depending on the pigments. Magenta with cyan, or a cool red with ultramarine, gives a cleaner purple.

What colors make violet?

A blue-leaning purple is made by increasing the proportion of blue or cyan relative to red or magenta. The exact result depends on the pigments being mixed.

How do I make a lighter purple?

Add white gradually to your purple mixture. This raises its lightness and produces colors ranging from soft purple to pale lavender.