Provincial Charcoal
Provincial Charcoal (#180735) is a deep indigo 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 (262°, 77%, 12%) 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 lime. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Latin prōvinciālis, of-a-province — adjectival suffix -al. As a color modifier, provincial implies a neutral-and-regional-and-traditional quality, the neutral color of French-Provincial-Provençal and Italian-Tuscan-Provincial regional-tradition interior-decoration-and-textile surface-finish. Sits at the neutral-and-traditional end of the grid, parallel to regional and country in usage.
The black porous solid produced by heating wood in low-oxygen conditions — driving off volatiles and leaving high-carbon residue. Used since prehistory for cave drawing, smelting, and (more recently) art-school sketching. The color refers to a fresh willow charcoal stick on white paper: a soft, slightly muted gray-black with the matte finish of dry porous carbon. Warmer than graphite, drier than coal, with the studio-and-forge association of a material older than iron.
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.