Purple is the 'New Red'

"Purple, the traditional color of royalty, is making the trip from the castle to the classroom -- thanks to the feeling among teachers today that when it comes to marking papers, red is, well, a little too angry.

Purple's popularity can be tracked country-wide with the sales of purple pens showing a marked increase and pen manufacturers, like Pilot Pen, producing a wider variety of purple-inked products. 'We've introduced six purple pens to our line. Purple ink has really taken off this year as more teachers tell us about their preference for purple as a more-friendly replacement for red,' said Robert Silberman, VP of Marketing for Pilot Pen. 'And their students agree -- it's less aggressive but conveys a feeling of authority in a constructive way.'"

Color authority Leatrice Eiseman, director of the Pantone Color Institute and author of six books on color, says that purple has the effect of "softening the blow" as opposed to seeing red, which raises blood pressure, causing the heart to beat faster. "Red signals danger and warning, and anthropologists have found this has been true down the ages," she said.