Abyssal Lapis
Abyssal Lapis (#182978) is a deep blue 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 (229°, 67%, 28%) places it in the balanced band at a dark lightness. It works well as a headline, icon, or deep background in an otherwise light layout, pairing cleanly with cream, bone, and warm neutrals. 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
Greek ábyssos, bottomless — adjectival form of abyss. As a color modifier, abyssal implies a deep, cool, slightly-cool-shifted quality reminiscent of Mariana Trench depths where light-extinction reaches absolute. Sits at the deepest-and-coolest end of the deep grid, parallel to fathomless and warmer than Stygian.
Latin for stone but in art-history shorthand for lapis lazuli — the metamorphic rock from Afghan Sar-e-Sang mines that gave the Renaissance its most expensive blue pigment, ultramarine. The color refers to a polished slab of high-grade lapis: a saturated, slightly muted blue with the matte finish of a rock matrix containing lazurite, calcite, and the gold flecks of pyrite. Deeper than cerulean, warmer than navy.
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.