Um… technically speaking (which technician?), pink is not a whiter shade of red. In printing, and in art, pink is treated as a special colour in its own right, whereas 'light' red, is usually referred to as a screen (0% to 100% - some of you will be able to recreate this in the 'special colours' section in your computer's graphics area) of red. Similarly, grey is not necessarily the same as a screen of black, though in the four colour printing process (using cyan, magenta, yellow and black), a screen of black stands in for grey as a screen of red (with a dash of blue) stands in for pink. For authenticity, however, you might add a fifth colour to your printing (adding cost as well), such as 'special pink' (also available as a poster paint colour, and it stinks like something it would be obscene and inappropriate to characterise on this board).
This, convolutedly, is the reason why we don't say 'light black' or 'light red' - they are conventionally treated in art as separate colours in their own right - and you will not be able to mix up a convincing pink with just red and white - at least some blue will be involved. And no, that doesn't make it 'merely' light purple either.
Actually, the issue of colour cropped up in a thread some months ago, and tsuwm the magnificent linked us to an absolutely marvellous site that told yu more about colour than your were ever minded to know. If you try a search on color, spectrum, or color wheel, you might find the thread.
And Jo, was it called 'rose' like the French? Or 'madder'? (Or is that redundant?)
cheer
the sunshine warrior
