Stilled Smut
Stilled Smut (#1F011F) is a deep violet 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 (300°, 94%, 6%) 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 green. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
The past participle of still, to make quiet — used as a color modifier in literary contexts for hues that read as deeply at rest. Stilled gray, stilled white: very low saturation combined with optical stillness. Sits at the neutral-bucket alongside tranquil and quiet.
Old English smot, grime — the deep-soot-black grease-and-creosote residue of chimney-sweeping, steam-locomotive maintenance, and coal-mining clothing. Smut color refers to a freshly accumulated Pennsylvania anthracite-mine smut-coated work-jacket in raking light: a saturated, slightly cool deep black with the matte finish of multi-day soot-and-creosote sediment on coarse-spun woolen work-clothes. Also names the cereal-fungus Ustilago genus.
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.