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Stormy Violetta

#281a7e
Notes

Stormy Violetta (#281A7E) 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 (248°, 66%, 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 yellow. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#281a7e
RGB
rgb(40, 26, 126)
HSL
hsl(248, 66%, 30%)
HWB
hwb(248 10% 51%)
OKLCH
oklch(31.6% 0.157 278.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.1486 0.1042 0.4744)
HSV
hsv(248, 79%, 49%)
LAB
lab(18.78% 37.54 -53.70)
LCH
lch(18.78% 65.52 304.95)
CMYK
cmyk(68%, 79%, 0%, 51%)

Etymology

Stormy
adjective

Old English storm, storm — adjectival suffix -y. As a color modifier, stormy implies a deep-and-turbulent-and-cool-shifted quality, the dark cool-gray of Force-9-gale atmospheric-turbulence sky. Sits at the deep-and-turbulent end of the grid, parallel to thunderous and tempestuous in atmospheric register.

Violetta
noun

Italian for little violet (Viola odorata) — the diminutive form of viola, also the name of Verdi's tragic heroine in La Traviata (1853). Violetta color refers to a freshly cut Viola odorata nosegay: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-violet with the velvet finish of fresh viola petals. Richer than viola (the broader genus name) and less wisteria-warm than glicine.

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.

#281a7e
Original
#003181
Protanopia
#002a7c
Deuteranopia
#00374b
Tritanopia
#242424
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
13.64:1
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
1.54:1

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
##281A7E
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.1486 0.1042 0.4744)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.157

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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