How does matter (on an atomic scale) get its color?
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On an atomic scale, atoms have different energy levels that electrons “sit in”, when energy from a photon hits an electron, based on the energy of the photon it will cause the electron to jump to a higher energy level (or several higher)
When the electron then releases this energy, it jumps from the higher energy level to a lower energy level, and depending on which levels it jumps between, will release a certain amount of energy as a photon which corresponds to a certain wavelength of light
So when you hear about objects really absorbing all but one color of light, what that means is that if something is purple, it’s absorbing all the red and yellow and green (etc) light to jump to the higher energy levels, and then when it jumps back down it’s expelling the energy of a “purple” photon
Most things will release a few specific wavelengths of light (ie have multiple energy levels it jumps down between), that our brains meld together into a final “color”, but you can actually see the individual colors using a fairly cheap [spectrometer](https://www.teachersource.com/product/hand-held-spectroscope?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxInfnf6d9wIV-AiICR06qwN7EAkYASABEgKZnPD_BwE)
There’s reasons why different elements prefer to jump to/from certain energy levels but this part would be beyond my knowledge
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