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Cellared Bellflower

#37238e
Notes

Cellared Bellflower (#37238E) is a true 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 (251°, 60%, 35%) 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
#37238e
RGB
rgb(55, 35, 142)
HSL
hsl(251, 60%, 35%)
HWB
hwb(251 14% 44%)
OKLCH
oklch(35.8% 0.165 282.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2041 0.1406 0.5353)
HSV
hsv(251, 75%, 56%)
LAB
lab(23.56% 39.63 -55.84)
LCH
lch(23.56% 68.47 305.37)
CMYK
cmyk(61%, 75%, 0%, 44%)

Etymology

Cellared
adjective

Latin cellārium, storehouse — past-participle of cellar. As a color modifier, cellared implies the deep-and-cool-and-architectural quality of Bordeaux-and-Burgundy wine-cellar underground stone-and-oak storage-chamber, with the patina of multi-decade barrel-aging-and-bottle-laying. Sits at the deep-and-architectural end of the grid, parallel to crypted with viticulture register.

Bellflower
noun

The genus Campanula — Latin for little bell — small to mid-sized perennials whose bell-shaped blue or violet flowers fill rock gardens and herbaceous borders across temperate climates. The color refers to a fresh Campanula medium canterbury bell: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted blue with the matte finish of a single bell-form flower. Cooler than periwinkle, warmer than larkspur, with the cottage-garden weight of a plant that names an entire genus and color.

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.

#37238e
Original
#003b91
Protanopia
#00348c
Deuteranopia
#004156
Tritanopia
#2f2f2f
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
11.71:1
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
1.79:1

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
##37238E
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2041 0.1406 0.5353)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.165

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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