Short answer
On the web, exactly: CSS defines both as #ff00ff. In wider usage they separate a little — the catalogue values are ΔE00 11.0 apart and the crowd survey's 17.4 — and in the crowd's reading magenta is the redder, darker of the two and fuchsia the bluer. 76% of fuchsia's region lies inside magenta's.
The lexicon draws magenta over hues 325°–358° and fuchsia over 320°–345°, both at high chroma. Fuchsia is almost a subset: 76% of its sRGB grid colours are magenta, and 57% of magenta's are fuchsia. The crowd survey pulls them apart in a specific direction. Its magenta has hue about 353° and lightness 0.53; its fuchsia about 333° and 0.65. So for the crowd, magenta is a deep pink-red and fuchsia a brighter pink-purple. Descriptions that call magenta the bluer of the two are not supported by that data; in CSS the question does not arise because the two are identical.
Both names arrived with the aniline dyes of the mid-19th century or after them. Magenta commemorates the Battle of Magenta in northern Italy in 1859; the brilliant dye named after it, and its colour, are recorded from 1860, alongside other dyes named for battles of the time. Fuchsia comes from the plant, which the French botanist Charles Plumier named in 1703 after the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs; the colour sense is recorded only from 1921. The flowers themselves are often two-toned, which is part of why the colour word is loose.
Like cyan, magenta has a second life as a technical name. On a screen it is full red plus full blue light with no green; in printing it is one of the process inks, which absorbs green light. Neither is the same colour as the other: printed process magenta is noticeably duller and more pink than screen magenta, and #ff00ff lies outside what a typical press can print. Magenta is also the standard example of a colour with no single wavelength of its own — the visual system builds it from the two ends of the spectrum — which makes it the colour-science word, while fuchsia stays the fashion and floristry word.
In a technical brief, 'magenta' should mean the ink or channel and nothing else. In fashion, interiors or packaging, 'fuchsia' is the more common consumer word for a vivid pink-purple, but its region overlaps magenta's so heavily that the choice of word will not stop two suppliers producing different colours. Because both sit at very high chroma, they are among the colours most affected by gamut: a fuchsia chosen on a wide-gamut screen may not print, and may be clipped on an sRGB monitor. Specify it in OKLCH, check it against the target gamut, and approve a printed or dyed sample.
| Magenta | Fuchsia | Shared by both | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lightness (L) | 0.48–0.75 | 0.55–0.75 | 0.55–0.75 |
| Chroma (C) | 0.170–0.330 | 0.170–0.330 | 0.170–0.330 |
| Hue (h) | 325°–358° | 320°–345° | 325°–345° |
| Reference swatch | #ff00ff (L 0.70, C 0.322, h 328°) | #c154c1 (L 0.62, C 0.191, h 328°) | ΔE00 11.0 apart |
| sRGB grid colours inside | 303 | 230 | 174 (57% of magenta, 76% of fuchsia) |
| How settled the word is | moderate | high | — |
| Source of the value | Magenta | Fuchsia | ΔE00 between them |
|---|---|---|---|
| CSS Color 4 named colour | #ff00ff (L 0.70, C 0.322, h 328°) | #ff00ff (L 0.70, C 0.322, h 328°) | 0 (identical) |
| Colourwise catalogue profile | #ff00ff (L 0.70, C 0.322, h 328°) | #c154c1 (L 0.62, C 0.191, h 328°) | 11.0 |
| xkcd colour survey | #c20078 (L 0.53, C 0.221, h 353°) | #ed0dd9 (L 0.65, C 0.290, h 333°) | 17.4 |
Why: The screen value is outside the press's gamut and was clipped at output.
Fix: Check the value against the print gamut early, and consider a spot or extended-gamut ink if the colour is essential.
Why: Both were taken from the CSS keyword list.
Fix: Merge them, or give each a distinct value and a role-based name.
Each statement is labelled by kind — established fact, a standard’s requirement, observed market data, a convention, or Colourwise’s own interpretation or analysis — with the strength of the evidence behind it.
StandardStrong evidence
CSS Color Level 4 defines magenta and fuchsia as the same value, #ff00ff.
Source: CSS Color Module Level 4
Colourwise analysisModerate evidence
The xkcd survey's magenta (#c20078) has OKLCH hue 353° and lightness 0.53; its fuchsia (#ed0dd9) has hue 333° and lightness 0.65, 17.4 apart in CIEDE2000.
Based on: OKLCH and CIEDE2000 computed by Colourwise from the published survey values.
Caveat: One crowd-sourced centre per name; individual speakers may order the two differently.
Source: Color survey results, and the rgb.txt list of the 954 most common colour names
FactModerate evidence
Magenta, as the name of a dye and its colour, is recorded from 1860 and commemorates the 1859 Battle of Magenta; fuchsia as a colour name is recorded from 1921, from the plant named in 1703 after Leonhart Fuchs.
Caveat: Dates are first recorded uses.
Source: Online Etymology Dictionary
Colourwise interpretationModerate evidence
Magenta works as a technical term (a screen secondary and a process ink) while fuchsia is mainly a consumer and fashion word; the two overlap so heavily that neither word fixes a shade.
Based on: CSS makes them identical, fuchsia's lexicon region lies mostly inside magenta's, and only magenta is used as a process-ink name.
Reviewed 29 September 2026. Colourwise summarises its sources in its own words and does not reproduce standards text or proprietary colour data. Spotted an error? Tell us.