Austere Plavi
Austere Plavi (#061F5F) is a deep azure with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (223°, 88%, 20%) places it in the highly saturated band at a dark lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary amber. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Latin austērus, harsh / bitter. As a color modifier, austere implies a deep-and-stripped-down formality, the dark plain-textile color of Bauhaus and Cistercian monastic interior aesthetic. Sits at the deep-and-formal end of the grid, parallel to stern and severe in tone.
The Serbo-Croatian word for blue — used across Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro for the saturated deep blue of Adriatic water and traditional folk-embroidery. The color refers to plavi embroidery thread on Croatian čilim rug: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the matte finish of dyed wool thread.
Closest matches
The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.
Variations
Click any swatch to exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.
The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.