A screenshot of the website of Pantone Color Institute. [Photo/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The world-renowned Pantone Color Institute just announced the color of 2018: Ultra Violet.

Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the institute, said the color “lights the way to what is yet to come” in a time that “requires inventiveness and imagination”.

“It is this kind of creative inspiration that is indigenous to Pantone 18-3838 Ultra Violet, a blue-based purple that takes our awareness and potential to a higher level,” Eiseman said.

On the website of the institute, the color is related with pictures of cosmos in the same shade, which claimed the color “suggests the mysteries of the cosmos”.

The color, Ultra Violet, sounds like “super purple” in Chinese language. As the two colors are so similar, people often call violet as “purple”, as it looks like a color that is lighter than purple.

According to designer Bowen Li, violet is a “real” color that exists on the electromagnetic spectrum. Purple, on the other hand, is a perceived color from a mixture of blue and red.

However, no matter violet or purple, such shades are believed to be very honorable colors in traditional Chinese culture. It is believed the color is a symbol of nobility.

In ancient Chinese myths, especially those related to Taoism, fairies often dressed in purple. Uniforms for high-level officials were also purple in ancient China.