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Plainspoken Zeus Denim

#225188
Notes

Plainspoken Zeus Denim (#225188) 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 (212°, 60%, 33%) 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 orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#225188
RGB
rgb(34, 81, 136)
HSL
hsl(212, 60%, 33%)
HWB
hwb(212 13% 47%)
OKLCH
oklch(43.2% 0.105 254.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.1820 0.3135 0.5173)
HSV
hsv(212, 75%, 53%)
LAB
lab(33.99% 4.07 -35.31)
LCH
lch(33.99% 35.54 276.57)
CMYK
cmyk(75%, 40%, 0%, 47%)

Etymology

Plainspoken
adjective

English compound plain + spoken — past-participle of speak. As a color modifier, plainspoken implies a clear-and-direct-and-straightforward quality where the hue carries the visual register of unembellished-honest declaration. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to candid and direct in usage.

Zeus
modifier

Greek Ζεύς, king-of-the-Olympian-gods. As a color modifier, zeus implies a thunderbolt-and-king-of-gods-and-Olympian quality, the visual register of Olympian-Zeus-and-Phidias-Pheidias-statue hand-thunderbolt-and-king-of-gods-and-Olympian Olympian-Zeus-and-Phidias-statue-and-Mount-Olympus zeus-and-thunderbolt-and-king-of-gods-and-Olympian surfaces under Olympian-Zeus-and-Phidias-statue-and-Mount-Olympus Pheidias-chryselephantine-and-Olympia thunder-cloud-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to hera and atlas in usage.

Denim
noun

The diagonal-twill cotton fabric originally woven in Nîmes, France — serge de Nîmes, contracted to denim — and dyed with indigo since at least the eighteenth century. The color refers to a worn but un-faded pair of raw denim jeans: a saturated, slightly muted blue with the matte finish of cotton fiber that has absorbed dye through generations of weft and warp. Cooler than royal, 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 explore

Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

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.

#225188
Original
#37558a
Protanopia
#274c87
Deuteranopia
#005e66
Tritanopia
#4b4b4b
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

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.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon White
8.08:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon Black
2.60:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##225188
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.1820 0.3135 0.5173)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.105

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

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