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Fathomless Heliotrope

#30349b
Notes

Fathomless Heliotrope (#30349B) is a true blue with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (238°, 53%, 40%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. 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
#30349b
RGB
rgb(48, 52, 155)
HSL
hsl(238, 53%, 40%)
HWB
hwb(238 19% 39%)
OKLCH
oklch(39.3% 0.164 274.2)
HSV
hsv(238, 69%, 61%)
LAB
lab(27.98% 32.80 -56.61)
LCH
lch(27.98% 65.43 300.09)
CMYK
cmyk(69%, 66%, 0%, 39%)

Etymology

Fathomless
adjective

Fathom (Old English fæthm, six-foot span used to measure water-depth) plus suffix -less. As a color modifier, fathomless implies a depth of saturation-and-darkness that resists the eye's attempt to gauge it. Sits at the deepest end of the deep-bucket grid, beyond ordinary measure of color-depth perception.

Heliotrope
noun

The genus Heliotropium — the cherry pie plant, named in Greek for its supposed habit of tracking the sun (heliotropism). The color refers to a fresh garden heliotrope cluster in late summer: a saturated, slightly red-shifted deep purple-blue with the matte finish of densely packed forget-me-not-style flowers. Cooler than mauve, warmer than indigo, with the perfumed weight of a flower whose vanilla-cherry scent fills a greenhouse.

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

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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.

#30349b
Original
#00479e
Protanopia
#003d99
Deuteranopia
#004f63
Tritanopia
#3b3b3b
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
10.05:1
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
2.09:1

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