Crushing Veronica
Crushing Veronica (#280E4A) 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 (266°, 68%, 17%) 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 lime. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Old French croissir, to crash / break — present-participle of crush. As a color modifier, crushing implies a deep-and-overwhelming-and-weighty quality where the hue exerts maximum visual force. Sits at the deep-and-weighty end of the grid, parallel to pressing with destructive register.
The genus Veronica, the speedwells — named for Saint Veronica, who reportedly wiped Christ's face on the road to Calvary. The cultivated V. spicata sends up tall blue-violet flower spikes in summer borders. The color refers to a fresh veronica spike: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted blue with the matte finish of small densely packed flowers. Cooler than lavender, warmer than larkspur, with the cottage-garden association of a hardy perennial.
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.