Mannerly Gunmetal
Mannerly Gunmetal (#290124) 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 (308°, 95%, 8%) 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
Old French manere, manner / way — adjectival suffix -ly. As a color modifier, mannerly implies a neutral-and-polite-and-formal quality where the hue carries the visual register of Edwardian-and-Belle-Époque polite-and-formal-and-mannerly interior-decoration-and-dress-attire coordinated-color tone. Sits at the neutral-and-friendly end of the grid, parallel to courteous and polite in usage.
The bronze alloy historically used for gun barrels and cannon — copper, tin, and zinc, with the dark patinated finish that gives the color its name. The color refers to a polished gun-bronze surface after weathering: a soft, slightly muted blue-gray with the metallic finish of an oxidized alloy. Cooler than pewter, warmer than steel, with the military-industrial weight of a metal whose name names the working color of nineteenth-century artillery.
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.