Foreboding Bachelorbutton
Foreboding Bachelorbutton (#1E2A79) 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 (232°, 60%, 30%) 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
Old English fore-bēodan, to announce in advance — present-participle of forebode. As a color modifier, foreboding implies a deep-and-threatening atmospheric-anticipation quality, the dark cool-gray of advancing-cyclone storm-front cumulonimbus-base. Sits at the deep-and-threatening end of the grid, parallel to ominous and menacing in atmospheric tone.
Centaurea cyanus, the cultivar of cornflower bred for cottage-garden use — also called bachelor's button for its traditional use in the buttonhole of an unmarried man's coat. The color refers to a fresh bachelor's button bloom in summer: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the matte finish of small clustered ray-and-disc-florets.
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.